The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Summary:
The book begins with contractors arriving at Arthur Dent's house. They wish to demolish his house in order to build a bypass. Arthur's best friend, Ford Prefect, arrives, warning him of the end of the world. The two head to a bar, where the locals question Ford's knowledge of the Apocalypse. An alien race, known as Vogons, show up to demolish the planet, and Arthur and Ford manage to get on their ship just before Earth is demolished, where they are forced to listen to Vogon poetry as punishment. Arthur tries to say it is beautiful to avoid being thrown out of an airlock with Ford. Arthur and Ford are then placed into the airlock, and jettisoned into space, only to be rescued by Zaphod's ship, the Heart of Gold. Zaphod, a cousin of Ford, is the President of the galaxy, accompanied by a depressed robot named Marvin and a human woman by the name of Trillian. The five embark on a journey to find the legendary planet known as Magrathea, known for selling luxury planets. Once there, they are taken into the planet's center by a man named Slartibartfast. There, they learn that a supercomputer named Deep Thought, who determined the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything to be the number 42, created Earth as an even greater computer to calculate the question to which 42 is the answer. Trillian's mice, actually part of the group of superbeings that had Earth created in the first place, reject the idea of building a second Earth to redo the process, and offer to buy Arthur's brain in the hope that it contains the answer, leading to a fight when he declines. Zaphod saves Arthur when the brain is about to be removed, and the group decides to go to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.