Besides Humphrey Carpenter's Tolkien-biography this is without a doubt one of the best biographies I have ever read - if it isn't actually the best. Nick Webb has caught the mood and mannerism of Douglas Adams to perfection, and anyone who's read Hitchhiker's or any of his other books will recognize the whimsical and charming humor inside this one.Wish You Were Here toes the line between what is personal and what is too personal to tell in a biography, but never once does the author cross it and...

This isn't just a must-read for Adams fans, it's also a must-read for writers or any other creative type who enjoys the sweet torture of procrastination - Adams was a master of the genre.I'm not much of a biographies person but this one is almost like hanging out with Adams, he's that well captured.

Douglas Adams is one of my favorite writers, and I've been a fan of his books since I was about 12 or 13. Ironically, I was introduced to his first book (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) by my older brother, who has no sense of humor whatsoever.I read this at the same time as reading another Douglas Adams biography, called "Hitchhiker", written by M.J. Simpson. The reason I did this is I wanted to get a more complete sense of the life of my favorite humorist from more than just one viewpoin...

Make sure your Biographer is a best friendRead this book both as a biography about Douglas Adams and a series of love letters to him. The author conveys, on behalf of a huge fan base, for all the reasons in the multiverse, how much we wish Douglas Adams were here. A marvelous grounding in the facets of an important man’s life, fore, aft, and under.

2.5ish. Full confession: I was one of those school kid nerds who discovered Adams' work and completely fell in love with it. I picked this up on impulse at the library and, sadly, struggled to get through it. There were lots of great stories about Adams (the author was a friend of his) but there were. So. Many. Names. I think if I had been familiar with 70s-80s famous media Brits I would have enjoyed it more. As it was, I kept stumbling and pausing, "Should I know who this is?" Still love Adams'...

A bit rambly but enjoyable.Personally I find it extremely heartening that one of the funniest, most capable writers of the last few decades was beset by crippling self-doubt as to his abilities or chance of success in the world. Add to that the fact that are plenty of people who just as vastly overestimate their talents, and it just goes to show you never know.The biography is quite tolerable until the omg-he's-the-greatest quality of it gets to you. It's not like the level of admiration increas...

Another thrift store find... and a fantastic one at that! Douglas Adams was a difficult genius and Nick Webb did a wonderful job of telling the story in a very even-handed manner. He admits Adams's shortcomings as well as some of his unpublicized triumphs. Webb's writing is also great. A biography has never been so fun! He has a quirky humor, much like Adams, that makes it an enjoyable read. The only bummer is that the book was published before the movie was released - I would have loved to hear...

This was a very comprehensive book, and very entertaining to read. It made me like Douglas Adams all the more, and really makes me want to go back and reread everything he's written! It took me an unusually long time to read for some reason (not a quick read), but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Douglas Adams, and his ideas, were so much more than just Hitchhiker's.

I thoroughly enjoyed this biography, and I may have to go back and reread Adams' books now.

I'm not a huge fan of biographies in general. Douglas Adams is one of my favorite authors, and I certainly learned a lot about him while reading this, but I can't say that it added much to my appreciation of his novels, or of him as a person. The author is British and the book was written over 10 years ago, so there was quite a wide cultural gap for me to leap as an American in 2017. References to British celebrities/actors/writers (from the 70s and 80s, mostly) abound that probably would have b...

Fantastic! It takes a little while to get going through some slightly dull plodding about at the start discussing Douglas Adams' family, but it really hits its stride once the great author gets into the picture. Very intelligent and often funny (maybe a bit too much America-bashing from author Webb, ironic as Douglas loved America), this book is straightforward for about half the pages and then goes off the rails in different directions about Adams' life. Appropriate, though, given how full of i...

Well, that was an exhausting, I mean exhaustive, biography. The writing was fine, there was just so much detail, which I'm sure is great for reference books but less for casual purposes. I'm mostly glad I read it just to get a list of what other media I should put on my to-read/to-watch lists (which I probably also could have gotten from a wikipedia list). If you're a mega-fan and want to know, this will sate your appetite. If you picked it up on a whim, like I did, put it back and go read your

The author was very verbose. The information he gave was wonderful but it was quite a hike to get there. I found myself looking for other things to do rather than sit down with that book and work through it. After 3 weeks, I leafed through the last quarter of the book, reading what caught my attention for a few pages. I read the last couple of pages and considered myself done. It was a relief to slip it into the book depository at the library. That's unusual for me. I love everything about Dougl...

I read the Hitchhiker books long ago, but was not aware of this book until it popped up on BookBub and I downloaded for free. I found it to be almost a hagiography of Douglas and all I could think of was that if there wasn't a Douglas Adams, someone would have invented him. I understand what he brought to the world of sci-fi that was not there before, but he was certainly not alone! Yes I think the Hitchiker books were fun, brilliant even, and I enjoyed Dirk Gently. With this book, after a while...

Rule: Always have a close friend write your biography.Adams wrote, but his opus only rested on a few titles which sold well and paid even better. Adams has issues which are never truly addressed in life or in the biography. Perhaps he was a phenomenon. Nick Webb, the biographer drops names left and right, but we learn little about Adams. Better to read the Wikipedia article.

Although I enjoyed this book, I think it was because of Douglas Adams rather than Nick Webb’s writing. Although he does a reasonable job of DNA’s story, he both puts too much detail in parts and not nearly enough in others. Also he keeps quoting Neil Gaiman’s book about Douglas- which I ended up wishing I’d read instead of this one.

This is a warts-and-all biography that gives the overall impression of a brilliant, insecure man. His flaws, his generosity and his ability to drive people nuts while still instilling in them a kind of protectiveness come across very strongly.

Lots of great stories about and insights into, Douglas Adams. Wasn't a fan of this authors writing however. He got bogged down in many spots with detail that slowed the pace down a bit but still a great read for any fans of Adams.

The writing is a little dry but the content is very interesting.

Amazing read and full of very witty moments about Douglas Adams.

An interesting but perhaps overly intellectual book

Excellent biographyThis biography avoids the usual problem with biographies of having a sad ending by dealing with the death of the subject up front at the beginning. Of course, it helps that the subject sadly died very young so there were no years of decline to write about! Douglas Adams comes over as a nice and intelligent person.

A wonderful account of the life of Douglas Adams, a man of boundless energy and imagination who inhabited the wastelands between real science, science fiction and humour, and lived his life with a childlike sense of awe. He will never be forgotten. As for Nick Webb's book, it is stuffed full of detail and amusing anecdotes. He takes us close enough to Douglas to get a strong sense of his drive, his passions and his demons (writer's block, mostly) without intruding too far into his soul. Nick Web...

I picked up this one because I am a big fan of Douglas' books. I've read the H2G2 "trilogy", Last Chance to See and Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.I thoroughly enjoyed all of them, and I've never laughed the way I laughed while reading H2G2. It's just so damn funny.He was a visionary, way ahead of his time.He was an outspoken atheist too.So, it goes without saying I have a lot of respect for Douglas.But this book, for me, was kind of a let-down. Although it details his life in painstaki...

It's more of a theme-based biography than strictly chronological & very British (I have got to start using the word "kipple"!). Mr. Webb was also an acquaintance of Douglas & as well as being the "official biographer", he was able to bring some of his personal insights to the work. I learned more about his family background that I remember reading in either the Gaiman or Simpson bios - the section of pictures (if a bit too small) was a lovely addition, as was the list of Douglas' favourite Beatl...

Painstakingly researched, and affectionate. Webb acknowledges his seriously pro-Douglas bias, but he makes many excuses for Adams' personality challenges which are a bit grating to read after a while. The early parts of the book are the strongest, focusing on things that happened and anecdotes. I consider myself a great admirer of his work, but not a fanatic, so I was happy to learn about the childhood and adolescent circumstances that shaped one of the funniest English modern writers. The latte...

Having expected something like Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday: My Life with Brian, which was real fun to read, I was more than slightly disappointed by this book.Nick Webb painstakingly lists names of production people, co-authors, family members, you name it, in a neverending trickle of what one or the other has done when. Made it to half of the book, but then decided to no longer endure this verbal Chinese water torture.It seems to be well-researched and may be an interesting read for someone...

Solid and fun to read but nothing terribly new revealed here, at least not to anyone who's read other biographies of the great man. The obvious comparison is MJ Simpson's "Hitchhiker" - which is less full of personal anecdotes but perhaps more detailed.What lifts this is Webb's personal connection with Douglas so much of this is first hand stuff from someone who was a friend rather than just recounts from other people.It slips back though because there's not really any great insight to his actua...

I made it through the introduction and the first chapter or so (about 50 pages in) before deciding that this wasn't going to work for me. Maybe if Douglas Adams had written it...What I really wanted to hear was more of his stories, and this was, perhaps, too comprehensive. Let's go back in time and set up the family, talk about how who begat who and all of the myriad relationships. Skipping ahead might have served me better, but I'd already invested my hour or so, and I wasn't interested anymore...