I think for me HHGTTG got built up too much by other people into something it could never actually live up to. In high school all the "cool" artsy kids I looked up to kept telling me I just HAD to read this book because it was the funniest book EVER written. I started reading it and after seventy or so pages of waiting for something funny to happen I just gave up. If a coherent plot had shown any sign of beginning that might have saved it but there was none of that either. When I tell people this they tell me "You just don't understand British humor!" or "Well if you like Monty Python you should like this." I don't know what to say to that because I love Monty Python and all sorts of British humor. Hitchhiker just isn't funny to me for some reason. Adams' humor seems to consist entirely of naming characters things like Zinglefrax Fobbledonk. And if I want that I can get it reading J.K. Rowling and it will be ten times more entertaining.