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Best Quotes from Douglas Adams

By Adrienne Rivera. Feb 10, 2024. 11:18 PM.

Topics: Science Fiction

English writer and humorist Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge in 1952. He became interested in writing at an early age, becoming well-known at his prep school, Brentwood, and publishing many of his first projects in their paper, The Brentwoodian, and their magazine, Broadsheet.

He went on to study English at St. Johns College, where he started his comedy group and was eventually invited to participate in the school’s official comedy group, Footlights. His work with Footlights drew the interest of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman, and for a short time, the two entered into a writing partnership that should have given him the writing credits to launch his career. However, his style wasn't popular then, so he did not succeed immediately.

He eventually found work as a script editor for the classic science fiction show Doctor Who, even writing three serials for the program himself. In 1978, his best-known work, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, began its run as a BBC radio program. He went on to adapt the radio show into five beloved novels—his efforts to see them adapted into film led to the production of a well-received BBC miniseries. However, Adams passed away in 2001 and never saw the 2005 film adaptation.

The following passages represent the best, funniest, most touching aspects of Adams' unique voice and perspective:

     
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Five Facts About Astronaut and Author Buzz Aldrin

By Adrienne Rivera. Jan 20, 2022. 8:00 AM.

Topics: American History, Science, Science Fiction

Edwin Aldrin Jr, better known as Buzz Aldrin, is perhaps one of America's best known explorer heroes. In 1969 he became one of the first men to walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. He has served as one of the most prominent faces of NASA for many years, inspiring generations of people to go into the fields of aerospace and astronautics through his outspoken advocacy for space travel and exploration.

Even after Aldrin's retirement from NASA, he has continued to further knowledge of the importance of understanding space as a writer, authoring eleven books for a variety of age groups, including Footsteps on the Moon; The Return, Look to the Stars; Welcome to Mars: Making a Home on the Red Planet; and most recently, 2016's No Dream is Too High: Life Lessons From a Man Who Walked on the Moon. Though we all know Buzz Aldrin the astronaut and Buzz Aldrin the writer, here are some lesser-known facts about one of NASA's biggest names.

     
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Top Books by State: Maryland

By Adrienne Rivera. Oct 27, 2020. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Awarded Books, Newbery Award, Science Fiction

As one of the thirteen original colonies, Maryland's history is as old as America itself. Know primarily around the country for mining Annapolis, and The Chesapeake Bay, Maryland is a beautiful state with much to offer both in the way of tourism and literature. In today's continuation of our Top Books by State series, we take a look at two books both set in Maryland but that explore two very different sides of the state. Set respectively in a fishing village in World War II or an antebellum plantation, both of these Maryland books belong on everyone's must-read list.

     
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The Books That Inspired George Lucas

By Brian Hoey. May 14, 2020. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Movie Tie-Ins, Science Fiction

The adventure begins in the ordinary world, where our hero gets the call to action; with the help of companions and mentors, he crosses the threshold into a supernatural world, where the old rules don’t apply. He faces a series of trials, culminating in an ultimate ordeal in which the hero is victorious. He earns a boon, which he carries back into the ordinary world.

     
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Fowl Play with Eoin Colfer

By Lauren Corba. Apr 14, 2020. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Children's Books, Science Fiction

Eoin Colfer, writer of various children’s novels, is most acclaimed for his thrilling adventure series, Artemis Fowl. Beloved by readers and collectors alike, these books have become modern classics. But Colfer has also written a number of other notable children's books. 

     
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Spooky Reads for Halloween

Have you chosen a costume? Stocked up on candy? Planned that trick-or-treating route? That's right. Halloween is here! The myths and tales of Halloween have long captured our imagination, making the holiday a perfect match for book collectors. Classic spine tingling reads are consistent book collecting favorites.

     
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Philip Pullman, Impassioned Storyteller for All Ages

By Matt Reimann. Oct 19, 2019. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Children's Books, Literature, Science Fiction

Author Philip Pullman is a master of modern children's literature. His trilogy, His Dark Materials, is one of the most beloved fantasy series of the last twenty five years, although Pullman himself considers the books "stark realism" not fantasy. Writing for children, Pullman believes, enables him to engage his readers in ways he would otherwise be prohibited - he revels in intricate plots and characters. He has won the Carnegie Medal (1995), Guardian Prize (1996), and Astrid Lindgren Award (2005). And recently, HBO announced the air date for its upcoming series based on His Dark Materials. Fans of Pullman's stories don't have to wait long. The series will premiere on November 4 in the U.S. and November 3 in the UK.

     
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Defining Science Fiction: Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov

By Brian Hoey. Jul 7, 2019. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Legendary Authors, Science Fiction

Defining science fiction has always been a tricky proposition. It has been suggested that "you know it when you see it," but that hardly seems a sufficient rule. Still less helpful is the notion that the science fiction moniker applies to any fiction dealing imaginatively with concepts borrowed from science. The fact of the matter remains that select staples of the literary cannon have displayed an interest in science from Shakespeare’s work through the likes of Thomas Pynchon. This does little to change the fact that when we speak of science fiction we hardly ever mean The Tempest (1610), and we usually don’t mean Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) either.

     
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Mostly Harmless: How Eion Colfer Took Over The Hitchhiker’s “Trilogy”

By Brian Hoey. Mar 14, 2019. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Science Fiction

One of the best running gags in fiction (in this writer’s humble opinion) comes, unsurprisingly, from Douglas Adams’ beloved Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy series (1979-2008). On the cover of some editions of the series’ fourth book, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish (1984), readers are helpfully informed that they’ve picked up “the fourth in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker’s Trilogy.” The original cover of the fifth book contained, mutatis mutandis, the same joke—Douglas Adams’ wry comment on the fact that, in terms of plotting out the series, he was just making it all up as he went along. Sadly, after Adams’ death in 2001, the joke itself had become inaccurate. The “trilogy” was inaccurately named, but no longer, with the literal death of the author, increasingly so. Or at least that’s the way it seemed until Eoin Colfer came along.

     
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J. R. R. Tolkien, Inkling and Hobbit

By Andrea Koczela. Sep 2, 2018. 9:00 AM.

Topics: J. R. R. Tolkien, Science Fiction

 

“I would that I might with the minstrels sing
and stir the unseen with a throbbing string.”
-J. R. R. Tolkien, “Mythopoeia”

 

Today we celebrate the life of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, author of The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955).  The tremendous success of these novels has earned Tolkien the title “father of high fantasy”, yet he did more than create tales of elves and dragons. An Oxford professor and expert in Old English and mythology, Tolkien believed that all myths contain “fundamental truths” that speak deeply to the human condition. He imbued his novels with these primordial themes, and it is perhaps for this reason that his works have maintained such enduring popularity.

     
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