I went to the movies the other night. I love going to the movies. I love sitting in a cool, darkened place, in a comfy chair, watching a screen larger than the side of my house, listening at a volume that would have brought the police if I had been at home. I love the overly-salted popcorn with too much butter, and the soda the size of your head.

But most of all I love the opportunity to divorce myself from my worries about life and the outside world, and lose myself in a good story for an hour or two (or four if we're talking about the Lord of the Rings films).

When I was at the movies the other night I saw a trailer for a movie that I am hoping like hell will not suck. That movie is The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy. This movie is based on the oddly named Hitchhiker's Trilogy, a five book collection of stories by the wonderful, and sadly late, author Douglas Adams.

Douglas Adams was a brilliant satirist author that managed to put an extremely surreal spin on the world around himself and others, while still managing to effectively mock his subject. I like mocking. If you have read any of these pages, you may have noticed that.

I first read The Hitchhiker's Guide when I was in high school, and found myself fortunate to find something so funny and so brilliant at such an early age. Because I found Douglas Adams at an early age, I will have the opportunity to experience the joy of his writing for many years to come. Everyone should be so lucky.

Adams is the kind of guy that can write lines like "flying is easy; one just has to throw themselves at the ground and miss". It takes a special kind of brain to come up with a gem like that.

If you have not yet read Douglas Adams' work, please do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy. It is a truly smart, fantastic and funny book.

And after you have devoured the book, join me in hoping that the upcoming film doesn't suck.

Update: Despite all my best wishes, the film kind of sucked. It wasn't awful, but it still was not as much fun as reading the book. Sigh.