The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. This is the story of Arthur Dent, who, seconds before Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, is plucked off the planet by his friend, Ford Prefect, who has been posing as an out-of-work actor for the last fifteen years but is really a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Together they begin a journey through the galaxy, aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, with the words "don't panic" written on the front. ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have."). In their travels they meet: Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch President of the Galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girl friend, formerly Tricia McMillan, whom Arthur once tried to pick up at a cocktail party; Marvin, the paranoid android, a brilliant but chronically depressed robot; and Veet Voojagig, former graduate student obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years. To find the answers to these burning questions: Why are we born? Why do we die? And why do we spend so much time in between wearing digital watches? read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But remember -- don't panic, and don't forget to bring a towel.