Book Review: The Salmon of Doubt

Like many people, I was saddened when I heard about Douglas Adams' death last May.

Of course, I had read Hitchhikers many years ago, and had also read his Dirk Gently
series. I also had the unique (well, not *truly* unique) privilege of hearing
him speak when he did a talk at Microsoft a few years ago.

I recently came across a copy of The
Salmon of Doubt, which I would describe as a brain dump of a bunch of useful things
that Douglas had on his computers at the time of his death. There are a lot of short
articles and essays, and then a few chapters from a never published Dirk Gently book.
The articles and essays are varied and interesting, and the chapters, while a bit
uneven, are definitely good stuff.

Overall, I liked the book a lot, and found out a lot about Douglas that makes me more
convinced that the world has truly lost a unique soul.

One especially poignant part of the book is the order of service for his memorial.
If you have Richard Dawkins speaking
at your memorial service and David
Gilmour performing "Wish
You Were Here" (my absolute favorite Floyd song), you're hangin' in the right
crowd in my book.