The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is the most underrated book in Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide series, nearly as good as his first novel (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1979), with less humor but better characters and more depth. This time, the alien Vogons attack Arthur and the gang, and their escape catapults them across time and space. Adams once again suffuses his narrative with comic details (e.g., a heavy metal band whose ideal listening position is 37 miles from the stage), and alternately silly and witty lines like these:

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

[…]

The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why, and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question 'How can we eat?' the second by the question 'Why do we eat?' and the third by the question 'Where shall we have lunch?

[…]

One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of accidentally becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem involved in becoming your own father or mother that a broad-minded and well-adjusted family can’t cope with.

Recommended if you enjoyed the first book.