10 Years of Towel Day

If you're at all like me, you probably didn't know that Towel Day existed, but having heard about it, can probably guess what's going on, especially if you're a fan of Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy series.  If you don't already know that I'm a fan... well, let me just say you must have missed my tweet this past weekend, or my similar post on Facebook, where I said "There'll never be a better time for me to repost this link (than this past Saturday)"  Despite posting the link again a mere four days later, I still stand by that statement re: Saturday, but it should make the point that I'm a fan of those books.

The date of Towel Day, May 25th, seems to have been selected for no particular reason beyond its being a convenient two weeks after Adams' untimely death on May 11th, 2001.  It was considered a quirky (and therefore appropriate) way of remembering his work, and caught on such that it has since become an annual observance... well, among those who observe such things, anyway.

So, how do you celebrate Towel Day, you ask? Pretty much however you want.  The official website, TowelDay.org, suggests carrying a towel with you all day, but I have to admit that I'm unlikely to do that.  I am, however, celebrating by reading through the recently-written sixth Hitchhiker's Guide story, And Another Thing..., on my Nook.  I'm not done with it yet, but so far it's compared well with the five entries Douglas Adams wrote before his death.  There are definitely a few references to things that couldn't have come from Adams' originals, simply because they relate to technology or cultural events that hadn't existed yet in 2001.  They're not at all out of place in this series, it's just that one notices how much the world has changed in that comparatively short time (well, actually, I guess we should say nearly 20 years rather than 10, since Mostly Harmless came out way back in 1992).

I'm not sure I'd approve of a seventh novel (and for all I know, this book would make a seventh impossible, anyway, but I thought that Mostly Harmless was impossible to follow up from), but it's been good to spend some time with these characters again.  However you choose to celebrate Towel Day, may it be a froody one.