Currently reading: Dirk Gently

Actually just finished reading: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by
Douglas Adams.

Douglas Adams is much better known for The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
and subsequent sequels (can you have subsequent sequels?) than he is for
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Teatime of the
Soul, (which also features Dirk Gently). However those that read these
books become instant fans. I have read every book by Douglas Adams
innumerable times. The depth of intelligence woven into these yarns means
each time you read them you discover some new hidden depths, and so they
withstand almost infinite re-reading.

This must be at least the 4th or 5th time I have read Dirk Gently's
Holistic Detective Agency, but this time was different. This time, for the
first time ever, I understood the ending! Strangely every time I start
re-reading it, I forget that the ending is completely confusing and it
always comes as a bit of a surprise. The quality of the writing and the
great plot means that it doesn't detract too much from the enjoyment as it
still sort of makes sense, you just don't know why! Now, thanks to the
wonders of the Internet, it only took a couple of minutes to dig out an
explanation. This was made all the more easier as it was obviously the one
thing everyone wants to know about the book. You see it all depends on
whether you have an intimate knowledge of the works of Coleridge, which of
course I don't. (I went to see The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner at the
National when I was 11 but I don't remember much about it? except it had a
good stunt where a man fell down the rigging) A couple of paragraphs of an
explanation cleared the whole thing up easily enough. It does rather seem
as if Douglas Adams massively over estimated most of his audience's
intelligence. Obviously the man himself is hugely clever, but would it of
hurt to just make the ending a bit clearer for us ignoramuses?

Any way, I am going to print off the explanation I found and stick it in
the back of the book so that future readers are not left perplexed by the
baffling conclusion.

About the book:
http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/0671746723.html

The explanation:
http://www.zootle.net/afda/faq/e.shtml

If you haven't read it, make it top of your list and read it NOW!