The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams. Pocket Books. Copyright © 1981. ISBN 0-671-46149-4.

This ‘Monty Python in Space’ spoof of SF genre traditions has been popular among hackers ever since the original British radio show. Read it if only to learn about Vogons (see bogon) and the significance of the number 42 (see random numbers) — and why the winningest chess program of 1990 was called ‘Deep Thought’.

This book has been mentioned in the following pages of the Jargon File: random numbers, Bibliography.