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Towel Day: Towel Drive 2024
A tribute to the author Douglas Adams.
Upcoming Events
Towel Drive for Towel Day!
May 25 is Towel Day, a celebration of the life of Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Participate in Towel Day by donating to our towel drive! Drop off your new or gently used towels at the branches listed from May 21 through May 25. Please drop off donations when the library is open
Towels will be donated to Watermelon Mountain Ranch, Animal Humane New Mexico, and Healthcare for the Homeless. Healthcare for the Homeless appreciates white towels, but any color is accepted! They will also accept washcloths.
Here are the branches taking towel donations:
Cherry Hills
6901 Barstow NE 87111
505-857-8321
Ernie Pyle
900 Girard SE 87106
505-256-2065
Watch The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at Ernie Pyle Library on May 25!
Juan Tabo
3407 Juan Tabo NE 87111
505-291-6260
Lomas Tramway
908 Eastridge NE 87123
505-291-6295
Main
501 Copper NW 87102
505-768-5141
Enjoy 2 Towel Day programs at Main Library! Towel Day: Tie-Dye BYOCloth on May 24 and Towel Day: Bad Poetry on May 25!
Special Collections (Local History)
423 Central NE 87102
505-848-1376
Taylor Ranch
5700 Bogart NW 87120
505-897-8816
hoopy
Activities to help you celebrate Towel Day!
- Two Towel Day Activities For You Hoopy Froods
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- Mostly Harmless Ways to Celebrate Towel Day
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- 42 Ways to Celebrate Towel Day on May 25th
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42
“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
“What? Harmless! Is that all it’s got to say? Harmless! One word!’ Ford shrugged. ‘Well, there are a hundred billion stars in the Galaxy, and only a limited amount of space in the book’s microprocessors,’ he said, ‘and no one knew much about the Earth, of course.’ ‘Well, for God’s sake I hope you managed to rectify that a bit.’ ‘Oh yes, well I managed to transmit a new entry off to the editor. He had to trim it a bit, but it’s still an improvement.’ ‘And what does it say now?’ asked Arthur. ‘Mostly harmless,”
― Douglas Adams, The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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DA books
Books by, about, and inspired by ideas from the fertile mind of Douglas Adams
Books listed are from the library catalog. Check for digital options on Overdrive/Libby and hoopla!
Mostly Harmless by
Now celebrating the 42nd anniversary of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, soon to be a Hulu original series! "Hitchhiker fans rejoice! . . . [Here's] more of the same zany nonsensical mayhem."--The New York Times Book Review It's easy to get disheartened when your planet has been blown up and the woman you love has vanished due to a misunderstanding about space/time. However, instead of being disheartened, Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life a bit--and immediately all hell breaks loose. Hell takes a number of forms: there's the standard Ford Prefect version, in the shape of an all-new edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and a totally unexpected manifestation in the form of a teenage girl who startles Arthur Dent by being his daughter when he didn't even know he had one. Can Arthur save the Earth from total multidimensional obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter, Random, from herself? Of course not. He never works out exactly what is going on. Will you? "Douglas Adams is a terrific satirist. . . . He is anything but harmless."--The Washington Post Book World
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by
From Douglas Adams, the legendary author of one of the most beloved science fiction novels of all time, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, comes a wildly inventive novel of ghosts, time travel, and one detective's mission to save humanity from extinction. DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY We solve the whole crime We find the whole person Phone today for the whole solution to your problem (Missing cats and messy divorces a specialty) Douglas Adams, the "master of wacky words and even wackier tales" (Entertainment Weekly) once again boggles the mind with a completely unbelievable story of ghosts, time travel, eccentric computer geniuses, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the end of the world, and--of course--missing cats.
Last Chance to See by
New York Times bestselling author Douglas Adams and zoologist Mark Carwardine take off around the world in search of exotic, endangered creatures. Join them as they encounter the animal kingdom in its stunning beauty, astonishing variety, and imminent peril: the giant Komodo dragon of Indonesia, the helpless but loveable Kakapo of New Zealand, the blind river dolphins of China, the white rhinos of Zaire, the rare birds of Mauritius island in the Indian Ocean. Hilarious and poignant--as only Douglas Adams can be--Last Chance to See is an entertaining and arresting odyssey through the Earth's magnificent wildlife galaxy. Praise for Last Chance to See "Lively, sharply satirical, brilliantly written . . . shows how human care can undo what human carelessness has wrought."--The Atlantic "These authors don't hesitate to present the alarming facts: More than 1,000 species of animals (and plants) become extinct every year. . . . Perhaps Adams and Carwardine, with their witty science, will help prevent such misadventures in the future."--Boston Sunday Herald "Very funny and moving . . . The glimpses of rare fauna seem to have enlarged [Adams's] thinking, enlivened his world; and so might the animals do for us all, if we were to help them live."--The Washington Post Book World "[Adams] invites us to enter into a conspiracy of laughter and caring."--Los Angeles Times "Amusing . . . thought-provoking . . . Its details on the heroic efforts being made to save these animals are inspirational."--The New York Times Book Review
The Salmon of Doubt by
On Friday, May 11, 2001, the world mourned the untimely passing of Douglas Adams, beloved creator ofThe Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, dead of a heart attack at age forty-nine. Thankfully, in addition to a magnificent literary legacy—which includes seven novels and three co-authored works of nonfiction—Douglas left us something more. The book you are about to enjoy was rescued from his four computers, culled from an archive of chapters from his long-awaited novel-in-progress, as well as his short stories, speeches, articles, interviews, and letters. In a way that none of his previous books could,The Salmon of Doubtprovides the full, dazzling, laugh-out-loud experience of a journey through the galaxy as perceived by Douglas Adams. From a boy’s first love letter (to his favorite science fiction magazine) to the distinction of possessing a nose of heroic proportions; from climbing Kilimanjaro in a rhino costume to explaining why Americans can’t make a decent cup of tea; from lyrical tributes to the sublime pleasures found in music by Procol Harum, the Beatles, and Bach to the follies of his hopeless infatuation with technology; from fantastic, fictional forays into the private life of Genghis Khan to extended visits with Dirk Gently and Zaphod Beeblebrox: this is the vista from the elevated perch of one of the tallest, funniest, most brilliant, and most penetrating social critics and thinkers of our time. Welcome to the wonderful mind of Douglas Adams.
Hitchhiker by
Don't panic, Pack your towel, pour yourself a pangalactic gargle blaster, and take off on a wild, no-holds-barred tour of the life and career of Douglas Adams, creator of the phenomenally successful Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Wish You Were Here by
It all started when Douglas Adams demolished planet Earth in order to make way for an intergalactic expressway–and then invited everyone to thumb a ride on a comical cosmic road trip with the likes of Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, and the other daft denizens of deep space immortalized in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Adams made the universe a much funnier place to inhabit and forever changed the way we think about towels, extraterrestrial poetry, and especially the number 42. And then, too soon, he was gone. Just who was this impossibly tall Englishman who wedded science fiction and absurdist humor to create the multimillion-selling five-book “trilogy” that became a cult phenomenon read round the world? Even if you’ve dined in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, you’ve been exposed to only a portion of the offbeat, endearing, and irresistible Adams mystique. Have you met the only official unofficial member of Monty Python’s Flying Circus? The very first person to purchase a Macintosh computer? The first (and thus far only) author to play a guitar solo onstage with Pink Floyd? Adams was also the writer so notorious for missing deadlines that he had to be held captive in a hotel room under the watchful eye of his edit∨ the creator of the epic computer game Starship Titanic; and a globetrotting wildlife crusader. A longtime friend of the author, Nick Webb reveals many quirks and contradictions: Adams as the high-tech-gadget junkie and lavish gift giver . . .irrepressible ham and painfully timid soul . . . gregarious conversationalist and brooding depressive . . . brilliant intellect and prickly egotist. Into the brief span of forty-nine years, Douglas Adams exuberantly crammed more lives than the most resilient cat–while still finding time and energy to pursue whatever side projects captivated his ever-inquisitive mind. By turns touching, tongue-in-cheek, and not at all timid about telling the warts-and-all truth, Wish You Were Here is summation as celebration– a look back at a life well worth the vicarious reliving, and studded with anecdote, droll comic incident, and heartfelt insight as its subject’s own unforgettable tales of cosmic wanderlust. For the countless fans of Douglas Adams and his unique and winsome world, here is a wonderful postcard: to be read, reread, and treasured for the memories it bears.
Starship Titanic by
In this thoroughly satisfying and completely disorienting novel based on a story line by Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Terry Jones recounts an unforgettable tale of intergalactic travel and mishap. The saga of "the ship that cannot possibly go wrong" sparkles with wit, danger, and confusion that will keep readers guessing which reality they are in and how, on earth, to find their way out again. At the center of the galaxy, a vast, unknown civilization is preparing for an event of epic proportions: the launching of the greatest, most gorgeous, most technologically advanced Starship ever built-the Starship Titanic. An earthling would see it as a mixture of the Chrysler Building, the tomb of Tutankhamen, and Venice. But less provincial onlookers would recognize it as the design of Leovinus, the galaxy's most renowned architect. He is an old man now, and the creation of the Starship Titanic is the pinnacle achievement of his twenty-year career. The night before the launch, Leovinus is prowling around the ship having a last little look. With mounting alarm he begins to find things are not right: unfinished workmanship, cybersystems not working correctly, robots colliding with doors. How could this have happened? And how could this have happened without his knowing? Something somewhere is terribly wrong. On the following day, in an artificial event staged for the media, the Starship Titanic will leave its construction dock under autopilot and, a few days later, make its way to the terminal to pick up passengers for its maiden voyage. Although the ship will be deserted during its very first flight, it is nevertheless a major event, watched by all the galaxy's media. Hugely, magnificently, the fabulous ship eases its way forward from the construction dock, picks up speed, sways a bit, wobbles a bit, veers wildly, and just before it can do massive damage to everything around it, appears to undergo SMEF (Spontaneous Massive Existence Failure). In just ten seconds, the whole, stupendous enterprise is over. And our story has just begun. Somehow three earthlings, one Blerontin journalist, a semideranged parrot, and a shipful of disoriented robots must overcome their differences. It's the only way to save the Starship Titanic ("The Ship That Cannot Possibly Go Wrong") from certain destruction and rescue the economy of an entire planet-not to mention to survive the latest threat, an attack by a swarm of hostile shipbuilders. . . .
Shada by
From the unique mind of Douglas Adams, legendary author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, comes Shada, a Doctor Who story scripted for the television series Doctor Who, but never produced--and now, transformed into an original novel... A little knowledge is a dangerous thing Imagine how dangerous a LOT of knowledge is... The Doctor's old friend and fellow Time Lord Professor Chronotis has retired to Cambridge University, where among the other doddering old professors nobody will notice if he lives for centuries. He took with him a few little souvenirs--harmless things really. But among them, carelessly, he took The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey. Even more carelessly, he has loaned this immensely powerful book to clueless graduate student Chris Parsons, who intends to use it to impress girls. The Worshipful and Ancient Law is among the most dangerous artifacts in the universe; it cannot be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. The hands of the sinister Time Lord Skagra are unquestionably the wrongest ones possible. Skagra is a sadist and an egomaniac, bent on universal domination. Having misguessed the state of fashion on Earth, he also wears terrible platform shoes. He is on his way to Cambridge. He wants the book. And he wants the Doctor...
Literary Wonderlands by
A glorious collection that delves deep into the inception, influences, and literary and historical underpinnings of nearly 100 of our most beloved fictional realms. Literary Wonderlands is a thoroughly researched, wonderfully written, and beautifully produced book that spans four thousand years of creative endeavor. From Spenser's The Fairie Queene to Wells's The Time Machine to Murakami's 1Q84 it explores the timeless and captivating features of fiction's imagined worlds including the relevance of the writer's own life to the creation of the story, influential contemporary events and philosophies, and the meaning that can be extracted from the details of the work. Each piece includes a detailed overview of the plot and a "Dramatis Personae." Literary Wonderlands is a fascinating read for lovers of literature, fantasy, and science fiction. Laura Miller is the book's general editor. Co-founder of Salon.com, where she worked as an editor and writer for 20 years, she is currently a books and culture columnist at Slate. A journalist and a critic, her work has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper's, the Guardian, and the New York Times Book Review, where she wrote the "Last Word" column for two years. She is the author of The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia and editor of the Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors.
