Reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I bought Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy over the weekend. I started reading it last night, haven't gone very far, only read a few pages, but I'm interested in seeing what the book is all about, I actually got one book that is a collection of 5 of Douglas Adam's stories, all I believe revolving around the same characters, or at least similiar in story.

bryan always talked about this book in high school, I should have read it long ago. I'm really interested in reading the book and then seeing the movie that comes out later this summer.