The one hundred and third book: #718 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
I'll be honest, I'm not sure if the list expected me to read the first entry of the trilogy in five parts, or if it expected the full work, but it just seemed right to do the latter. I have, of course, encountered it before - having read the books in both English and in the Dutch translation (which at least had a decent translation of Ford Prefect's name, even if not all of the other choices are as good), listened to the full radio series and I've watched the less stellar movie. Add to that that I've already reviewed both the TV series here and the game on the proper Pong and Beyond, and it feels like writing about the book just makes it full circle.
The books are still great to read. There's a bit of a downhill trend near the end, where the focus on more of an ongoing plot conflicts with the rush to get them out, meaning bits of plot just fizzle out or don't marry up, but the individual scenes often still work. The earlier books are more like vignettes, pulling together only loosely enough to move from one set piece to the next, and those in particular are a delight to read and immerse yourself in as the world gets weirder. It's, at its core, a highly serialized work, and that serialization comes with changes as you can feel it being pulled in all directions, with the Guide interludes especially showing that with their various interruptions, diversions and other notes. The book stands at its peak in the comedy sci fi genre, and it will be there for a long time still.