Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

The great 'hitch-hike' begins when the Earth is unexpectedly demolished because plans for the development of the outlying regions of the galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route, and unfortunately the Earth happens to lie in the path of this wonderful new highway.
Earthling Arthur Dent, however, is saved from destruction by one of his closest friends - Ford Prefect - who, much to Arthur's surprise, is not a human from Guildford after all, but is in fact from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse.
This is the story of the amazing travels of Arthur and Ford and their numerous narrow escapes from certain death, but it is also the story of the wholly remarkable book which guides them - a book which bears the words DON'T PANIC in large friendly letters on its cover.