I'm not a big sci-fi reader… I remember Red Dwarf (the tv show) fondly (but only vaguely) from my high school years, but hadn't watched it since then.

I found the book at a used book sale and expected it to be a bit dated and not very well-written, but in fact it's very funny and charming (although there's a very obvious debt to Douglas Adams) and even more surprisingly, there are very prescient ideas about virtual reality and technology that seem ahead of their time even by science fiction standards. There are themes of sociology, economics, politics, and futurism that hold up very well. I wish I'd bought the next book when i saw it, because i'll probably never find it now. : )