01-11-2012, 03:04 PM | #31 |
Not scared!
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01-12-2012, 02:20 PM | #32 |
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Hunters, hikers, campers and fishermen will enjoy Patrick McManus. If you don't enjoy any of these activities don't bother, you won't "get it". His books from the 80s are great but then he starts repeating himself.
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01-12-2012, 10:27 PM | #33 |
Snoozing in the sun
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Depending how well you know the classics (Austen, Bronte, Dickens etc) you could well enjoy Jasper Fforde. I find him hilarious and SO clever. Start at the beginning of the series with "The Eyre Affair".
The books take place in a parallel Bookworld. Someone has kidnapped Jane Eyre out of the book and Thursday Next has to try to sort it all out. |
01-12-2012, 11:25 PM | #34 |
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I'm not an New Yorker, and not even American, but the late S J Perelman can still cause me to laugh out loud. His description of a meal in a Malayan hotel just after WW2 still produces belly laughs, and I can't read it out loud to an audience without me-and all of us-breaking up.
His Cloudland Revisited series of items - hilarious middle-aged reunions with sensational books that thrilled him in his teens - ought to go down well here, as the books themselves are nearly all on this site, and you can read them and see for yourself. Tarzan of the Apes, by ERB : Rockabye Viscount in the Treetop. Graustark, by George Barr McCutcheon: How Ruritanian Can You Get? Three Weeks, by Elinor Glyn: Tuberoses and Tigers. The Mystery of Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: Why, Doctor, What big green eyes you have. The Sheik, by E M Hull: Into Your Tent I'll Creep. Black Oxen, by Gertrude Atherton: Lady, Play Your Endocrines. Relenishing Jessica, by Maxwell Bodehmeim: Great Aches from little Boudoirs Grow. and a few more from that period. He also had fun with Spicy Detective, Captain Future and several other pulp magazines, and spoofed Raymond Chandler private eye stories(he knew Chandler). |
10-02-2013, 05:26 PM | #35 |
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Alright. Three men in a boat IS funny. I actually laughed for good 10 min at places.
Is there anything similar to it? The type of humour where you say “Begin with breakfast.” (George is so practical.) “Now for breakfast we shall want a frying-pan” – (Harris said it was indigestible; but we merely urged him not to be an ass, and George went on)..." |
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10-03-2013, 06:15 AM | #36 |
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I found the first one mildly amusing, but it does get a little repetitive after a while.
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10-03-2013, 01:11 PM | #37 |
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"Some Experiences of an Irish R.M." by Somerville & Ross ........................
Blissful.....also heavenly.....and hilarious . And timeless. |
10-04-2013, 03:33 AM | #38 |
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For slapstick humour along the lines of 'Allo, 'Allo anything by Tom Sharpe would qualify. Several of his books are now available as ebooks. For more subtle and intellectual humour I find both David Nobbs and David Lodge well worth reading.
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10-04-2013, 04:03 AM | #39 |
Somewhat clueless
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Spike Milligan's war memoirs, starting with "Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall".
/JB |
10-05-2013, 11:27 AM | #40 |
o saeclum infacetum
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No one's mentioned Evelyn Waugh's hilarious and macabre take on the American funeral industry, The Loved One, so clearly I must.
Since I love Messrs Sharpe and Lodge, I have to take your recommendation of David Nobbs very seriously! Thanks. |
10-06-2013, 03:14 AM | #41 |
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There are quite a few David Nobbs books to choose from. The first 3 books in the Henry Pratt series are available in a single volume as The Complete Pratt. Volume 4 is Pratt a Manger. Amongst his later works are Going Gently, It Had To Be You, and Sex and Other Changes. Currently I'm reading A Bit of a Do and Fair Do's, which were made as a TV series many years ago. Unfortunately they don't seem to be available on DVD.
Being a fan of the radio series My Word and My Music with (amongst others) Frank Muir and Denis Norden I was surprised to learn recently that Frank Muir had written a novel, The Walpole Orange, shortly before he died. It's well worth a read for the wit and humour. His Oxford Book of Humorous Prose is somewhat older, and probably not available as an ebook. It contains a good selection of humorous prose from about 400 years of English literature. Another of my favourite humorous authors is Peter Ustinov. His autobiography, Dear Me, and at least one of his novels are available as ebooks. |
10-06-2013, 04:30 AM | #42 |
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Does my current job description count???
I don't think I have really read anything funny. Bravemouth by Pamela Stephenson (book about her husband Billy Connolly) was entertaining, and is probably the closest to 'funniest' as I can get. |
10-06-2013, 05:24 AM | #43 | ||||
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Quote:
Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman is probably the funniest I've read. I was laughing out loud, and someone asked me what I was reading. I tried to explain (the end of the world as described in the Bible, angels and demons and Antichrist (except not quite)), and realized halfway through that the person I was talking with was very Christian and very much Not Amused Quote:
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10-06-2013, 08:43 PM | #44 |
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10-06-2013, 09:43 PM | #45 |
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Here's one that should be right up your alley.
M.A.S.H. (the first book). They had to clean up parts of it to make the movie (and that was in 1970, when anything went....Except Shaking Sammy.) If you like epigrams, check out Helen Rowland at Project Gutenberg. I'd recommend you start with Reflections of a Bachelor Girl. If you can tolerate really bad writing, you could try my The Case of the Golden Coprolite here in the Patrica Clarke library. |
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