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Old 01-07-2010, 10:28 AM   #86
plumboz
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Posts: 591
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Arizona
Device: Nook
May I poke my nose in here?

I second, third and emphatically fourth all the votes for Wodehouse and Pratchett. To me they are Gods of Writing.

Much of Bryson is also wonderful, particularly Notes from a Small Island and A Walk in the Woods. Pickwick Papers? Yes! The Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich may be getting a bit past their prime, (I think she's on number fifteen or sixteen now) but they are still very entertaining. Hiassen is also a favorite, with my top pick by him being Nature Girl.

Douglas Adams, of course.

Jules Feiffer is wonderful.

When I was a kid I read and reread the marvelously funny books of Richard Armour. His takes on history and literature were hilarious.

I was late discovering Waugh, but enjoyed Scoop a lot.

The first section of T.H. White's The Once and Future King where Arthur is still a boy, has wonderful humor throughout. The fight between King Pellinore and Sir Grummore is, to me, just fall down, tears in my eyes funny.

The Dortmunder novels by Donald E. Westlake are the pinnacle of the art of the comic crime novel. Nothing ever goes right for Dortmunder and his buddies.

I turn to The Thurber Carnival frequently for short, wry, funny, perceptive writing.

Much of Twain's travel writing is marvelously funny, as are sections of his autobiography.

And may I say thank you very much for the mention of Boomerang. All of the writers I listed above, along with countless others, have left their mark on me. I hope I'm not embarrassing them.

Best,
Alan aka Plumboz
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