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Original poster

I need to read something that will make me laugh, any recommendations?

33 replies

cadelaide · 25/08/2011 00:21

Too much doom and gloom on my bookshelf.

Jonathan Coe makes me laugh in "House of Sleep" (well he did 15-odd years ago anyway).

Any ideas?

OP posts:
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KPT083 · 18/10/2011 11:37

Sophie Kinsella - Can you keep a secret

Never fails to make me laugh

TillyBookClub · 18/10/2011 11:21

Had this same conversation with my family the other day. Results were:

Me - Scoop - Evelyn Waugh
Husband - Blot on the Landscape - Tom Sharpe
Mum - Any PG Wodehouse
Dad - Eddie Izzard (erm, has he written a book?)

Agree Jonathan Coe extremely funny.

mamandeouisti · 16/10/2011 11:47

Thank you for the David Sedaris recommendation! Heard him on R4 - laughed till I cried...and then forgot his name so deprived of more. Off to rectify that now.

lostlady · 15/10/2011 22:01

Oh, agree Christopher Brookmyre too. V funny

coastgirl · 15/10/2011 21:41

The new Alan Partridge autobiography is hilarious.

lljkk · 15/10/2011 21:34

How to Talk to a Widower, highly recommend.

redlac · 15/10/2011 21:27

Second Carl Hiassen and suggest Christopher Brookmyre who is double-y funny if you are Scottish but still v funny if you are not

lostlady · 15/10/2011 21:19

Second Adrian Mole. Also Carl Hiasen: American and funny. P. G Wodehouse would be my relaxing and entertaining author of choice: another fine day dawns at Blandings, and all is well with the world Smile

peggyblackett · 15/10/2011 21:15

Rachel Johnson's First Year and a half at The Lady.

thesurgeonsmate · 15/10/2011 21:13

I may be not be following the focus onto what you are personally finding funny, OP, but just to add to a list of laugh out loud books - Spike Milligan's war memoir, "Adolf Hitler, My part in His Downfall" and sequels are irresistably funny.

TroelsHartmann · 15/10/2011 14:15

I'm reading At Sea which is very amusing, haven't read Laurie Graham before

Auntiestablishment · 15/10/2011 09:48

Sophie Kinsella - The Undomestic Goddess
Rosy Thornton - More Than Love Letters

UnlikelyAmazonian · 12/10/2011 21:06

my bank statements

LottieJenkins · 12/10/2011 11:33

The Cat Who Came In From The Cold is very amusing!!

auntierozzi · 12/10/2011 11:20

"The Moon's A Balloon" by David Niven.

KatharineClifton · 11/10/2011 16:42

Adrian Mole! Nowt funnier. Any Sue Townsend tbh.

Original poster
cadelaide · 11/10/2011 14:05

Oh dear.

I tried "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and I really, really did not get on with it at all. Just not funny. In fact, I found it curiously depressing. I'm fighting an urge to apologise Grin

I'm now reading Jonathan Coe's "Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim" and I'm loving it, it's had me chuckling. I do love JC.

OP posts:
Original poster
cadelaide · 26/08/2011 10:33

OK, it has to be sedaris, 'cos i love 3 men in a boat and cold comfort farm so it fits.

I shall indeed come back and report Smile

OP posts:
AlfalfaMum · 25/08/2011 23:49

The ncome back and tell us what you think :o

AlfalfaMum · 25/08/2011 23:48

Any of Sedaris' autobiographical books: Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your family in Corduroy and Denim, When You Are Engulfed in Flames.
He recently brought out a book of fictional short stories - something with 'Squirrel' in the title Confused, which I still haven't managed to get into so can't really recommend (because I haven't read it yet).

Book Depository have them for cheap and free delivery

FellatioNelson · 25/08/2011 21:25

Three men in a boat by Jerome K Jerome. the bit where he and his friends are trying to put up a tent will have you unable to breathe and in need of an ambulance. All of it is an absolute hoot.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons is very funny, and I second David Sedaris -a wonderful writer, a wry observer who finds the absurd in the mundane.

hanahsaunt · 25/08/2011 21:21

I had tears running down my face on the TGV reading Bill Bryson much to the bemusement of sophisticated Paris commuters.

Not funny, but lovely are the Adriana Trigiana books.

Moulesfrites · 25/08/2011 21:15

Starter for Ten - by the same author as One Day but far better and funnier in my opinion.

Am reading Skippy Dies by Paul Murray at the minute - very funny too.

bramblina · 25/08/2011 21:13

Michael McIntyre's auto biography is having me in stitches every evening just now....dh not amused Grin
Marian Keyes.
I'll agree with Bill Bryson too.

mrscompost · 25/08/2011 21:09

I loved How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran - very very funny,

Can't beat Bill Bryson at his best - any of his, but I wept with laughter at Walk in the Woods.

Early Terry Pratchett - the Hogfather is very good.

The Tent, the Bucket and Me is funny as well.

But try Caitlin Moran - I still snurk occasionally thinking about the best bits

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