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Original poster

Books that actually made you LOL? Maybe not strictly Adult Fiction I know...

57 replies

LowLevelWhinging · 22/07/2013 20:08

I'm currently exhausting David Sedaris' opus and I'm going to be so sad when I've finished them!

After having a baby and doing a uni course, I've found it really difficult to find the time/inclination to get stuck into a book and have ditched many. Sedaris' books have got me back into reading as they're just funny and charming, interesting and intelligent. And of course made me LOL many a time.

Any suggestions of what to read next please?

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LottieJenkins · 23/07/2013 08:59

Oh no! I didn't realise Derec Longden had died.............Sad He was soooooooooo funny! Such an amazing man too. Marrying Eileen after Diana died. I loved the cat in the fridge story!

EstelleGetty · 23/07/2013 08:54

Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh had me struggling to contain myself on the bus!

And John Waters' essay collection Role Models is cracking me up right now.

bruffin · 23/07/2013 08:50

Derec Longdens autobiographies he sadly died last month

highlandcoo · 23/07/2013 08:35

Yy to Three Men in a Boat.

Another old classic : Diary of a Nobody. A must for anyone who hasn't discovered it yet.

And I know Kingsley Amis was a misogynistic old fart but the scene in Lucky Jim when he realises what he's done to the bedroom makes me laugh just thinking about it. Must reread soon.

EugenesAxe · 22/07/2013 23:49

Parker - yes! You are right. I just read Martin Chuzzlewit and found that incredibly droll; I definitely did LOL.

I forgot Terry Pratchett (I find you have to know what he's taking the piss out of, but hilarious if you do. My favourite was a book opening that parodied The War of the Worlds: 'No one would have believed, in the last years of the Century of the Fruitbat...'); I will add the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series that I also forgot.

Phineyj · 22/07/2013 22:10

Ooh! Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City. Enjoyable, funny and very compatible with lack of time/short attention span as written in short chunks (originally it was a newspaper column).

Phineyj · 22/07/2013 22:09

David Lloyd? Hmm, I think my subconscious is hot and wants to go swimming. David Lodge.

Phineyj · 22/07/2013 22:08

David Lloyd - Deaf Sentence.

Phineyj · 22/07/2013 21:57

Stella Gibbons - Cold Comfort Farm
David Nobbs - The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
Most of Marina Lewycka's books especially A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and We are All Made of Glue (not the most recent though)
Joseph Heller - Catch 22 (mind you, I read it as a teenager - I don't know if I'd find it funny now)
Malcolm Bradbury - Rates of Exchange
Tom Sharpe - Wilt on High - there is one particular scene that made me howl with laughter
Jane Gardam - The Queen of the Tambourine (in a 'train wreck' kind of way)
Also my mate Mandy has just published this, which is v. funny:
www.amazon.co.uk/Stretching-Mandy-Sutter/dp/1907401962/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374526580&sr=8-1&keywords=mandy+sutter

bigbuttons · 22/07/2013 21:49

The only author that has ever made me laugh out loud is Bill Bryson. I remember reading one of his whilst holding my sleeping newborn and shaking so much with laughter that I woke him up!

Uptheairymountain · 22/07/2013 21:47

YY Terry Pratchett, particularly Men At Arms.

ParkerTheThief · 22/07/2013 21:46

Dickens. I only discovered him as an adult and parts of it make me laugh out loud.

ThePieSmuggler · 22/07/2013 21:44

I like Jasper Fforde and Robert Rankin too, I've recently read Clovenhoof by Heide Goody and Iain Grant on my kindle (think it was on one of their 'deal of the day' promotion) which had me laughing a lot!

HerBigChance · 22/07/2013 21:15

The Wimbledon Poisoner, Nigel Williams.

Rebelrebel · 22/07/2013 21:05

I do exactly the same with Shades of Grey and my Kindle, OP, nearly every time I switch it on! I do like it, and his Dragonslayer books.

cocolepew · 22/07/2013 20:59

Read MN classics, they crack me up Grin

JollyHolidayGiant · 22/07/2013 20:48

I like Jasper Fforde and Pratchett too.

But Robert Rankin's Brentford Trilogy are the best for making me actually laugh out loud. I think there are seven so far.

CaptainCalamari · 22/07/2013 20:44

Douglas Adams (esp. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency) and the Red Dwarf books always make me shake with laughter (embarrassing on a train) Blush

Backpaw · 22/07/2013 20:44

Confederacy of Dunces. I was howling on the tube and got scowled at!

LetUsPrey · 22/07/2013 20:42

Another vote for Bill Bryson, Janet Evanovich and Jasper Fforde - Fforde's Thursday Next and Nursery Crimes books rather than Shades of Grey. Shades of Grey is good but I don't recall it being particularly laugh out loud funny.

The Tent, The Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy was a MN recommendation. I got some very funny looks around the pool when I read it on holiday a couple of years ago Grin

emmelinelucas · 22/07/2013 20:37

EF Benson - especially Mapp and Lucia

superbagpuss · 22/07/2013 20:35

is it jasper fforde or another fforde who wrote the Thursday next books? they were very funny

terry pratchett makes me laugh

EugenesAxe · 22/07/2013 20:33

Yes to Three Men In a Boat. Also severe hysterics from My Family And Other Animals.

Adrian Mole still gets me, as do the Bridget Jones pair.

Original poster
LowLevelWhinging · 22/07/2013 20:28

I also bought a Christopher Brookmyre book after MN recommendation and, whilst it's not strictly a funny book, there is a scene involving a jobby on a mantelpiece which made me LOL Grin

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Original poster
LowLevelWhinging · 22/07/2013 20:26

oh this is goooood, thank you!

I've just realised I have a Jasper Fford book on my kindle, downloaded after a recommendation on here. It's called, Shades of Grey and every time I see it I go all Shock and outraged - WHO HAS DOWNLOADED SOFT PO - oh it's not that one! Grin

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