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Original poster

Can anyone recommend any seriously funny reads please?

55 replies

JuanPotatoTwo · 14/03/2014 20:30

I've recently read The Wimbledon Poisoner by Nigel Williams which I thought was very funny. I'd forgotten quite how satisfying a book that can make you laugh out loud could be, so on the back of The Wimbledon Poisoner I read two other books by the same author but found them a bit disappointing.

Have you read anything properly funny that you would recommend? TIA?

OP posts:
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Lemongrab · 07/04/2014 18:20

I just came on to recommend P.G Wodehouse but Swoosg beat me to it! Jeeves and Wooster books in particular always have me in stitches.

iseenodust · 07/04/2014 15:05

Wilt by Tom Sharpe.
Sick puppy by Carl Hiaasen (don't be put off by the title).

OBface · 06/04/2014 22:34

Jenny Eclair novels are the only books I have genuinely laughed out loud at. Highly recommended.

Swoosg · 21/03/2014 17:26

P. G. Wodehouse is laugh-out-loud funny.

mrsjavierbardem · 20/03/2014 13:22

Decline and Fall is a tea spitter I agree, lucky jim made me laugh too but I wonder whether it hasn't dated?
Also Pride And Prejudice is very funny too I think.

MorrisZapp · 20/03/2014 09:43

Black marker on the Noddy hats :)

MrsBodger · 19/03/2014 11:46

The Tent, The Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy. Dangerously funny.

Read Scoop again recently - just brilliant.

zinnia · 19/03/2014 11:38

Another voice for David Sedaris, esp. Me Talk Pretty one Day.

ALSO Tim Moore, especially French Revolutions - doesn't matter if you're not into cycling, but for anyone with even a passing familiarity with France it's howlingly funny.

JinxyCat · 19/03/2014 09:31

I really like the Rivers of London series, very funny and an easy read

drigon · 18/03/2014 01:22

Yes, Lucky Jim is hilarious and I've always enjoyed the Adrian Mole books.

NigellasDealer · 18/03/2014 01:08

I see someone else already suggested Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh -
also by him perhaps A Handful of Dust and Scoop

SconeRhymesWithGone · 18/03/2014 01:04

Bill Bryson's memoir Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is really funny. It is also refreshing to read a memoir by an author who really likes his parents.

Takver · 17/03/2014 20:52

The sequel Three Men on the Bummel is even funnier than Three Men in a Boat IMO - the fire hydrant scene + the lost newlywed both get me every time Grin

Northernlurker · 17/03/2014 20:51

E is very funny, some of the Falco books have laugh out loud moments and actually so do a lot of the Patrick O'Brien Aubrey/Maturin books. It's very 18th century humour though (though written in the 20th!) you have to keep a good look out for it.

minipie · 17/03/2014 20:48

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina lempicka (sp?)

sadly her other books aren't quite as good, but this one is great.

Don't bother with the Woman who went to bed for a year. Really not funny.

hottoddyplease · 17/03/2014 20:43

A third vote for Jasper Fforde. And there's always P. G. Wodehouse.

Lizzy3001 · 17/03/2014 19:54

Time for Bed by David Baddiel

kohl · 16/03/2014 12:22

A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again by David Foster Wallace. The essay about holidaying on a cruise ship made me howl.

GingerMaman · 16/03/2014 12:06

Place marking - great suggestions

hackmum · 16/03/2014 10:49

My favourite Bill Bryson is Neither Here nor There - it's only the second book he published, but it's laugh out loud funny. It's about a tour he makes around Europe, and is full of deplorable national stereotypes but what can I say? It's hilarious.

MorrisZapp · 16/03/2014 10:40

Quasi velvet shoes :) Think I wanted that as a user name, but some c*nt got there first.

Original poster
JuanPotatoTwo · 16/03/2014 07:54

highland my dd is currently in Thailand, going on to NZ and Australia. Not sure if I want to read that book or not. :)

OP posts:
Hadmeathello · 16/03/2014 00:03

Was also going to suggest David Sedaris.

highlandcoo · 15/03/2014 23:59

Three Men in a Boat is excellent.

Diary of a Nobody is an absolute classic.

And although Kingsley Amis was a dreadful old misogynist, some scenes in Lucky Jim still have me laughing out loud.

In non-fiction, Don't Tell Mum, a collection of RL emails sent home by gap-year travellers, is fun to dip into, especially if you have kids that age and can imagine receiving similarly gormless accounts of their adventures.

BiscuitMillionaire · 15/03/2014 22:51

Bossypants by Tina Fey - kind of autobiograpy and rant. LOL funny

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