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Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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Original poster

Really funny books

59 replies

PepeLePew · 11/04/2018 19:48

dd is after funny books - she’s 14 and reads a lot, and widely, but wants books that “make me laugh out loud”. She loves PG Wodehouse, and Diary of a Nobody. I’ve just got Three Men in a Boat out of the library for her, which I think she’ll like. And then I’m a bit stumped as my reading tastes incline more to the less jolly end of the spectrum. One of the challenges is finding humour that is age appropriate, of course. Any suggestions would be very welcome.

OP posts:

lastqueenofscotland · 18/04/2018 13:28

Cold comfort farm is meant to be funny I just found t really fucking annoying

The Common Reader is very funny

PomBearWithAnOFRS · 17/04/2018 03:14

Gerald Durrell's "family" trilogy - "My Family and Other Animals", "Birds, Beasts and Relatives", and "Garden of the Gods" are lol funny.
The "Chronicles of St.Mary's" series is good too, also Terry Pratchett's "Disc World".

ChristmasFluff · 14/04/2018 11:03

'the Wimbledon Poisoner' by Nigel Williams might be to her taste.

MinaPaws · 13/04/2018 16:43

Nell

NellMangel · 13/04/2018 15:50

minapaws Alan goes on a walk to follow in the footsteps of a job interview his dad once went to, and definitely NOT to get it commissioned into a Julia Bradberry style tv series.

FreezerBird · 13/04/2018 10:59

Cold Comfort Game is one of my favourite books, also any Nancy Mitford. She's in for a treat if she reads those.

I'd also recommend The Diary of a Provincial Lady by EM Delafield which has on occasion made me weep with laughter.

TinWhistleTunes · 13/04/2018 10:56

I loved Maureen Lipman's Home Thoughts From a Broad at this age. I found it in a charity shop and laughed until the whole family asked me what was the matter.

MinaPaws · 13/04/2018 10:56

I really like the sound of Clovenhoof!

PlausibleSuit · 13/04/2018 10:54

Actually, scratch Clovenhoof - thinking about it now I think it might be aimed at a more adult audience.

PlausibleSuit · 13/04/2018 10:52

Nomad is best experienced as an audiobook.

Cold Comfort Farm is truly excellent. Wodehouse, Pratchett good shouts too. Yes, Pratchett is fantasy but it's not really; it's satire. Very sharp at times, too.

Also, try To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. It's sci--fi - about time-travelling historians, and it's laugh-out-loud funny. Predates Jodi Taylor by about two decades (and is far, far better written in my opinion).

Jodi Taylor does like to throw in the occasional surprisingly explicit sex scene, just so you know.

I recently enjoyed a book called Clovenhoof by Heide Goody and Iain Grant. The basic set up is that Satan is performance-managed out of Hell, and ends up living under the name Jeremy Clovenhoof in a flat in Solihull. It's supremely silly and made me roar several times.

Mistoffelees · 13/04/2018 10:42

Not as grown up as some but the Georgia Nicholson series, starting with Angus, Thongs and Full-frontal Snogging, made me laugh a lot, I have reread them fairly recently and I still find them funny now.

MinaPaws · 13/04/2018 10:37

@NellMangel The very idea of an Alan Partidge book called Nomad is making me giggle. Is it a tour of the Travelodges on the ring road outside Norwich?

NellMangel · 13/04/2018 10:09

Everything is illuminated made me laugh (and cry)

NymanPerkins · 13/04/2018 10:09

The ascent of rum doodle, by W. E. Bowman

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ascent_of_Rum_Doodle

NellMangel · 13/04/2018 10:08

I find the Alan partridge books hilarious. I Partridge and Nomad in particular.

GhostsToMonsoon · 13/04/2018 10:05

Some of the Alexander McCall Smith books - especially the Scotland Street novels and Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party.

Original poster

PepeLePew · 12/04/2018 08:15

Some great ideas here. She’d probably love Dorothy Parker - she has read Nancy Mitford and loves that smart, sharp female voice. Jodi Taylor also a good idea - she loves history. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that (perhaps because I wasn’t that impressed by the first of her books but what do I know?). Cold Comfort Farm also a good idea - she has shades of Flora Poste about her so will probably love that.

OP posts:

TamiTayorismyparentingguru · 12/04/2018 05:16

I second/third Bryson.

Also check out Tony Hawks’ books. (Not the skateboarder!)

His most well known book is probably Round Ireland with a Fridge which is hilarious - one of my favourite books to read again and again. One Hit Wonderland and Playing the Moldovans at Tennis are also good, but maybe not as funny as Round Ireland. I liked a Piano in the Pyranees but it’s nowhere near as funny, so probably not what you’re looking for.

Trumpton · 12/04/2018 03:59

Wildcard idea but what about “ I Capture The Castle “ ? It’s one of my favourite books and my DDs loved it as well.
Written by Dodie Smith who also wrote 101 Dalmations .

mimibunz · 12/04/2018 03:51

Terry Pratchett and Chris Moore. She might like Dorothy Parter too.

PomBearWithAnOFRS · 12/04/2018 03:45

I love Gerald Durrell's "family" trilogy - "My Family and Other Animals", "Birds, Beasts and Relatives", and "Garden of the Gods" - I have read and re-read them since I was a teen and they are truly LOL funny.
More recently I adore the "St. Mary's" series by Jodi Taylor - link here

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 11/04/2018 21:43

I don't read a lot of laugh out loud books but Bryson would be my recommendation too. And James Heriot.

Has she read Cold Comfort Farm? And I can't remember how funny the Miss Read books are, but they are the same sort of gentle social commentary as James Heriot.

Tom Sharpe?

MinaPaws · 11/04/2018 21:36

What about Bill Bryson?

MinaPaws · 11/04/2018 21:36

Cold Comfort Farm is funny.

So are Decline and Fall and Scoop - Evelyn Waugh

If she likes PG Wodehouse, she might like FE Benson's Mapp and Lucia books

I never really got into them, but loads of people find Terry Prachett's books hilarious and there are a lot of them!

Hitchhiker's Guide is great as pp have suggested already.

Original poster

PepeLePew · 11/04/2018 21:30

Thinking about memoirs, I wonder if she would like Clive James? I remember crying with laughter at Unreliable Memoirs when I was in my mid teens. And I’ve never read The Thunderbolt Kid so we can read it together on our kindles and compare notes, maybe.

OP posts:

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