Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask for funny books...

101 replies

paintedfences · 30/07/2015 20:39

Properly hilarious witty ones that have made you laugh out loud

  1. that aren't P.G. Wodehouse (got lots of him
OP posts:
spex11 · 30/07/2015 21:31

Non-fiction - Mission Mongolia by David Treanor. Two middle-aged men drive an old van to Ulaanbaatar on a charity road trip. V funny moments.

Baddz · 30/07/2015 21:34

Peter timniswood
Bill Bryson
Nancy Mitford

daddyorchipsdaddyorchips · 30/07/2015 21:34

Where'd You Go To Bernadette? by Maria Semple is the last book that made me cry with laughter. So smart and funny.

CarpeJugulum · 30/07/2015 21:37

Christopher Brookmyre - not his newer stuff, the funny books with Jack Parlabane. Start with "Quite Ugly One Morning" and work your way up to my personal favourite "Be My Enemy".

BestIsWest · 30/07/2015 21:37

Rumpole of the Bailey - John Mortimer. Very 80s but still funny.

RitaKiaOra · 30/07/2015 21:50

Ooh thanks for this thread OP. I do sympathise, I did a similar thread in fiction

Reignbeau · 30/07/2015 22:03

Another vote for Christopher Brookmyre, I laughed out loud at parts of One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night, The Sacred Art of Stealing and A Big Boy Done it and Ran Away. The humour is often fairly black and there are a fair few murders though but he is a genuinely funny writer.

RitaKiaOra · 30/07/2015 22:04

Ooh and I liked Prep Curtis Sittenfeld
Special topics in calamity physics Marisha Peshl
and all three books by Marina Lewycka
Adore the surreal silliness/wordplay of Ben Moor More trees to climb

These novels all have elements of humour but won't be under Humour iyswim
Let us know how you get along x

SingingSamosa · 30/07/2015 22:05

Bill Bryson's travelling books are hilarious. I used to travel to work by train years ago and had to stop taking his books to read as I ended up guffawing out loud and embarrassing myself!

I also really like Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles for laugh out loud funny.

emwithme · 30/07/2015 22:06

CS Stross' Laundry Files series. Laugh out loud funny in places.

RitaKiaOra · 30/07/2015 22:08

Sorry, four books by ML (ukranian tractors, strawberry fields, made of glue, pets dead and alive).

Sidalee7 · 30/07/2015 22:08

Man at the Helm or Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe

Laughed so, so much. I love a book that makes you laugh out loud!

areyoubeingserviced · 30/07/2015 22:09

Agree with Adrian Mole- I have read 'The Cappuccino Years ' by Sue Townsend several times.
I laugh out loud every time.

BerylStreep · 30/07/2015 22:10

I enjoyed 'A Spot of Bother' by Mark Haddock.

FuckingLiability · 30/07/2015 22:10

Another vote for Bill Bryson. Also the Ben Aaronovich Rivers of London books are pretty sharp and funny as well as being a great story. Alastair Coleman's WTF - the guy who does Angry People In Local Newspapers - is hilarious.

scatterthenuns · 30/07/2015 22:11

If you fancy reading to kids, try Roddy Doyle. Cried laughing, much more so than the little ones!

Original poster
paintedfences · 30/07/2015 22:14

I loved Where'd You Go To Bernadette! So clever and funny.

OP posts:
FuckingLiability · 30/07/2015 22:16

Oh! I loved that book painted!

It's such a fantastic story.

editthis · 30/07/2015 22:17

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. Properly laugh-out-loud.

Wibblewobble100 · 30/07/2015 22:18

My immediate thoughts have already been suggested...
The 100 year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared which is just lovely, and Christopher Brookmyre, my personal favourite being One fine day in the middle of the night. This is particularly good for anyone's who's lived in Scotland.

reredos1 · 30/07/2015 22:22

Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes

The Unknown Ajax or The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer.

Fixitwithwine · 30/07/2015 22:25

Autobiography of a one-year old by rohan candappa. Soooo funnySmile

Charley50 · 30/07/2015 22:30

How to be a girl Caitlin Moran, No. 1 ladies detective agency Alexander McCall Smith, AN Homes is funny, can't remember the books off the top of my head. I love listening to David Sedaris on Radio 4, I can imagine his books are hilarious.

Icimoi · 30/07/2015 22:31

The Thursday Next books by Jasper Forde.

Smugglers' Circuit by Denys Roberts

LaurieMarlow · 30/07/2015 22:33

Yes to anything by Roddy Doyle (try The Snapper) & Lucky Jim. I love, love, love David Sedaris. The Christmas elf at macys story is hysterical.

But if you read just one book, let it be A Confederacy of Dunces - most under rated book in the western canon if you ask me. I cried laughing on almost every page.