Recommendations for really funny books

[christie2]

I got from mumsnet the link to the top 20 BBC recommended funniest books and read alot of them. And they were, funny, more often ironic or wry humour, sometimes dark. More like the ricky Gervais "The Office" kind of funny. Brilliant, but I was looking for laugh out loud funny without the darkside. Any recommendations??? It has been a tough year and I need a good but light belly laugh.Chick lit is ok as long as it is heavy on funny and light on romance.

Also love Bill Bryson. Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About by Mil Millington I remember as being very funny. Also, a couple of John O'Farrell's have had me laughing aloud and reading bits to dh, especially The Best A Man Can Get.

Not to everyone's taste but I cried laughing over Julie Burchill's collected guardian columns, she has a touch of the anyfucker about her phrasing :o

A second vote for India Knight 'My life on a plate' made me roll - v embarrassing as on an easy jet flight.

Also 'Don't you want me' By the same author.

I LOVE David Sedaris. And Augusten Burroughs - read Magical Thinking.

Charlie Brooker also hilarious.

The Wrong Boy

Puckoon

Douglas Adams - Last Chance to See - so much funnier that the dire series done by Fry ...

Bill Bryson - his travelogue of his journey through America still makes me crease up

William Sutcliffe

Jasper Fforde - the Eyre Affair and all its sequels and spin-offs

Lucky Jim- Kingsley Amis I think. Very very funny. And I love Bill Bryson too, Made in America is my comfort book. I just about know some bits by heart.

another Bill Bryson fan, you can't beat him for a good laugh!! Ive just read Gabriels Angels by Mark Radcliffe and that made me lol quite a few times!!!!

David Sedaris - yy

If you want dark, then you can do no better than Kyril Bonifiglioli's Mortdecai Trilogy. They're wickedly funny. Like PG Wodehouse but much much naughtier. DH and I love them.

I really disliked the the Jasper Fforde books - I really wanted to love them but I found them irritating and smug. I loved the concept, though.

Stars and Bars by William Boyd. Hilarious!

Agree with The Corrections, I love that.

The Slummy Mummy book by Fiona Neill makes me laugh out loud every time I read it.

yy to Stars and Bars. Read it in hospital after an op and got told off for endangering stitches.

A Sign of the Eighties by Gail Parent v v good and funny.

Oh but if Stars and Bars is the one with the theme hotel then I agree with thighsmadeofcheddar

William books by Richmal Crompton, still make me cry.

The Loved one, Evelyn Waugh

My favourite comic novel is Jonathan Coe's The Rotters' Club which made me snort with laughter (but it's also very sad at times). Nostalgia-rama.

Bill Bryson the one where he travels round Europe I think Neither Here Nor There has made me laugh out loud.

Also find Sue Townsend Adrian Mole books extremely funny especially the ones where he is an adult - try The Cappucino Years.

Toby Young's How to Lose Friends and Alienate people was funny although goes abit off towards the end.

I second 'The Tent, the Bucket and Me' by Emma Kennedy. Was crying and snorting with laughter on a train full of silent commuters....

David Sedaris is HILARIOUS, and
I laughed like a drain in several places at both India Knight's books.

Cold Comfort Farm is very funny, and Three Men In A Boat is priceless. the bit where they are putting up the tent will leave you needing medical intervention.

Marian Keyes can be very funny too, if you can bear to go quite so lightweight.

In the late 80s I read a couple of books by a gay ex-catholic priest (Michael Carson?? and they used to make me howl and cry with laughter on the train to work.

Blair's autobiography.

The bits about Iraq are a hoot.

Oh God, yes, I'd forgotten about A Short History - that is ace.

Jenney Eclair's books are very funny too, though they definitely have a dark side. I've been really enjoying Jane Fallon's books too.

Just googles the gay catholic and he is Michael Carson. His most well-known books are Stripping Penquins Bare and Sucking Sherbert Lemons. Get 5 stars on Amazon!

Really light, very funny, great fun - Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels about a female bounty hunter. They are laugh out loud funny.

I am also a fan of Ben Elton's writing but I know he is not to everyone's taste. My favourite is Chart Throb - his thinly veiled depiction of Louis Walsh in particular is hilarious.

I also love Bill Bryson and the James Herriot novels are really gentle humour - Sunday evening curled up on the sofa type of reading.

P.G. Wodehouse - you can't go wrong there. Very funny.

Bill Bryson's I'm a Stranger Here Myself is hilarious. It is a collection of pieces he wrote about returning to live in the U.S. after many years in England.