Funniest book you have ever read?

[adventuremom]

I need a reading list which is full of funny as I need a good laugh right now. What is the funniest laugh out loud book you have read. I remember cracking up on an airplane reading " I don't know how she does it" but maybe I was just tired. Any suggestions?

Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About by Mil Millington. It's stupid but it's my favourite ever.

The website is also very funny

I need to reread Three Men In A Boat then, read it over 20 years ago and don't have the memory of it that folk have here.

I'm also going to have another go at three men in a boat. I started it on recommendation from Womans Hour, but gave up after a few chapters because it just didn't interest or amuse me. Maybe I need to get further into it?

It's not that I don't like funny books - I've read many of the books mentioned on here and pissed myself laughing doing so.

Can I also add the Merde books by Stephen Clarke about a British man living in Paris.

It was a PG Wodehouse, so many years ago I can't remember the name, but laugh-out-loud funny.

Karl pilkingtons are good imo.
My favourite is happy slapped by a jellyfish.
He says something about his girlfriends candles causing global warming.
Very funny xx

Adrian Mole and Hitchhikers Guide get my vote

The Barrytown trilogy (especially The Van) by Roddy Doyle. Am always recommending it on here.

Also, I laughed a lot the first time I read the Bill Brysons.

At the moment I am finding Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris extremely funny.

Not "my funniest ever", but there is a free book today on Kindle daily deals called "Extraordinary Adventures of Dragonette in Paris", by Marie-France de Monneron. Translated from the French by Maureen Phillips.

I've read most of Bill Bryson and David Sedaris and enjoyed them all

very few books have actually made me 'LOL' though, even if they were witty and entertaining etc

Not a novel, but The Timewaster Letters by Robin Cooper.

The last two to make me guffaw were, The Tent, the Bucket and Me, and Bill Bryson's, Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid.

I used to love Tom Sharpe too.

Gerald Durrell and Bill Bryson both make me howl.

BBs description of his friends father diving off the high board into the lake (Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid) makes me actually weep with mirth.

The Timewaster Letters by Robin Cooper

I was just flicking through that last night, never got round to reading it all though

Alexander McCall Smith trilogy which includes the books Portuguese Irregular Verbs, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances.

Another vote for the Timewaster Letters. I laughed until my muscles hurt. I used to read it on the bus to work and I couldn't contain my giggles. Luckily my fellow passengers didn't mind.

Adrian Mole is also very funny, though. Just less ludicrous than the Timewaster Letters.

The only book that actually made me weep with uncontrollable laughter was Lost in Music by Giles Smith. Especially the chapter about Nik Kershaw. (It's an autobiographical book about his genuine attempt to become a pop star in the early 80's and is hysterically funny, esp if that's your era)

nettle- I love you.

I agree with many recommended earlier. I can't see anyone's recommended Miss Pettigrew lives for a day, by Winifred Watson or the Eliza stories by Barry Paine (written >100 years ago but still very funny)

Anything by Tim Moore, but especially 'Spanish Steps' or the cycling the tour de France one, or 'Frost on my moustache' thought I'd never find a writer funnier than Bill Bryson -but he is!

I'll add my votes to Bill Bryson and Spike Milligan, but my personal favourite funny book is one that belonged to my great-grandfather - "1066 and All That" (not sure if it's still in print, though).

I recall finding Bridget Jones' Diary hilarious when it was first serialised ( I want to say in the Independent ?). Laugh out loud stuff, especially the header of how many calories and fags. Then the comment - v good, poor etc.

I also really laughed at The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson.

Also Once More With Feeling by Victoria Coren ( now Mitchell ). Hilarious account of trying to film a porn movie.

Tina Fey's autobiography, "bossypants"

The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J Maartan Troost. It is the author's account of the two years he and his girlfriend spend on the tiny island of Kiribati. I read it whenever I need to pick myself up.