Help me find a very very funny book

[lolbrador]

Hello

Feeling a bit down in the dumps, can anyone recommend any books that are very funny?

Can be fiction or non fiction.

I'm finding my current read about everyday life in dickens London very interesting but rather gloomy, I shall revisit once the January blues blow over.

Thanks in advance

Idontkowmyname I didn't end up getting lunch yesterday!!

I'm going Saturday morning, come hell or high water I shall make it to the book shop!!!!

I love Three Men in a Boat, I read it in public and got some very strange looks because I was laughing so much.

Love a Georgette Heyer. Agree the early Janet Ivanovich ones, Gerald Durrell and Bill Bryson. A rather obscure one called "On the origins of Findo Gask" made me laugh like a drain. Teenage boy, set in rural Scotland, and very rude.

Good Omens would be my first suggestion, closely followed by PG Wodehouse and early Bill Bryson.

Agree with
The diary of a nobody
Three men on a boat
Bill Bryson

I loved Ben Elton's 'Identity Crisis', a modern satire of identity politics and on Audible he narrates it himself, which added to the pleasure!

Also, if you're into podcasts, 'Chart Music' is v funny.

If you're married Chris and Rosie Ramsey's podcast 'Shagged Married Annoyed' can be painfully funny.

I haven't read the whole thread so not sure if it has been mentioned already but "this is going to hurt" by Adam Kay is great. It is the diary of a junior doctor and is absolutely brilliant

Perhaps try Audible and relax to a good audiobook till you get to the bookshop. It's not funny funny but Rivers of London has fantastic narration and has some funny bit. Kobna has a wonderful voice, he brings the book to life.

Definitely Gerald Durrell's books, although some of them are v far from politically correct these days...

Diplomatic Baggage by Bridgit Keenan is a book which actually makes me laugh out loud - it's the memoir's of a travelling ambassador's wife

Mccarthy's Bar, by Pete Mccarthy, is another good one - a travelogue through Ireland somewhat in the vein of Bill Bryson.

Angela Thirkell is a bit out of fashion these days but her books are very witty and light-hearted. Miss Buncle's Book and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (both reprinted by Persephone) are both hilarious as well.

I vote too for:

Anything by P G Wodehouse
Diary of a Nobody
My Family and Other Animals
Anything by Bill Bryson or David Sedaris
Gervase Phinn and James Herriot
Cold Comfort Farm
Terry Pratchett

I'd also recommend Agatha Christie. Not laugh out loud funny, but easy to read and absorbing. In the same vein, the Sherlock Holmes short stories - I much prefer them to the novels.

If you're in the mood for something which is funny but has a little more bite, the short stories of Saki are wonderful, and I'm a big fan of Evelyn Waugh. Brideshead Revisited is not my favourite. I prefer his earlier works which are more cynical, or some of the later short stories/novellas, e.g. The Loved One. Anyone who enjoys Waugh is likely also to take to A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell, which is a 12-volume novel sequence. They're not comic novels, but they have many characters and events which are very funny alongside much more serious elements. His early novels are also very good, although it's a long time since I read those.

I loved The Hundred Year Old Man That Climbed Out A Window

I'm not generally an biography fan but a long time ago a friend recommended frank skinner's autobiography (also not particularly a fan of him). It's still the funniest book I've ever read.

I think it was called 1000mile walkies. It was about a young guy who wanted to walk the South West Coastal Path. He mentions it to his mate in the pub one night and rather than his mate volunteering to accompany him, as expected,, he offers his loopy dog instead. The dog embarrasses the guy at every opportunity. I’ve read it twice and it’s made me laugh out loud both times.

Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James is hilarious and at times very touching.

All David Sedaris books. His narration is brilliant worth gettting on audio

Bill Bryson like his travels in Australia best

Adam Kay This is going to hurt

Secret Diary of Adrian Mole and the send one

Rivers of London on audio is really enjoyable

Round Ireland with a Fridge, and Playing the Moldovans at Tennis (I did not make those titles up), I can’t remember who wrote them but they’re laugh out loud funny.

Another vote for Three Men in a Boat - and possibly even funnier, the sequel Three Men on the Bummel.

If you have kids, Why Mummy Drinks by Gill Simms is spot on (again the two sequels are even funnier)

Thirding Adam Kaye and Adrian Mole. I read all of the A Mole diaries within a few months last year during a dark spell and they really lifted me.