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I dont really laugh when reading ..do you?

135 replies

Sidebeforeself · 07/07/2025 17:43

Ive read so many “funny”books but I rarely laugh out loud. Im always disappointed when being told books are funny. Books by Woodhouse and Jerome K Jerome dont raise a smile even though I like them.

I think Ive only ever laughed at two books - Love, Nina and Where D’You Go Bernadette . I did laugh at Adam Kays first book but that was because real life is funny not because of his writing.

Anyone else like this?

OP posts:
SisterTeatime · 08/07/2025 14:34

Oh yes and the Just William books

teaandtoastwithmarmite · 08/07/2025 14:38

Adrian mole never fails to make me properly laugh

TheBig50 · 08/07/2025 15:18

Cattery · 08/07/2025 14:01

Was that the one about the adopted daughter? Yes that was very moving. I found her earlier book A Tiny Bit Marvellous hilarious

Yes it was! Because of You.

I'll be sure to download A Tiny Bit of Marvellous.

I use kindle unlimited, which whilst often a bit sparse, in anything too deep, serves my insomnia.

I'm on book 7 of 9 about Black Ops agent Reed Montgomery. I know I don't need to worry if I do finally nod off 🤣.
They're actually not a bad read. I'm yet to laugh or cry though!

Pashazade · 08/07/2025 15:40

For crying at a book try Story of a Heart. It’s about the history of heart transplants and the central real people involved are two kids, it’s about one heart being given from one to the other. I sobbed, a lot. It was a very well written and interesting but it broke me a bit.

REP22 · 08/07/2025 16:09

Another vote for Adrian Mole - I remember laughing a lot at the bit where he came home unexpectedly early from school to find his dad watching Playschool and pretending to be an acorn growing into a tree. I was lucky enough to be in a stage version of the musical of The Secret Diary of... (aged up considerably to play Grandma Mole) and that was funny too. I also laughed aloud at one of Sue Townsend's other books, The Queen and I.

I've also laughed at bits in Jane Austen, the Famous Five, and "Jill's Riding Club" (I had quite a lonely and unhappy childhood, perhaps that explains it), and involuntarily gasped out loud while reading a Harry Potter book on the bus once, much to the amusement of my fellow-travellers.

I'm no "screamer in the Sistine Chapel" by any means, but I was fortunate enough to find myself on the Harry Potter Leavesden Studios Tour a few days ago. Not so much laughter, but I let fly a very loud expletive in the Forbidden Forest bit when the bl~~dy giant spiders unexpectedly descended from above. Fortunately there were no little children in the vicinity.

Time and a place though - I've been to a few RSC things; memorably a performance of Richard II (very definitely NOT a comedy) and there was a lady in the audience loudly fake-performance-laughing to anything she perceived to be mildly witty in order to telegraph her higher intelligence to the rest of us plebs. It was visibly annoying the poor s~ds in the cast. I do prefer to keep myself to myself, especially when reading, but sometimes a chuckle comes out before I can censor or stifle it.

Some of us are just more outwardly expressive than others, I guess. It doesn't mean that you don't enjoy and delight in books as much as other people @Sidebeforeself - you just love them in your own way, and that's brilliant.

Peggysue14 · 08/07/2025 16:27

Occasionally I’ll have a good laugh, Adrian Mole of course. Heartburn by Norah Ephron, Cecil Beatons Diaries have some really funny moments and recently Treasure by Gina Davidson (also known as Michele Hanson)

Icecreamhelps · 08/07/2025 16:31

I laugh at posts on here, the last book I laughed when reading was 'The Satsuma Complex'

DirtyBird · 08/07/2025 16:58

I can't recall a time I've laughed while reading a book. I prefer more impromptu type of reading... like reading the comments here on MN or Reddit. They usually have me laughing out loud regularly.

SisterTeatime · 08/07/2025 17:01

@REP22 I love Jill! I love the one when they go on the trek and one of the Cholly-Sawcutt girls is running through her list of food. Also Ann’s travails with her fussy mother, and cousin Cecelia with her flower pressing ‘unknown little yellow flower, found by our tennis court’ and lightly boiled eggs. If you haven’t read Barabara Pym, you should probably try her - Some Tame Gazelle, her first book, is very silly and funny.

RightOnTheEdge · 08/07/2025 17:14

I laugh a lot at The Stranger Times series by C.K McDonnell.
I listen to them on audible though and the narrator is brilliant. I dont know if it would be the same if I read them.

Sidebeforeself · 08/07/2025 17:45

Thanks @REP22 - you are right, I do love books ! I especially enjoy reading a perfectly crafted observation. A line or a paragraph that I have to keep reading.

@DirtyBird I dont laugh at MN comments as much as I used to but sometimes I still come across the odd corker and laugh so much DH asks me whats so funny!

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SisterTeatime · 08/07/2025 17:49

I was in a hospital cafe when I read the Hauck stroller thread. I could not stop laughing. Made me feel better all round!

katseyes7 · 08/07/2025 18:02

Yes, sometimes. I'm with two previous posters on this one.
My friend was staying with me and she came to my room to see what l was laughing at. It was Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt kid.
Ditto Sarah Millican's How To Be Champion. I'm a Geordie and she looks and sounds exactly like my cousin.

Myblueclematis · 08/07/2025 18:19

The first book I read where I was laughing so much my mum got cross with me as I kept bursting out laughing was David Niven's, The Moon's a Balloon. I'm not sure if you would be able to find it nowadays but it was so funny. Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals kept me amused as a teenager, I probably read it around ten times.

Off the top of my head, more recent books I've laughed a lot at were Adrian Mole, Carl Hiaasen books, all set in Florida, and Lawrence Sanders the Archie McNally books.

Strawberryvodka · 08/07/2025 18:37

SisterTeatime · 08/07/2025 14:34

Oh yes and the Just William books

Definitely! Love them, and yes, laugh out loud funny

Strawberryvodka · 08/07/2025 18:42

The tent, the bucket and me by Emma Kennedy was once confiscated from me in a family hotel room because I was driving everyone mad with my helpless laughter

TonstantWeader · 08/07/2025 19:16

That's spooky - I was just thinking about the Emma Kennedy book! It had me in fits of laughter to the point where I couldn't breathe. I do laugh at lots of books, though. Bill Bryson's book about travelling round Europe had the same effect, especially the bit in Paris where he tries to buy a baguette. Another one was 'McCarthy's Bar' by Pete McCarthy, about his travels round Ireland, and his dodgy hire car.

Other than travel books, Terry Pratchett was also a go to for a good laugh out loud, and ditto Good Omens (before the NG appallingness was exposed). 'The Diary of a Provincial Lady' also had me in fits (the hyacinth bulbs) and Lissa Evans' 'Old Baggage' trilogy is fabulously funny. I get a lot of weird looks on trains for laughing while reading.

Sidebeforeself · 08/07/2025 19:26

Myblueclematis · 08/07/2025 18:19

The first book I read where I was laughing so much my mum got cross with me as I kept bursting out laughing was David Niven's, The Moon's a Balloon. I'm not sure if you would be able to find it nowadays but it was so funny. Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals kept me amused as a teenager, I probably read it around ten times.

Off the top of my head, more recent books I've laughed a lot at were Adrian Mole, Carl Hiaasen books, all set in Florida, and Lawrence Sanders the Archie McNally books.

That’s interesting as I only read today that parts of David Niven book were apparently made up ( this was in relation to the current Salt Path hoo-ha)

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amandanorgaard · 08/07/2025 19:46

the only book I can really remember properly laughing out loud was at the Angus thongs and perfect snogging series I read when I was a teenager.. my mum did too!

AnniesMother · 08/07/2025 20:38

Bob Mortimer’s autobiography made me snort out my tea about 3 pages in. It’s hilarious

katseyes7 · 08/07/2025 22:17

TonstantWeader
Oh thank you! I was trying to remember McCarthy's Bar!
The bit with the exhaust on the hire car... 😂

Pashazade · 08/07/2025 22:38

@RightOnTheEdge there’s a CK McDonnall podcast with some short stories from the Stranger Times universe it’s good. I enjoy reading the books and do find them funny, I’m not sure if I’ve laughed aloud at them though, although he very much sings the praises of his audible narrator and the podcast has made me laugh.

Dappy777 · 09/07/2025 08:22

No, I never laugh out loud. Probably the funniest writers in the English language are P. G. Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh. But even their funniest bits just make me smile. Then again, I'm a quiet introvert, so it's probably part of my character. I smile, or laugh softly, nothing more.

The only time I really laugh loudly is when I listen to audiobooks. Wodehouse and Waugh were made to be read out loud, and if you get a really good reader, the experience can be overwhelming.

I once downloaded Brian Blessed reading his own autobiography. That did make me laugh out loud. In fact, I had to pull the car over I was laughing so much.

Cattery · 09/07/2025 09:37

Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson made me cry laughing

Pallisers · 09/07/2025 19:51

James Herriot made me laugh out loud - especially the first book.

Bill Bryson also has made me laugh.

Mapp and Lucia too.

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