A few of the funniest books I have ever read:
Three Men in a boat~Jerome Jerome - just hilarious from start to finish
The Importance of Being Earnest~Oscar Wilde - definitely one of his funniest works
The Undomesticated Goddess~Sophie Kinsella - I laughed till the tears came
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelth Night~William Shakespeare
She stoops to Conquer~Oliver Goldsmith - The confusing mix-ups are so funny.
That's all I can think of right now.
Wisdom is better than Wit, and in the long run will certainly have the last laugh on her side.
Jane Austen
There was one part earlier on in Lolita that made me chuckle. Humbert wanted to don his army boots, take a few paces back and run at a charge to boot his cheating wife in the bum.
I find the works of P.G. Wodehouse, always make me laugh or smile.
As strange as it is, I actually can relate to some of the character archtypes.
Aside from that, I usually derrive good humour from most books. Though I can't say a book has ever had me splitting sides.
"Reason against logic. Sometimes reasonability is not logical, nor is being logical entirely reasonable."
Damon Runyon - how come no-one's mentioned him yet? He can be rolling-on-the-floor funny.
Kipling's short story "The Village that voted the Earth was flat" made me cry with laughter the first time I read it.
Richard Powell's "Tickets to the Devil" and "Don Qixote USA"
Saul Bellow's "Henderson the Rain King"
Voices mysterious far and near,
Sound of the wind and sound of the sea,
Are calling and whispering in my ear,
Whifflingpin! Why stayest thou here?
Originally Posted by Scatterbrain
Hear hear!
But I suppose Salome must be excluded
Hi there, gang, been a while since I posted here!
I'm looking for comic novels-- something as sophisticated and/or funny as the "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", at least. I really dig wild humour and creative writing style.
Anyone?
The funniest novel that I have read was "The Aluminum Man" by G. C. Edmondson. Of course, "Bored of the Rings" is one of the funniest things in the history of humanity, but it is a parody, so it doesn't have especially sophisticated humor.
If you like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you should check out Terry Pratchett and his Discworld series, he also wrote a book called Good Omens with Neil Gaiman that is a riot!
Have you ever read any of Adams' other books? He wrote two 'Dirk Gentley' novels, Dirk Gentley is a holistic detective with very interesting methods and bizarre cases. The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul is my favorite of those two and I would highly recommend them to anyone.
I'm not so sure of the 'comic' aspect but I enjoy Keith Laumer's Retief series as satire -- making jabs at diplomatic relations between planets. Laumer was in the Air Force himself about 10 years before I began my career (19 good years--2 bad ones) but he has great insight in what I have come to believe (least as far as PEACETIME Air Force--Appearance is EVERYTHING, substance is a bonus.
It isn't a novel, but Washington Irving's History of New York is rather funny - in what certainly could be called a "sophisticated-ish" sort of way.
Almost everything by Keith Laumer could be regarded as satire.
Thanks, gang, I appreciate the replies...
I haven't read Adams' other books, mainly because I'm keen to diverge before I indulge into one author.
Hey, I'll see about Terry Pratchett (and Good Omens). I certainly heard about him.
Not a lot of female comic writers around, eh?
A really funny novel is Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim. You can read a little blurb here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Jim
LET THERE BE LIGHT
"Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena
My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/
Hmm, well, I took some time to review the suggestions, and I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy Bored of the Rings. It reminds me of -- http://members.ozemail.com.au/~imcfa...et/fantasy.htm
My favourite Douglas Adams would actually be "Last Chance to See", which is totally brilliant. I can also join Idril in recommending Gaiman & Pratchett's "Good Omens", which really is rather much like Adams (and perhaps not surprisingly, Gaiman having written an Adams biography).
Adams himself talked a lot about the old master of humour, P.G. Wodehouse. I have only read very little of his stuff, but he is pretty funny.
Wodehouse (the writer of the Jeeves series) also now reminds me of Hugh Laurie (who acted in the TV series, and is now Dr House in "House M.D."), whose first book "The Gun Seller", is apparently a riot, or so I have heard. Someone told me it is very "Dirk Gentley like", which I think is the highest recommendation there is when it comes to books that you read for laughter.
Try Jasper fforde - start with "The Eyre Affair"
Check out Tom Holt, who has written some very funny books, as well as some serious ones.
Voices mysterious far and near,
Sound of the wind and sound of the sea,
Are calling and whispering in my ear,
Whifflingpin! Why stayest thou here?
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