David Lodge, Alexei Sayle, Douglas Adams, Tibor Fischer.
Funniest novels Page 5
Sir Bufton Tufton, Jean Paul Sartre, Zippy, Bungle, Jeffrey Archer
Quote: Badge @ December 8 2009, 12:56 AM GMTSir Bufton Tufton, Jean Paul Sartre, Zippy, Bungle, Jeffrey Archer
Best Boyband ever IMHO.
Anything by Wodehouse. 'Juliet, Naked' by Nick Hornby. 'This Is Your Life' by John O'Farrell is laugh-out-loud funny, the Wilt books by Tom Sharpe, Pratchett's Discworld ...
Chipolata - are you joking about Lolita or is it actually funny? I haven't read it but thought it was really dark and depressing
I've read stacks of books and am yet to find a genuinely laugh out loud book
There must be some out there
Have you read any Christopher Brookmyre? His books aren't designed as comedy but have a lot of very funny stuff.
P.S. Haven't read his latest so can't vouch for it.
Can I plug my own? I have quotes...you can tell me of they are funny or sh*t if you like. Maybe it could be like a virtual version of the stocks where I give you some of the bits that I think are funny and you either shower me with praise or chuck bits of house brick at me - proper half-charlies and that!
In the spirit of free plugging, my own book Morbid Relations is available now.
I was hugely inspired by the likes of Chris Brookmyer, really love his venom tongue wit.
Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, of course, but also Jasper Fforde, whose style of writing is akin to that of Adams and Pratchett. I love the Thursday Next books! Genius concept.
One of my favourites is Pratchett's collaboration with Neil Gaiman, "Good Omens". As someone somewhere summed it up: "Five billion people almost die and it's FUNNY".
Hi Jonathan, I recently read Morbid relations based on your post on here, I haven't left a review on amazon but I thought it was quite good - not amazing, it seemed to be written entirely in cliche's and it didn't make me laugh out loud but there were some good bits in it, there were some nice sad bits which I enjoyed.
At the moment, I'm just finishing to kill a mocking bird, which actually has some very funny bits in
And also, to the Adrian Mole fans, there is an American rip off version which is really quite good, there's about 4 different books. They made them into a movie a couple of years ago but I can't for the life of me rememeber what they're called. It might begin with a C?
Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
The first page of Pride and Prejudice
First chapter of three men in a boat
Puckoon
Don't read a lot of novels so my comments are based on distant memory.
I agree with sootyj about Tom Sharpe - "Blott on the Landscape" - and other people about Spike's books and "Three Men in a Boat". The way things are, I am not leaping up and down about recommending a book written in Glaswegian but the bitter sweet "The Bus Conductor Hines" by James Kelman has its moments.
Deric Longden's books on his wife Diana's degenerative illness have a surprising amount of gentle humour. "Just William" has actually made me laugh throughout my life but in recent decades that's been radio. I am currently thinking of reading Peter Tinniswood's "Winston" books as I have enjoyed those radio series too.
That's just a "brain" storm. There must be many others but I will have to add them when I think of them.
I find that novels are difficult to make funny. I'm a big fan of the movie Naked Gun, however I can't see the novelization of that movie being particularly comical because so much of it is sight gags which just won't transfer to written word. I've been searching for a funny book for ages and I did enjoy Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy but I think that is more funny in the sense of the plot lines and the absurdities amongst that, I'm more a fan of comical dialogue and spontaneous happenings. Though they aren't considered literary greats, I would recommend any of Spike Milligan's books for comedic value as each line tends to be a joke in itself; it is like reading a 200 page stand up set.