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Funniest book you’ve read. 19:21 - Oct 26 with 18622 viewsMick_S

Cheers Bristol!

We’ve both mentioned Spike Milligan’s war memoirs. I’m a bookshop mug when I read “ the funniest” etc on the sleeve because they rarely are, but it’s too late as it’s in my bag. I think my favourite may be A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. He killed himself because initially people didn’t get his work and when they did it was a bit on the late side.
[Post edited 26 Oct 19:23]

Did I ever mention that I was in Minder?

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Funniest book you’ve read. on 20:07 - Oct 28 with 1478 viewsPindarus

Bill Bryson's first book "The Lost Continent" . After living in England for years , He returns to the States expecting to be just like it was when he left.
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Funniest book you’ve read. on 10:32 - Oct 29 with 1273 viewsBrisbaneHoop

Funniest book you’ve read. on 19:25 - Oct 26 by BrianMcCarthy

Another Milligan vote.

"Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall".

Incredible, incredible talent.


Fully agree. I’ve read them over and over. My Dad passed on his love of Spike to me and I remember as a teenager in Port Elizabeth, South Africa reading the books for the first time and now at the age of 54, a set stands proudly on my bookshelf in Brisbane
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Funniest book you’ve read. on 11:07 - Oct 29 with 1246 viewssystemsguy

Tom Sharpe The Throwback.. of it's time (1970s) but had me it stitches

2025/2026.... Keep Calm, no matter the season, we'll follow our team.....

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Funniest book you’ve read. on 11:46 - Oct 29 with 1203 viewsBrianMcCarthy

Funniest book you’ve read. on 16:12 - Oct 28 by VancouverHoop

Kinda surprised this thread hasn't hailed PG Wodehouse's Jeeves/Wooster books yet. Pick any one of them and there's a laugh every page.

Here's a list of some of the author's quips:

https://www.azquotes.com/author/15872-P_G_Wodehouse


Great shout!

I read and listen to them a lot. Reading is better, if possible. Those words need to be savoured.

"The opposite of love, after all, is not hate, but indifference."
Poll: Player of the Year (so far)

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Funniest book you’ve read. on 11:52 - Oct 29 with 1198 viewsNorthernr

Funniest book you’ve read. on 20:07 - Oct 28 by Pindarus

Bill Bryson's first book "The Lost Continent" . After living in England for years , He returns to the States expecting to be just like it was when he left.


Just re-read his Notes from a Small Island tour of the UK again and enjoyed it immensely.

Tony Hawk's two books where he tries to play the Moldovan national football team at tennis, and complete a lap of the perimeter of the island of Ireland carrying a fridge, both made me laugh.

A Year in Provence always makes me smile.

(You can probably tell how cooked my brain is that this is the sort of thing I'm reading at the end of the day).
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Funniest book you’ve read. on 12:32 - Oct 29 with 1131 viewselnombre

Funniest book you’ve read. on 16:12 - Oct 28 by VancouverHoop

Kinda surprised this thread hasn't hailed PG Wodehouse's Jeeves/Wooster books yet. Pick any one of them and there's a laugh every page.

Here's a list of some of the author's quips:

https://www.azquotes.com/author/15872-P_G_Wodehouse


J&W, mic drop, obviously!

My Wodehouse vote goes to 'Uncle Fred in the Springtime' though - easily the best of his mistaken identity plots, beautifully written and at least one laugh out loud a page.

Can't recommend David Sedaris enough either - they're all good, just don't start with the Diaries...
[Post edited 29 Oct 15:40]
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Funniest book you’ve read. on 18:22 - Oct 29 with 971 viewsNewBee

Funniest book you’ve read. on 12:32 - Oct 29 by elnombre

J&W, mic drop, obviously!

My Wodehouse vote goes to 'Uncle Fred in the Springtime' though - easily the best of his mistaken identity plots, beautifully written and at least one laugh out loud a page.

Can't recommend David Sedaris enough either - they're all good, just don't start with the Diaries...
[Post edited 29 Oct 15:40]


BBC Radio 4 has done quite a few series of "Meet David Sedaris", frequently repeated on BBC4 Extra (so may be available on BBC Sounds?), where he muses - and amuses - on life.

Very funny (imo), so I went to see him live in London. Sorry to say he was actually quite poor, standing behind a lectern and reading from notes, his delivery was stilted.

Still worth catching on radio, mind.
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Funniest book you’ve read. on 20:28 - Oct 29 with 869 viewsCiderwithRsie

Funniest book you’ve read. on 12:32 - Oct 29 by elnombre

J&W, mic drop, obviously!

My Wodehouse vote goes to 'Uncle Fred in the Springtime' though - easily the best of his mistaken identity plots, beautifully written and at least one laugh out loud a page.

Can't recommend David Sedaris enough either - they're all good, just don't start with the Diaries...
[Post edited 29 Oct 15:40]


Uncle Fred is probably my favourite Wodehouse too, though I have a soft spot for some of his earlier books where little hints of realism creep in.

I've just worked out that I first encountered Wodehouse and Milligan's war memoirs 50 odd years ago, Hitchkikers' Guide a couple of years later, and Pratchett about 40 years ago. Fortunately Wodehouse and Pratchett wrote so much that although they both dropped off towards the end I can keep reading them even though I know the jokes just for the comfort of going into their worlds.

Last guy I came across that made me laugh until it hurts (some years ago now) was Robert Rankin (trigger warning: Brentford references) but I'm not sure they will bear a second reading.
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Funniest book you’ve read. on 21:21 - Oct 29 with 826 viewswillesdenr

Funniest book you’ve read. on 09:04 - Oct 27 by Esox_Lucius

Roddy Doyle The Van & The Snapper
Spike Milligan Puckoon
Tom Sharpe Indecent Exposure, Riotous Assembly, Wilt & Blott On The Landscape.
I have laughed out loud in public reading all of those. Riotous Assembly was one I had to stop taking with me to read outside.


Another for Tom Sharp. Indecent Exposure should not be read on an evening train after a shit day at work. Even worse when trying hard to not laugh out loud with a bit of a cold.
My current favourite author for laughs is Joe Abercrombie, the characters are so well written and hilarious.
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