Recommend me something/someone to read.....

[Salty seadog]

I have never been a big reader and haven't read a book really for over 15 years. I like comedy of all kinds especially intelligent humor. Have read some sci fi and some of which was combined with humor.....

not much to go on there really, just started Tom Sharpe's' Porterhouse Blue and it is a slow start so far but hasn't left wanting to give it up.

So forum, give me something to look into please, i need to do something good with my brain....

 

[SeanM]

Haven't read many funny books over the years, i'm more of a SciFi nut, but probably the funniest book i've read in the past few years was Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, which i thought was great.

bookdepository.com/Lamb-Christopher-Moore/9780380813810

 

[vernon]

All of Tom Sharpe's books are entertaining as are P.G. Wodehouse's.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld books are a bit left field at times and are best read in sequence to pick up on the history of the characters and conventions like the mutterings of Death always being in upper case.

 

[Incontinentia Buttocks]

Good Omens, very good indeed.

 

[Dave 123]

I agree with @vernon about Tom Sharpe, real laugh out loud stuff.

Try The Wimbledon Poisoner by Nigel Williams. It was made into a telly series too. Very good.

 

[andytheflyer]

Barring Mechanicals, by @arallsopp of this parish. But give yourself a spare afternoon, I could not put it down.

And definitely Tom Sharpe - start with Riotous Assembly.

 

[Aperitif]

I was in the film of @arallsopp 's book...it bombed at the box office.
Intelligent humour? Try 'The Rosie Project' perhaps...'Wilt' by Tom Sharpe was my laugh out loud book (is that the one with the inflatable doll on the crane?).

 

[User16390]

I would recommend Tom Sharpe's books, especially his first two Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure. They are the only books I have read where I had to put them down I was laughing so much. Wilt is also excellent.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

I'd echo Discworld by Terry Pratchett but I'd not be too hung up about reading in order, they are individual books in their own right just with a disparate cast of characters many of whom pop up in several of the books. It is based in a *parody* world of ours with a capital city, institutions and provinces that features regularly.

There is for example a book covering the dawn of the railways and one exploring banking, one on the development of filmmaking, one on a visitors fish oug of water version of Australia etc. Later books rely less on the magical characters & more on such parallels of rail, postal service, banking etc developments in our world.

All tremendously well researched, brilliantly observed & written with some wry smiles, knowing nods & laugh out loud funny moments in every one. There hasn't been one that disappointed.

TP was big into science and has written books on the science behind Discworld.

You could always try Douglas Adams too, Nearly 40 years after The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy was first published, I can still pick it & the rest up and be totally lost in it.

 

[Glenn]

Scott Mariani' Ben Hope series are a good read.

 

[Thomk]

Nothing to do with sci-fi but.

Since you haven't read a book for a while perhaps an easy reintroduction would be something like "A Walk In The Woods" by Bill Bryson. Easily his best and funniest book, easy reading, informative and well worth reading.

 

[Salty seadog]

Actually i think i read a bit of the Wimbledon poisoner maybe 7-8 years ago, i was amused and for the life of me cannot say why i never finished it. Terry Pratchet, a friend of mine gave me a section to read that he said was hilarious but i just could not read it in the way it was written and that put me off, might try again though. Douglas Adams, big fan of hitchhikers and have read them all 20 years ago, got into it through the original radio play and have always had every series on every electronic device i own that plays audio to this day.

Got some to look into but do keep them coming as i can bookmark this thread for future reference. When i saw that Sharpe wrote wilt, i knew i would enjoy him, porterhouse blue seems to start slowly with a fairly long introduction to the theme and characters, still only about 60 pages in.....

as i say please keep the suggestions coming.

I think humor is a must...

I'm working nights so will be asleep soon and expect lots of solid gold suggestions when i awake this afternoon from you lot if you would oblige me....

many thanks

ssd....

 

[AndyRM]

Daft Wee Stories - Limmy

It is amusing, horrifying and makes you think. I'd recommend the audio version for the full whack of Glaswegian accent.

 

[AndyRM]

Anything by Chris Brookmyre or John Niven will keep you entertained too.

 

[raleighnut]

Ian Rankins "inspector Rebus" books have some moments of very 'dark' humour in em.