The Word Cloud

13 Comments

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  by lee 3 years ago

  while i was reading and doing reasearch for my book i read a dave courtney book, it was hilarious i was swaping between it and jeremy clarkson's but i just left jeremys legs on the shelf and continued reading dave courtneys, i'm not saying jeremys was bad it was quite interesting and funny in parts, but it was no comparison to dave courtneys book, i'm not remarking on dave c's character because he is a gangsta and moves and breaths like one, but if you want to laugh get one of his books. do u recomend any books that are a laugh, seem to be the only ones i like nowadays
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  by Marion 3 years ago

  If you're interested, the best non-fiction book I've ever read is by travel writer Bill Bryson, Neither Here Nor There. This guy's wit is second to none.
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  by SamJ 3 years ago

  I'd second Marion's suggestion of BB - A Walk In The Woods is my favourite... Really funny, but the way he deals with his friend's alcoholism is - strangely - one of the most touching things I've read.
  
  I'd also urge you to read Eric Newby's short walk in the Hindu Kush. Non-fiction, big topic, brings tears to the eyes, it's so funny.
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  by Pimlicokid 3 years ago

  Love him or loathe him PJ O' Rourke is funny (or maybe 'was' as it's five years since I read anything by him.)
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  by BP 3 years ago

  Have you read 'Aberystwyth Mon Amour' by Martin Pryce? It's side-swipingly hilarious, but you might have to live here (in Wales) to fully appreciate the humour. The (underlying) topic is quite serious (to the Welsh) ie Welshness. Oh - I've just read you want to know about non-fiction stuff, this is fiction. But a) you might have read it and hated it or b) you might not want to know anyway.
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  by Tommy 3 years ago

  @Pimlicokid: I think I did read a good article by PJ O'Rourke once, but all I really know about him is that he's a bit of a crazed Republican. If I'm spending all my time being wound up by him, I might find it a bit less funny. Having said that, even though I'm relatively lefty about a lot of things, I even get along with Ayn Rand at times, so who knows? Any specific book of his you'd recommend?
  
  @Marion & SamJ: Thanks for all your suggestions guys. The only Bill Bryson book I've read is The Short History of Nearly Everything (or whatever it was called) and, while I really liked it, it didn't strike me as very funny. But I'll have a look at his travel books.
  
  @Lee: I really don't like gangsters, so not sure I could stomach Dave Courtney, but I'm very much up for a bit of Jeremy Clarkson. He's my new guilty pleasure.. That sounds a bit wrong, but you get my drift.
  
  @BP: My in-tray for fiction is pretty full, so it's only really non-fiction I'm thinking about at the moment. Any ideas?
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  by Phil 3 years ago

  Hi all - agree about Neither Here Nor There - still the best BB book for me. Another very funny travel book is Frost on my Moustache by Tim Moore, in which he recreates a Victorian explorer's journey across Iceland with his Icelandic brother in law.
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  by mike 3 years ago

  I don't know if 'the education of Hayman Kaplin' counts as non-fiction. It had been on my parent's bookshelves. Humour is made out of a Polish immigrant trying to master the english language. The setting is New York.
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  by lee 3 years ago

  i'm not into gansta's neither, i saw him on tv and he made me laugh so i bought his book, and discovered he was a gangsta, like i say i wont say notin about his character, when a writer is reasearching they should go to any lengths, your right though i wouldnt buy another of his books, i was thinking of more a book for a laugh, you could try other comedians books. imagine if jeremy clarkeson was a gangsta lol
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  by Tommy 3 years ago

  Thanks guys! Everyone's being really helpful. I can't help but notice that there's a lot of travel writing in these recommendations, and I wonder if maybe travel writing has the benefit of there being funny things happening as opposed to the writer being funny in his/her way of expressing his/her content. Know what I mean? Any thoughts on this? Any funny non-travel books worth mentioning?
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  by Jess 3 years ago

  Just had a squiz along my non-fiction shelves and these caught my eye, for various reasons:
  
  Kitchen Confidential - not a humour book, per se, but still very funny.
  
  Once More, With Feeling - Victoria Coren makes a pron film. Fab.
  
  Piers Morgan's memoirs - like JC, lots of people really hate him, but his books really made me laugh.
  
  Toby Young - Ditto...
  
  Anything by David Sedaris. Brilliant humourist.
  
  Marian Keyes - Under the Duvet - collection of her journalism - one for the girls, more, maybe, but she's a witty writer.
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  by Marion 3 years ago

  Okay, here are a few excerpts from Bill Bryson's Neither Here Nor There - you be the judge -
  
  Even the windows of [Belgian] chemists are so tidy and clean and scrupulously arranged that you find yourself gazing longingly at corn plasters and incontinence pads.
  
  If all the dogs in the world were placed in a sack and taken to some distant island - Greenland springs attractively to mind - where they could romp around and sniff each other's anuses to their hearts content and never bother or terrorize me again. The only kind of dog I would excuse from this round-up is poodles. Poodles I would shoot.
  
  To my mind, the only possible pet is a cow. Cows love you. They are harmless, they look nice, they don't need a box to crap in, they keep the grass down and they are so trusting and stupid that you cannot help but lose your heart to them.They will listen to your problems and never ask a thing in return. They will be your friends forever. And when you get tired of them, you can kill them and them. Perfect.
  
  I went up to six or eight places and studied the menus by the door but they were all full of foods with ominous Germanic names - Schweinensnout mit Spittle und Grit, Ramsintestines und Oder Grosser Stuff, that sort of thing.
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  by SamJ 3 years ago

  "Any funny non-travel books worth mentioning?"
  
  *shuffles feet. Coughs. looks embarrassed.*
  
  Oh yes, there's also Brewer's Rogues Villains and Eccentrics by the great William Donaldson.