Humour Books

The work of a twisted genius

Advantages: Hilarious, light-hearted and easy to get into
Disadvantages: Quite short

Quite simply the funniest book I've ever read, and one that highlights the genius that hides behind Karl Pilkington's clueless exterior. The book is made of up transcripts from the podcast series featuring Ricky Gervais, Karl Pilkington and Steve Merchant. All of the transcripts make the adaptation from sound to print very well and I defy anyone to read through them and not laugh out loud on several occasions. Added to the transcripts are amusing ...

Xanshin 15.02.2008 · Read Full Review
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Review of The World of Karl Pilkington - Karl Pilkington

It Not Just You - It Really Is!

Advantages: Brilliant read!
Disadvantages: None!

...really does include everything that IS shit and takes the mickey out of it until you're blue in the face laughing. I absolutely love this book and the second edition - Is It Just Me or Is Everything Shit, Vol II. for which I waited in anticipation until the day of its release. I received this book for Christmas, from my mum who thought it was right up my street. It was and within days I'd read it cover to cover, laughing so hard that it became annoying ...
...reading material. The humour is sophisticated, with obvious signs that these guys are pros...this isn't just a book written by two blokes who've just come back from the pub. This is satire, wit, a little sarcasm and a lot of intelligence, even the arrangement and formation of sentences and language used becomes funny. It's just funny through and through. It's not that easy to make me laugh out loud with books, especially the kind of books released ...

Ottavia 08.09.2008 · Read Full Review
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Review of Is It Just Me or Is Everything Shit?: The Encyclopedia of Modern Life - Alan McArthur

The Last Laugh

Advantages: A bonus for Milligan fans
Disadvantages: There won't be any more

...18', one of Milligan's meticulously-arranged box files in which he kept every scrap of paperwork, both personal and professional. Included in this posthumously-released anthology are various pages from Spike's appointment diaries, several unfinished (as far as Milligan was concerned) scripts, poems and stories, together with a selection of his drawings, photographs, and letters to friends and figures of authority, among them Princes Charles and ...
...Milligan didn't consider any of Box 18's contents to be ready for public airing, how much of it is up to his usual standard and actually worth publishing. It's a valid question to ask, and indeed, it isn't difficult to see why some of the sketches, for example, never made it beyond his filing system; for the most part, though, the book is vintage Milligan, and on balance, I believe Farnes was right to let his fans have one last laugh. There are some ...

silverstreak 18.02.2008 · Read Full Review
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Review of Box 18: The Unpublished Spike Milligan - Spike Milligan

Foxes and environmentalists in the headlights

Advantages: Funny in places
Disadvantages: Lacks consistency

...aware of Jeremy Clarkson through the excellent TV programme Top Gear, a show that is not just for petrol heads as it is also one of the funniest programmes on TV as well given some of the stunts and challenges they do. In the show he is the arrogant, opinionated alpha male with a hearty dislike of Europe, foxes, anything environmentally friendly and French cars. Oh and political correctness. In addition to his TV work he also writes a newspaper column ...
...Apart from the toilet reading on offer at my sister house this was the first Clarkson book that I have read and I was interested to see if the humour generated on Top Gear could be translated into the written word. The book itself is made up of a series of short, two or three page, rants or observations on a myriad of topics that stretch from the opening page discussion of an additional public holiday to such varied topics as the joys of the circus, ...

atticusuk 21.06.2008 · Read Full Review
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Review of The World According to Clarkson - Jeremy Clarkson

Vice Versa

Advantages: Easy style to read, great characters, some very funny moments
Disadvantages: Way over the top

...Hubby's 'Queen Camilla' last year the thoughtful guy bought me 'The Queen and I' this Christmas. Either that or he thought he would stop me from reading all his books. Looking at the cover it had plenty of good reviews on it and claims of 'Laugh out loud funny' and No.1 Bestseller, so what did I make of it? The Queen and I actually precedes 'Queen Camilla'. It begins in England one April, not so long ago, in fact 1992, when the Queen is laid in ...
...England. Jack Barker is now the country's leader and the Royal family are to be banished to an enclosed Council Estate in the Midlands. Hellebore Close is to be the Queen's new place of residence, or Hell Close as it is known locally, due to the vandalism of the street sign. Although I enjoyed this book I did not find at as funny as Queen Camilla. I think part of the problem was, having read that book first, and the fact that so much with the Royal ...

grafter123 26.01.2008 · Read Full Review
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Review of The Queen and I - Sue Townsend