Humour Books > T Humour Books > D > H

Advantages: entertaining read
Disadvantages: takes a bit of time to get into it

The Ripple Effect takes a very simple idea and manages to spin it out into an amusing and entertaining read. The basic concept is to take one simple action, in this case the absence due to worker error of the jam filling in a jam donut, and tells the story of how the impact of this has on a number of supposedly unconnected lives, changing both careers, fortunes and the health of a number of diverse characters. The Author This is Dominic Holland ...
...transferred their skills over to the world of fiction. The Story The story is set around the fortunes of Middleton Edwardians Football Club from Cheshire a bankrupt struggling third division side, firmly entrenched at the bottom of the league a relegation from which would see them lose their league status. However there is a greater threat to their existence as following the death of their long term owner the clubs new owners seem intent on letting ... Read review

Advantages: It's not terribly expensive
Disadvantages: It's not terribly funny

For years, a friend of mine kept going on about a book that was a parody of "The Lord of the Rings". At the time it was out of print, but he would quote one of the lines from it at every opportunity and bemoan the fact that he never had a copy of his own. Fortunately, the surge of interest in the original books when the films were being made resulted in a republication of the parody and so he was finally able to own his own copy of "Bored of the ...
...about it, so was I. Following rather loosely the plot of "The Lord of the Rings", Frito Bugger is charged with a quest to travel across the world and destroy a ring. He is accompanied on his quest by his friend Spam, the magician Goodgulf and a couple of rather annoying boggies, Moxie and Pepsi. Legolam the elf, Gimlet the dwarf, Stomper the Ranger and Bromosel complete the party. We get to follow their journey from the boggies' home in the Sty, ... Read review

Advantages: Compact - some sensible advice to pick the bones out of
Disadvantages: Avoiding alien abduction?

When the original Worst Case Scenario Survival handbook was published, it covered emergencies many of which were only the kind experienced by Ray Mears and that ilk. The issue of a Travel version or sub-section makes all kind of sense, since most of the scrapes that the Man On The Clapham Omnibus will get into are more likely to occur whilst travelling to, or actually being in , foreign climes. I think someone gave me this book as a stocking ...
...such it's lain around in the bed-side table just waiting to come to the top of the pile as a bit of 'loo-time' reading. Any book thus designated must know that if found wanting, its pages may get used for something else. In fact, since this is the Travel edition of the "W-C S S H*", it even suggests doing this in the section on lavatorial emergencies. *(If you think I'm going to type out 'Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook' every time, think ... Read review

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 ... Read review

Advantages: It attracted a cult following and inspired an immensely popular tv show
Disadvantages: Trying to make a column into a book, and failing

...designed to be a novel, Sex and the City was Candace Bushnell's newspaper column, and unfortunately I got a very clear sense of this when reading it. The premise of the book was a good one, and when it was originally written, it seemed to represent a whole generation of young, single and attractive girls-about-town, but, unlike with the series, I felt little or no connection to the characters and the stories left me feeling cold. In fact this was ...
...I have seriously considered not bothering to finish a book. However, I powered on, the idea that a book had defeated me was too much to bear, but I have to admit that the only feeling I had on turning the final page was not one of pleasure or joy, but relief at finally being able to put it down for good. Perhaps my expectations were too high. Maybe the series' genius mix of amusing storylines combined with realistic characters with whom one could ... Read review