Humour Books > M Humour Books

Advantages: Interesting, unusual style and content
Disadvantages: A one-off type of book, when really you could do with a series of 2 or 3 to enjoy.

...just the style that made me think of this point though – when I was at school I would have been admonished (in the days before I knew that 3 syllable words existed) for flitting between 1st and 3rd person, and from past to present to future tenses, all within one story. Sedaris, though, gets away with this all in the name of “art” and to be honest, the result isn’t as horrifying as it could be. I saw this book in the British Bookshop on Vienna’s ...
...took me until 7 months later to get a copy of it because I was holding out for the mainstream paperback edition to be released. When it was, it didn't appear in highstreet bookshops for quite a few days showing that despite the famous author, it's not quite a Bridget Jones / Harry Potter release. Once it was within my grasp, it was read from cover to cover in 3 nights, with every morsel being savoured and enjoyed. Think Bill Bryson without quite ... Read review

Advantages: Hilarious
Disadvantages: Your Cheeks may ache from laughing too much

...hostel in Alice Springs. My friend had gone on a day trip to Ayres Rock, so I was left to entertain myself. At first I presumed it was an autobiography, it didn't look particularly grabbing and I had never seen or heard of it before. However, it was worth a read to see if it could conquer my boredom. I spent the whole day reading the book, and unaware as my friend returned I was practically giggling my pants off and she was intrigued to know what ...
...I loaned the book to my friend the following day and she read it in a day also (prior to that I think she had only read 2 books in her life). This is an incredibly easy book to read, and one I have now read a couple of times for light relief when I'm feeling stressed. Its the kind of book you can pick up and start at any chapter, its all nonsense and after all theres no order to nonsense. An idea of some of the chapters are included below Thanks ... Read review

Advantages: Witty, wise-cracking, winsome
Disadvantages: Losesome too

...by that, let’s concentrate on Meanwhile Back at the Ranch. MBatR is vintage Kinky Friedman, a polished exposition of the formula he has made his own. The formula is half detective story, half semi-surrealistic comedy. The stories are all told in the first person and the leading character is, of course, none other than Kinky himself. Kinky fancies himself as Sherlock Holmes, and tends to address his sidekicks as Watson, but the impression conveyed ...
...* * * Meanwhile Back at the Ranch is published in the UK by Faber and Faber; ISBN 0-571-20951-3. The paperback is £6.99 from most bookshops, £5.99 from Amazon. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * What else is there to say about Kinky Friedman? Oh, did I remember to tell you that he’s very, very funny? © torr 2003 ... 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