Funny Books

cookier

Hi, I'm looking for a funny book for an 18 year old boy.
Any suggestions? Thanks!

Monkeybonkers

P. G. Wodehouse.
I read most of his novels in my teens and loved every one of them. I still re-read them regularly.
Also Tom Sharpe is another author who makes me laugh out loud. My top two favourite comic writers.

RHunce

You might try Paul Howards books under the name of Ross O'Carroll-Kelly. Great books and a large series he'll be sure to love them! You could try posting this in the gifts forum too. You might get some better replies. Personally I think the best present is a funny book. :-)

TreasureBin

I love all Terry Pratchett's books, and I would suggest "Mort" for an 18-year old boy.

Aglomerado

Monkeybonkers wrote: »

P. G. Wodehouse.
I read most of his novels in my teens and loved every one of them. I still re-read them regularly.
Also Tom Sharpe is another author who makes me laugh out loud. My top two favourite comic writers.

+1 on Tom Sharpe, I've read practically everything by him. Blott on the Landscape, Wilt and Porterhouse Blue would be my favourites.

Amazotheamazing

Flann O'Brien's "The Poor Mouth", great satire on the Gaeltacht authors of the Free State. Not as off the wall as his other novels (which are also very funny but not solely funny).

Monkeybonkers

"Rock and a Hard Place" by Stephen j. Martin

Very funny book. It's about the music business and is modern so would probably suit an 18 year old.

nompere

I'm with those who have mentioned Tom Sharpe, though I've always thought he was at his best with Indecent Exposure and Riotous Assembly.

There is much in Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid that I find laugh out loud funny.

Dan Brown is just unintentionally hilarious!

mikhail

Douglas Adams hasn't been mentioned; his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a much loved classic. The more obscure Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is also highly rated, and if your son has any interest in environmentalism, Adams wrote one of my favourite books, Last Chance to See, in which he attempted to find half a dozen endangered species (And yes, it's very funny). Adams' style is deeply surreal. He was heavily influenced by Monty Python.

Terry Pratchett was mentioned above. He's written about 25 novels in the Discworld series. These are charming comic fantasy novels with quite a bit of social commentary in them. Very light reading. I'd recommend Guards! Guards! as a nice starting point - it's the first book in the most popular thread (the 25 books share a universe, but have maybe five sets of main characters and some independent stories), and it's a bit better than the first couple of books, which are mostly agreed to be weaker.

Bill Bryson, whose autobiography is mentioned above, is worth considering. He mostly writes travel books, though he's also written on British and American English, on the history of science, a biography of Shakespeare, a writer's guide (skip this - it's technical) and other subjects. Don't let the subject matter throw you off though - he has a sly, self depricating humour and a wonderful skill with anecdotes (e.g. he'll often start off a travel book with a recollection of his research into all the things which could eat him reducing him to a gibbering wreck). His books are littered with interesting little facts too; his non-travel books in particular are fairly educational. He's lived in England and America, so his books on those countries are especially fully of cultural insight.

P. G. Wodehouse might be a little subtle for an 18 year old, but it depends on the kid. His most famous books are about a 1920s pair called Jeeves and Wooster - an upper class twit and his seemingly superhuman butler. Comedies of manners with wonderful writing, they're not particularly sequential - any book will do.

If you think he's up to that sort of thing, Heller's Catch-22 is also worth considering as one of the great dark comedies. It's an anti-war piece, a little like the film MASH, only bleaker and more surreal. The titular catch is a rule that says that any pilot who asks for a mental health check and is ruled insane can go home, but anyone who wants a mental health check can't be insane, so they can't go home. That sort of logic pervades the book.

metrovelvet

Portnoy's Complaint by Phillip Roth
Seize the Day by Saul Bellow

RonMexico

Hun...Hunt...Hunte...See my sig

brianwalshcork

Anything by Christopher Brookmyre

--Kaiser--

cookier wrote: »

Hi, I'm looking for a funny book for an 18 year old boy.
Any suggestions? Thanks!

The Alphabet of Manliness by Maddox.


http://www.amazon.com/Alphabet-Manliness-Maddox/dp/080652720X

This actually had me rolling on the floor laughing

Nody

Zombie survival guide
Pride And Prejudice And Zombies
Most Pratchett books but esp. the once about the city guard or Ankmorpokh

Denerick

Catch 22 is a fantastic novel with some truly hilarious paradoxes. I've never laughed so hard reading a book.

Another great comic novel is the gently misanthropic 'Three Men on a Boat' by Jerome K.Jerome. Even the late Victorians had a sense of humour!

I'd also recommend anything by J.G. Farrell. His wit is so gentle and eccentric... It builds up in your mind until it reaches boiling point and you have to put down the book for a while. For example, near the end of Troubles, The owner of the majestic is a host to a gaggle of Oxbridge students and they emerge for dinner only to see that revolvers were set out alongside the knives and forks... 'What a grand old Tory', they exclaim. Jesus Christ, there are some truly terrific vignittes in that book. Its all contextual mind, part of a broader picture. I think you'll like it.