Light reads?

a0ifee

Over the last year or so I've gotten into the habit of reading heavy books that I basically have to trudge through, so I was wondering does anyone have an good light reads that they could recommend?
I'd read anything really, except romance :pac:

Crucifix

I recently read my first of PG Wodehouse's Jeeves stories. Very light comedy of errors, it was great for taking a break from heavy stuff, plus there's a lot of them out there, and some (maybe all?) of them are available free on gutenberg.

a0ifee

I'll add them to my list!

spurious

I just finished a book called 'Wonder' by R.J. Palacio.
It's a teen book, so it's a very quick read and quite a touching story.
Review from The Guardian
Review from The Telegraph

I'd recommend it.

a0ifee

spurious wrote: »

I just finished a book called 'Wonder' by R.J. Palacio.
It's a teen book, so it's a very quick read and quite a touching story.
Review from The Guardian
Review from The Telegraph

I'd recommend it.

that really sounds like my kind of book - I'll definitely look out for it!

Mr.Nice Guy

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. A light and pleasant read.

Harry Angstrom

Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith. One of the funniest books I've read.

mcgovern

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?

Nody

You did not really specify a category per say so I'll simply throw up some various once I personally liked:

Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan (Sci Fi, start of series)
The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch (Bit of steam punk, mainly fantasy, start of series)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith (Very well integrated zombie plague into a classic story, laughs a plenty)
Mistborn series - Brandon Sanderson (Evil won and got the powers of God and has ruled the empire for over 3.000 years; now some humans plot to overthrow him...)
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know - Lord Byron (Description of his life; worlds biggest adeventurer still alive)

a0ifee

like I said I'm not fussed on genre, I'd read anything! thanks for all the suggestions you guys

Paddy Samurai

a0ifee wrote: »

like I said I'm not fussed on genre, I'd read anything! thanks for all the suggestions you guys

The Mathew Corbett series by Robert McCammon, is a highly addictive series and well worth reading IMO.
Four books written so far in the series.Although they can be read as Standalone novels I would recommend reading them in order.

Speaks the Nightbird is The first........

Theres an excerpt here if you want to check it out....... http://www.matthewcorbettsworld.com/speaks_the_nightbird.html

Mindfulness

The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy - a trilogy of five books

Any discworld novel by Terry Pratchett - my personal faves are those centred around the Watch or Death

Any of the Ross O'Carroll-Kelly books - you will either love or hate these, there is no middle ground

The earlier Adrian Mole books (The secret diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 and 3/4, or 'The Growing pains of Adrian Mole')

The Hobbit - far lighter than the Lord of the Rings, a great children's book

Watership Down - It's a 'light' book in the sense of it being a children's story about rabbits but my word I cried buckets reading it. Bittersweet.

I would also second the PG Wodehouse Jeeves series. Excellent stuff

Also the PickWick papers by Charles Dickens, terribly funny in parts.

If you haven't read or seen it in theatre then Oscar Wilde's 'The importance of being earnest' is great.

D-FENS

The Adrian Mole books by Sue Townsend are very light, very funny and very brilliant

GastroBoy

I found "The hundred year old man who climbed out a window and disappeared"
to be a good, light read. Just a nice story that doesn't expect you to think too deeply.

Also +1 on any Adrian Mole book, classic stuff and with them being in the form of a diary, you can pretty much stop off anywhere and pick up again at your convenience.

biZrb

GastroBoy wrote: »

I found "The hundred year old man who climbed out a window and disappeared"
to be a good, light read. Just a nice story that doesn't expect you to think too deeply.
.

+1, great book.

I read the Sister Brothers by Patrick deWitt and Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin recently both were really light reads.

Manach

Guards, Guards by Terry Pratchett.

ThirdMan

Another vote for PG Wodehouse. Christopher Hitchens called him The Master.

a0ifee

i feel like a trip to the bookshop is in order for me!

Denerick

I recently read 'True Grit' by Charles Portis (I also thought the Coen Brothers movie was excellent). A nice little book, some 200 or so pages long. Told from the perspective of a forthright 14 year old girl. Not too heavy but provides at least some intellectual stimulation.

stick girl

I, Partridge We need to talk about Alan. By Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) Absolutely brilliant and hilarious

Mardy Bum

Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is a masterful book both for its lightness in reading but also what is hidden behind this lightness, the dark underbelly of American society.

Denerick

I read all of Mark Twain's books when I was a kid, must tackle him again now I'm older.

Loreida

Caitlin Moran. She is bloody hilarious!

Loreida

Loreida wrote: »

Caitlin Moran. She is bloody hilarious!

I'm not sure I'd even come close to agreeing with that.

Stephen Fry's autobiography is an entertainingly written read, and if you like spy thrillers then Alan Furst's Spies of Warsaw is absorbing and not too heavy.

Even lighter and easier again are Agatha Christie's novels. are fun as are Dorothy Sayers books, if you like a very lightweight detective story.

Another vote for P.G. Wodehouse too.

Mindfulness

Another light read that I found hilarious is 'Accidental Hitman' by A.W. Wilson. I got it free at the time but would happily pay for it even as a full price book now. I got the Kindle edition (linked above), don't know if it's available in print.

The book centres on a young man who basically stumbles into a career as a hitman. I got constant laughs out of this at a time when I needed laughs. There are some reviews on good reads, here.