I’m off on me ‘ols next month, and looking for some reads.

Quite simply, I want a funny book.

Doesn’t have to be a literary masterpiece, just a book you remember reading that made you laugh out loud.

I remember reading most of Tom Sharpe’s work, twenty odd years ago, and these had the desired effect. Some of Ben Elton more recently has done the same.

McCarthy’s Bar by Pete McCarthy I remember being hilarious.

Over to FISO………………….

Any of Tim Moore's books:

French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France
Taking the Low Road with the First Grand Tourist
Do Not Pass Go: From the Old Kent Road to Mayfair
Spanish Steps: Travels With My Donkey
Nul Points
Frost on my Moustache: The Arctic Exploits of a Lord and a Loafer Continental Drifter

Carl Hiaasan: Native Tongue

I think the best of his epic series on the crazy Florida world. I did laugh out loud and I'm not easy to please.

Tim Moore and Hiassen are both very funny.

If you are going to France (or ever have been) I'd recommend Stephen Clarke(?), a Year In The Merde.

Bill Bryson raises a lot of smiles too.

I sometimes try and read books with a link to my destination - where are you heading to?

The Spike Milligan "War (and Peace) Memoirs"
Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1971)
"Rommel?" "Gunner Who?" (1974)
Monty: His Part in My Victory (1976)
Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall (1978)
Where Have All the Bullets Gone? (1985)
Goodbye Soldier (1986)
Peace Work (1992)

I haven't read them all so can't judge but the first three were very funny

Lanzarote

Not the easiest. I'm going next door soon and so won't find a book with a link!

Pratchett, Rankin and Brookmyre (sort of a Scottish Hiassen) are also good for a laugh if you don't know them yet.

Any of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books work for me. Try one of the early ones - maybe Mort, or Equal Rites.

Some great thoughts so far.....trust FISO

I'm gonner need a bigger suitcase!

Hope you aren't flying Ryanair with their 15kilo limit (stick them all in your hand luggage!)

Not very original but Catch 22 is most definately laugh out loud material.

The art of coarse rugby
The art of coarse fishing

Graham Greene

Any of Bill Bryson's are really funny .............. everyone has had me laugh out load on the tube

Notes from A Small Island is great and is about Blighty so you can chuckle away about us while you're sunning yourself amongst the, er, Brits in Lanzarote!

confederacy of dunces

Yes.

Are you Dave Gorman?

Pete Brown's books on beer are entertaining

Man Walks Into a Pub: A Sociable History of Beer
Three Sheets to the Wind: One Man's Quest for the Meaning of Beer
Hops and Glory

Bryson's book's are very good -especially the early ones (Europe and the US).

Oh an of course anything by PG Wodehouse - Starting with Jeeves and the Blanding series.

Not strictly "comedy" but the Peter Kerr books are a Year in Provence Majorcarised - they are entertaining and good holiday reads

Snowball Oranges
Manana, Manana
Viva Mallorca!
A Basketful of Snowflakes
From Paella to Porridge

And for the same re Spain per Chris Stewart (of tenuous Genesis fame)

Driving Over Lemons
A Parrot In The Pepper Tree
The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society

All of Tony Hawk's books are excellent.

I can happily endorse Catch 22, Wodehouse & Milligan from those mentioned above.

I'll also add Stephen Fry's 'The Liar' which I read recently. I laughed out loud twice, I think, and smiled internally a lot more often.
Also, 'The Henry Root Letters' were fun many years ago and still may be. Bet you can find it for pennies in a charity shop without too much bother. If so, just read a couple there and then and see if it tickles you.

Not so easy to find - but try eBay - is 'Twitmarshes and How to Annoy Them'.
It is by Willy Rushden writing under a pen name which I forget. Essentially, it's a small book on how to wind up bureaucrats, e.g. overpay a utilities bill by a pound then write a letter asking for your pound back. Then send a reminder. Two weeks later send a FINAL DEMAND threatening two switch supplier or take legal action if your £1 is not returned. Some poor sod will have to deal with it.

My favourite was about a guy who always placed the stamp in the bottom right of his letters, meaning they had to be franked by hand, not machine. Eventually he received a letter from the Post Master General asking that he abide by common convention and put the stamp in the top right of the envelope.

He replied, placing it dead centre. The accompanying letter said:

'Hey, diddle-diddle,
The stamps in the middle."

I tried Catch 22 a few years ago, but for some reason struggled to get into it, but I will definitely give it another bash at some point.

I thought I might try a Stephen Fry with this holiday in mind so bought The Liar. Just a little worried his uber intelligence might go over my head. I’ll give a couple of chapters a go beforehand.

Cheers to all for the input. I will definitely get round to all those authors mentioned in time.

Stephen Fry - biggest laugh around. Has this great pr that suggests he is really intellectual and intelligent and then contradicts it all by tw@tting away on twitter.

Stewart Maconie Pies & Predjudice (especially if you are a Northerner)

Stewart Maconie Cider with Roadies (particularly if you are into music)

Good call. P&P worked very well for me as an Easterner with a few years experience of the north. Brilliantly observed and very funny. Got CWR and looking forward to one day reading it. Maybe on the beach.....

'tw@tting away on twitter' -- are intelligent people not allowed to do this? Must they always be serious and infallible?

My view is that he isn't actually that clever - and the fact that he twitters proves it.

He is more 'intellectual' which can mean you aren't all that real-world-clever if you know what I mean. Allowing your vanity to be unchecked so you indulge in excessive, narcissistic twittering isn't all that clever......

(He does write a good book though...)

Funniest book I ever read is Towards the End of the Morning, by Michael Frayn. It's a Tom Sharpe-like farce set in Fleet Street back in the days when journalists would arrive at the office, put their jacket over the back of their chair then set off for the pub. Makes me laugh out loud every time I read it.

I like twitter - very heavily used by pro cyclists and great for an insight into what they're all up to. I use it for organising rides as well.

However, I did 'follow' Fry for a (fairly short) while and found his tweets to be dull in the extreme. All a bit to twee for my liking.

On the subject of funny books, after seeing it mentioned on here I picked up my copy of 'French Revolutions' last night and read a few bits. It is a very funny book, although as with all humerous books they do depend on you having a similar sense of humour to the author.

+1 for Bill Bryson as well.

Was gonna say Catch 22 as well.

I don't read that much, but one that did make me laugh out loud was "Then we came to the end". It reminded me of Catch 22, but set in an office. Set just after the dot com bust in an American ad agency, where every one is getting fired and no one actually has anything to do (so relevant as well, although I guess omewhat bleak), and really shows the mundanity of working in an office, with many characters, although exagerated, that you have seen or can imagine in offices everywhere. Its also written in first person plural, so you almost feel like you work there yourself.

I wouldn't say it is a book version of "The Office", but of course there are some similarities.

Also perhaps like Catch 22, it may take a bit of getting into before you realise where it is going, what the story is, and to have empathy with the characters

Great call with PG Wodehouse, Knulpuk. I was literally crying with laughter, dunno how I’ve managed to avoid him all these years, right up my street!

Read The Liar by Stephen Fry and was ok, will probably read more of his.

Picked up the following in Galway’s charity shops ……
Stuart Maconie adventure on the high teas, Stephen Clarke Merde Happens, Tony Parsons Man and Boy, Man and Wife, Starting Over.

Thought Tony Parsons was mentioned on this thread, but think I mixed him up with Tony Hawks.

Will get round to some of the others as well, especially Bill Bryson.

Managed to pick up McCarthy’s Bar by Pete McCarthy for a re-read. If any one were thinking of holidaying in Ireland, I’d recommend this book, especially if touring and staying in B&B’s.