Books to help pass the time during the great lockdown

I was hoping to offer you the titles of some funny books to help you get through your 'sentence' but, alas, the fact is that I haven't read many comical books, my taste being, as y'all do know, more into history, war or Shakespeare. Yes, quite, not exactly a bundle of laughs!  

Mind you, I was reminded this morning of one funny book which has remained seared into my memory despite the fact that I read it when I was about 13 years old!  We used to have a 'library hour' once a week at my school and one time I came across a book titled "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome.  It destroyed me for the rest of the day because I could not stop laughing!  I really 'lost it' in every class for the rest of the day as I remembered this or that funny incident.  I think I collected three 'Detentions' from various teachers as I tried desperately to control my heaving shoulders!

Alas, as an 'Official Old Geezer' now, my memory is occasional, so recalling any other funny books is not easy.  Even so, as an amateur, an exceedingly amateur, actor I can never forget my fellow 'thesp', the late, great Michael Green and his classic "The Art of Coarse Acting".

Green describes a coarse actor as one who can remember his lines, but not the order in which they come. An amateur. One who performs in Church Halls. Often the scenery will fall down. Sometimes the Church Hall may fall down. Invariably his tights will fall down. He will usually be playing three parts – Messenger, 2nd Clown, an Attendant Lord. His aim is to upstage the rest of the cast. His hope is to be dead by Act II so that he can spend the rest of his time in the bar. His problems? Everyone else connected with the production.

Ah yes, that sums it up brilliantly.

Anyway, give them a try - you need the laughs!

 

 

 

Comments

[JK]

"I was hoping to offer you the titles of some funny"

You're not ranging far enough afield David.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/letter-president-donald-j-trump-senator-charles-e-schumer/

Might include the White House press office the next time you go looking. Don't know what you Brits would call a letter like that but in these parts that'd be known as "a bitch slap."

[Whitewall]

David, you often mention a little book called "1066 and all That". Most know it I'm sure, but a reread is still very funny! It is the funniest thing I have read in years.

[Whyaxye]

Yes, I think "Three Men in a Boat" is the point at which a certain type of English humour peaked. I have a friend who took part in a Thames expedition recreating their journey. Apparently it was nowhere near as funny...

I would also add "Diary of a Nobody" by the Grossmith brothers. It contains the immortal line

I left the room with silent dignity, but caught my foot in the mat

[Andra]

"The Wooden Overcoat" by a gorgeous English lady called Pamela Branch. She only wrote 3 books and died much too young.
I have probably read the Wooden Overcoat 5 or 6 times and it still makes me laugh.

[johnd2008]

Try the short stories by "Saki" ( ie H H Munro) He was killed in the trenches in WW1. You will probably find them on the Project Gutenberg site and download for free.

[Loz]

First 5 volumes of Oman's "A History of the Peninsular War".

No, not bulky books held in hand or digital Kindle ink, but read to you by a splendid gentleman called Felbrigg Napoleon Herriot (yes, that really is his name!) and available as audiobooks...

https://www.patreon.com/felbrigg

Take a peak at the Spanish Peninsular at the time, any of these will do, to get the regions, main cities and rivers in your mind's eye. ...

https://www.google.com/search?q=peninsular+war+map&client=ms-android-hmd-rev2&prmd=inmv&sxsrf=ALeKk036HQQtqUCmKWqK8RWarmEPbO1cww:1585997950452&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjeyM3jzs7oAhU2aRUIHcN8CZwQ_AUoAXoECA8QAQ&biw=360&bih=560&dpr=2

Then close your eyes, let Felbrigg Napoleon Herriot do the heavy lifting, and saddle up next to the Duke of Boot and join him for 5 years of hard campaigning in sunny Spain, kicking Froggy arse left, right, and centre!

What better way for a Brit to spend the lockdown days!?

SoD

[Wigner’s Friend]

A book which had my sides aching was “Bored of thr Rings” by The Harvard Lampoon.

[JK]

https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2020/04/saturday-snippet-general-danced-at-dawn.html

And there you be David.

[JK]

Too David, as I noticed the reference in the comments I took to read some further and when I came upon this paragraph:

"I loathe all political parties, which I regard as inventions of the devil. My favourite prime minister was Sir Alec Douglas-Home, not because he was on the Right, but because he spent a year in office without, on his own admission, doing a damned thing."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-506219/The-testament-Flashmans-creator-How-Britain-destroyed-itself.html

I thought to post note of that too.

[Whitewall]

JK, political correctness is basically a war against noticing and then talking about it.

[JK]

You know what else Whitewall seems a target of 'the war against noticing'?

https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1893049

Too bad the media thought Nancy's tearing her copy of the speech up was the only thing worth talking about. If only they'd paid attention instead of ridiculing everything he said as "a pack of lies" (in Mrs. Pelosi's words and echoed from here to yonder in legacy media).

[Mary]

You can't go past Kingsley Amis.."A Girl Like You". Enduringly funny. Especially the speech at the end that has me in stitches still..it never ages.

[Mary]

Correction. It's years since I read these books. The best one is "Lucky Jim". That's where the speech happens at the end of the book..I'll always remember it even it I put it into the wrong book. "A Girl Like You" is also good but his first is the original and the best. The only other book that ever made me laugh out loud was David Niven's "The Moon's a Balloon". I was on a train at the time, laughing out loud and getting strange looks.

[Bob]

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh

[Don Cox]

"Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour" by R S Surtees.