Need suggestions for old, witty, humorous novels.

[J. Roger]

I've had an e-reader for close to three years now, and have been blazing through old classics, action-adventure, and early sci-fie novels.


I stick to the old stuff mainly because the copy-rights have expired and the books can be had for free from placed like "Project Gutenberg".


I'm now in the mood to laugh and would like your suggestions for old, lite, witty, humorous novels or short stories.

 

[rockviper]

Mainly from the '70s (so not that old), I found the James Herriot books to be quite good for a chuckle.

 

[Infernal2]

They're a Weird Mob by Nino Culotta... About an Italian writer moving to Australia. Great book and hlarious.

 

[njpaddy]

When I'm in that mood I dig out my old James Thurber paperbacks, Thurber's Dogs, My Life & Hard Times, etc. Some of his books are out of print. I don't know if any are available in e-reader format.

 

[joamo]

Slighty off topic, many libraries have ebooks to loan. You could have more current selections. On topic Piers Anthony Xanth series.

 

[Masterkova]

duplicate post

 

[Masterkova]

Saki (a.k.a. H. H. Munro)
Oscar Wilde
Mark Twain

Titans in the field. More short stories than novels, however.

For a (slightly) more modern slant, J. P. Donleavy.

 

[rebos]

For a (slightly) more modern slant, J. P. Donleavy.

Great suggestion regarding Donleavy. I highly recommend The Ginger Man. It's one of my favorites.

If we are making suggestions for (even more) modern titles, then you cannot go wrong with A Confederacy of Dunces.

 

[Vickers]

Don Quixote

All the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Candide

 

[The Nid Hog]

P. G. Wodehouse is pretty funny. I think that Raymond Chandler's books have a sly wit too. You can see why guys wanted to punch Marlowe in the mouth.

My daughter recently discovered old Woody Allen collections. I haven't read them in years but when I picked them up again they were just as funny now as they were back then. Groucho Marx is also a funny writer. His autobiography Groucho and Me is fantastic.

 

[David in Boston]

If you want classic try "Decline and Fall" by Evelyn Waugh.

If you want raunchy try "The Choirboys" Joesph Wambaugh.

 

[ricardo9505]

anything by Ray Bradbury (Farenheit 451), Aldous Huxley, I like Jack Kerouac novels and Hemingway.
i second Mark Twain . great classics.
I find bios really enjoyable too. Lincoln.Teddy Roosevelt, WEB Dubois, Thomas Jefferson...to name a few.Oh and if u like war u MUST read Matterhorn. An amazing book from the days in Vietnam. THE BEST Vietnam war book in my opinion.

 

[oc_in_fw]

Not sure if you consider it old, but Catch 22 was a fantastic book. That being said, do not waste your time with the follow up Closing Time. It suckage is in inverse proportion to the greatness of 22.

 

[morganjg]

Not sure if you consider it old, but Catch 22 was a fantastic book. That being said, do not waste your time with the follow up Closing Time. It suckage is in inverse proportion to the greatness of 22.

+1 on Catch 22. No comment on Closing Time, while it's not nearly as good, it reads better than many other novels of the era. Heller's daughter recently penned a novel about her father called Yossarian Slept Here. It's a witty bit of story telling about her father and their experiences.

 

[TickTock]

A great and very funny book from the 1880s (on Gutenberg) is "Three Men and a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome. A bunch of young men and their dog go punting on the Thames and have slapstick misadventures from day 1. Amazingly still very funny and doesn't seem dated.

If you also like modern time travel science fiction with a humorous bite to it, the book by Connie Willis "To say nothing of the dog" refers to "Three Men in a Boat" throughout, and it's great. Not public domain, so you'll have to pay, but it's a great book.

 

[TickTock]

Oh, and some great action/spy novels I got off of Gutenberg were "The 39 Steps" (the Hitchcock movie has very little to do with the book), and at least one more by that same author (I can't remember the name offhand). Good thrillers.

Another great adventure/romance book is "The Prisoner of Zenda" by Anthony Hope. Classic.

 

[NCJack]

Oh, and some great action/spy novels I got off of Gutenberg were "The 39 Steps" (the Hitchcock movie has very little to do with the book), and at least one more by that same author (I can't remember the name offhand). Good thrillers.

John Buchan was the author, Richard Hannay the hero of them. What the Brits call a "ripping yarn", 39s is followed by Greenmantle then Mr. Standfast

See if you can get Jean Shepherd ("A Christmas Story" is a combo of several of his Depression era short stories), Robert Benchley, Thurber as mentioned. I have the Nook, and just go to fiction/humor and get free stuff to try out.

 

[oc_in_fw]

+1 on Catch 22. No comment on Closing Time, while it's not nearly as good, it reads better than many other novels of the era. Heller's daughter recently penned a novel about her father called Yossarian Slept Here. It's a witty bit of story telling about her father and their experiences.

I would like to read what Heller's daughter had to say. I can't explain why I hate Closing Time so much. Maybe because it was such a let down. I started reading it a week after 22. That book would be hard for anyone follow up, I imagine. How do you follow up a masterpiece?

 

[Legion]

Great suggestion regarding Donleavy. I highly recommend The Ginger Man. It's one of my favorites.

If we are making suggestions for (even more) modern titles, then you cannot go wrong with A Confederacy of Dunces.

I was going to say A Confederacy of Dunces. That one made me chuckle.

Also Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut Jr. That was a good one.

 

[dklaiman]

If you want classic try "Decline and Fall" by Evelyn Waugh.

If you want raunchy try "The Choirboys" Joesph Wambaugh.

+ 1 on Waugh. I was thinking of Scoop, but pretty much anything he wrote is worth reading.