Delving deep into the world of books can keep all your worldly problems at bay. Do some people believe that you may not be able to laugh out loud at books, films for sure, but are books really that funny? Contrary to popular belief, a funny book can actually help you relax, and make you grin, chuckle hard and laugh uproariously. Also, you can curl in the corner of your room with a book and forget about everything. Let’s find out which books can provide guaranteed laughs.
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
There’s a story in the book where a journalist travels in a train to cover a revolution in the Balkan states. He falls asleep and wakes up in the wrong country. That does not stop him from concocting a false story about a country in war, adding in all the fake elements of barricades in the streets, flaming churches et al. When the protagonist goes out to cover a war, he ends up digging up the scoop of the year. It brings forth the absurdity of 20th-century journalism, painting it with healthy doses of pure humor.
Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
No writer paints the part of history in a more wonderful way than P. G. Wodehouse. His name conjures up the image of the soignee savviness of the long-gone upper-class Edwardian England when battles were won over cups of English tea, cricket occupied the mindmap of the people, and lunch turned out to be soup and fish. His stories are a class apart and full of humor.
One of his most memorable characters is certainly Bertie Wooster and his butler Jeeves. Carry on Jeeves is all about Bertie getting into a soup every time and Jeeves helping him get out of it. The one-liners and the Bertie Jeeves dialogues can add color to a dull afternoon. Need we say it is a hysterical read?!
I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron despises her neck, and this is the foundation of this wonderfully dry collection of essays by someone who also concocted cinematic wonders like ‘When Harry Met Sally’ and ‘Sleepless in Seattle’. The best ode that can ever be to aging. She delivers the story from different angles of womanhood and why she hates the purse, moving on seamlessly to the joys and the nuances of having children. That’s not all she – covers everything, right from cookery, aging, inner-city living, and more. It’s a frank depiction of the various colors of life and the funny yet fuzzily warm moments that you can’t ignore.
Grown Ups by Marian Keyes
There are very few modern writers who can bring out the hysterical side of life the way Marian Keyes does. The Irish writer nails it in this tragicomic family epic, Grown Ups. Her novel is all about the secrets that families keep and the intense pressures that life brings to the table. The story follows the story of Johnny and Jessie Casey, whose portrayal of a picture-perfect family comes to naught when skeletons start tumbling out of the closet.
Johnny’s sister-in-law suffers a concussion and can’t stop spilling the beans on the two sets of Caseys. The hilarious aftermath causes the young families to face up the truth and balance the jaw-achingly funny moments with the poignant ones with her sheer dexterity. It is unarguably one of her best works yet.
Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson
Many years ago, Bill Bryson proved that an outsider can actually make you realize where you stand, doling out the truth bombs on where you live.
Notes From a Small Island is all about Britain’s strange yet appealing weirdness of what you could hope to find. Bryson had lived in Britain for 20 years when he wrote it. But when he chooses to go to America, he decided to take one last longing look at the place which he called his home.
It was almost like a love letter to his favorite country, and he dabbled in the endearing idiosyncrasies that are enough to cause a lump in the throat and smile on your lips. Also, when you are not reading about the writer’s emotional reminiscences, you would find it to be right down hilarious.
Let us know which is your favorite comic book that helped you tide over the not-so-good hours of your life!