Reading TN had made me interested in going for classics, especially those that had their mention in the TN books. There are mountains of books out there, I have no idea where to start! Any ideas welcome. For my preferences, well, something absurd/amusing. Like Day of the Triffids.

thanks

Absurd and amusing? Ok...I just ran to my bookcase and back to the computer, and I have a few suggestions. Nothing I can find is quite as witty as Fforde, but I'll try to go with "funny".

"Anna Karenina" is absurd and amusing! Oh...wait...absurd, yes, but not amusing in the leastbit. I tried to read this when I was twelve, so maybe I am biased, but I absolutely abhorred that book. :) I just wanted to warn you off.

"Pygmalion" is extremely funny. (It's the book that the movie "My Fair Lady" with Audrey Hepburn was based on....) "Oym a gaood girl, oy arm!" [Please disregard my sad attempt at recreating the colloquialism of Eliza, the poor flower girl who is taught the manners of a lady by that scoundrel, Henry Higgins.]

Erma Bombeck is hilarious...she wrote a few books in the fifties or so. "The Grass is Always Greener over the Septic Tank" is one of them. Her books kind of ridicule suburban life.

And there's so much more that isn't funny...but it's still great! Be sure to tell me if you want any more suggestions.

I'd go for Jerome K. Jerome if you want humour (although I would agree with others who nominate the Barchester series or anything by Wodehouse).

Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat" is an enjoyable romp which I would follow with Connie Willis' recent "Not To Mention The Dog" which does to "3 Men" what Jasper does to "Jane Eyre". Read them and you'll see what I mean.

Cheers from Wagga Wagga.

Absurd/Amusing? Gotta be Alice in Wonderland if you haven't read that already. Plenty of everything in that, film or book (book reccomended.) Also the Trial by Kafka just contains the absurd. Its not really a classic but has a Thursday feel, and I found I preferred it as a result of Thursday getting embroiled in it as well, although I have heard some pretty bad reviews of it but humour is a strange thing. Even heard bad reviews of Catch 22. Ironic really, the two trials, where trials are suposed to be sombre, , being taken from two of the most 'absurd' (in a strange is funny kind of way) books. that kind of distortion just what I love of the series I s'pose

Now that Charles Ronayne mentions it, there is a bit in "Catch 22" where one of the Generals (I think) says "Take him out and shoot him" - over some minor indiscretion - and has to be reminded by an aide that this sort of thing can't be done. Thanks! I'd never thought of that in terms of Heller nodding to "Alice" and the Queen's "Off with his head" before.

Kurt Vonnegut, man!
Particularly "Slaughterhouse Five."
Not conventional humour, (not conventional ANYTHING) but the whole book is filled with this supreme, wonderful irony. . . .



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You wants it? How Gollum-esque!

I'm going to say Great Expectation by Charles Dickens..worth your time. (Plus Ms. Havisham is in it! I miss her)



SpecOps-27 Wordage is our business Grammar is our game.

Literary preferences are so personal... I for instance loved Anna Karenina and despised Great Expectations (though after Miss Havisham and Thursday, I might try GE again). My personal faves are Jane Austen's books. If you want funny, her Northanger Abbey makes fun of Gothic romances. And then of course there's P.G. Wodehouse, whose humor is spectacularly witty and British to the core.

The Princess Bride - its absurd and amusing with some really fun scenes and its a bit of a classic, and its not too long either.

Alice in Wonderland is GREAT and an absolute must read on realising where Fforde gets some of his craziness from I think!

Also, The NeverEnding Story is a classic story, but thats not a funny read, just one of my favourite classic fantasy books (reference to the Nothing in Sequels).

Jane Eyre and Agnes Grey, then Wuthering Heights (Heathcliffe mention) if you can get through the first two, but these are serious reads.

Fforde's online crossword puzzles etc mention some good titles too.