Tororo and Michael both left their answers to the Book Reading Questionairre---you can read them in the comments, if you're interested--and it's not too late to add your own...
ESPECIALLY if you have an answer to
Question #2: A Book That Made You Laugh Out Loud.
I couldn't think of anything that had made me laugh recently.
Last night I laughed out loud at Paul Collins, and American, contrasting American and British showers--in his memoir Sixpence House, about living in Hay-on-Wye, Wales.
This is probably predictably the sort of thing Americans always think is so funny? because it makes us seem superior?
But, in fact, HouseMate's shower was just a dribble--I used to take baths instead: I'd turn on the tap and go away for ten minutes while the tub filled. And that's another thing I love about my new place: great water pressure!
So maybe this is unfair?
But I still think his description is funny.
Click to embiggen:
I'd originally responded to "A Book That Made You Laugh Out Loud":
When I was eleven, with my family taking turns reading out loud My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell.
The scene in Lucky Jim (by Kingsley Amis) when Jim is staying at the home of wealthy people he's trying to impress, and he burns a cigarette hole in his blanket.
There must be a more current one, but I can't think of it.
______________
MICHAEL's answer:
Tristram Shandy.
Fresca: Tristram Shandy was one of my mother's favorite books, but it didn't hold me... Maybe I should try it again.
_________________
As a kid, the Jennings books by British author Anthony Buckeridge used to make me burst out in laughter every time I opened one (there are many). I have no idea if these are as popular in the US as they are in UK and in France (written 50 years ago, they are still in print).Fresca: I'd never heard of the Jennings books. I looked them up and see they are about Jennings's adventures in prep school--maybe they don't translate to American children's experience?
Lately (like, last month) a book by Eduardo Mendoza made me laugh out loud: I read it in French as Les Aventures miraculeuses de Pomponius Flatus (original title is El asombroso viaje de Pomponio Flato) sadly it seems it as not been translated in English so far."
Sadly, I can't find in English [what google translates into] The Amazing Voyage of Pomponius Flatus.
When Parvaneh is practice driving she bumps the car ahead of her. Ove cheerfully says she did a great job. When she points out she bumped another car he doesn't understand why that should be a problem, since the car in question was a Volvo.
ReplyDeleteA man called Ove- hilarious only because he sounds like my family.
LINDA SUE—I truly laughed out here, loud reading that😀 Thanks
Delete—Fresca
There is a Mark Twain short story about a jumping frog and a cow and a gambler, etc.
ReplyDelete“Well, thish-yer Smiley had a yeller one-eyed cow that didn't have no tail, only jest a short stump like a bannanner, and—”
The description of the cow made me laugh til I cried. So did Proust's unending cookie hypnosis.
Fresca here.
DeleteI’ve never read that famous story “The Jumping Frog…” Now I declare I must read it before I die!
The water passage is funny, but poor water pressure is no joke. : ) Drain the water heater, get sediment stirred up, and the faucets will be coughing and sputtering for days. No water pressure, please, we're British!
ReplyDelete