erm, so some time back I posted about a supposedly funny book called Such a Pretty Fat and I am here to tell you that I have read five chapters of it and I am returning it to the library.
I didn’t think it was so funny.
Even though she is supposed to be, you know, famous. This is not her first book, and from the review excerpts I read on the back of the book, she is supposed to be so wickedly funny.
I’m not so sure.
I’ve read five chapters and I had barely chuckled. Maybe a few times I snorted cynically, but only because I thought what I read was not funny at all. I desperately wanted to rave about this book, to tell you that it is true that you will lose five pounds from reading this book coz you laughed so hard. Well, fat hope.
Don’t take my word for it though… I am thinking perhaps I did not get the jokes coz I am not a true-blooded American, or maybe because I rate poorly in the popular culture/media category. Or maybe I just plain have no sense of humor.
Anyways, just wanted to let you know my stinking opinion, after reading five chapters (and hoping at the end of each chapter that the next will start to be really hilarious).
If you have a really funny book, pretty please let me know.
Naked by David Sedaris. Very funny.
I read that author’s first book and found it just kind of frustrating in that the characters were a tad unredeeming, despite it being about redemption. I chalked it up to being a memoir not a story. I haven’t gone to the Fat one, as I just thought it would be more of same.
Thanks Jacinta! I’m going to look for it.
Oh.. YOU’re the reason I got the book out of the library! I was wondering who recommended it to me. I made it further than you, though, about half way through. I did think it was funny for a while, but then I started getting annoyed and just yesterday I decided to stop reading it.
I used to really like David Sedaris. Then I saw him give a talk at Changing Hands and found him to be very rude and anti-kid. He might still be funny, but…
I started reading parenting books again, for lack of another diversion. I would love to find something that’s funny, too, but not at the expense of anyone else…
A few of my favorite funny books:
The Eyre Affair – Fforde
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – Austen and Grahame-Smith
Me Talk Pretty One Day – Sedaris
Wee Free Men – Pratchett
The Eyre Affair is amusingly funny, with lots of literary jokes. P&P&Z is silly-funny, with zombies and ninjas running around the English countryside, getting in the way of courtship. The Sedaris is laugh-out-loud funny and some of the pieces in it have to do with living and speaking in two different languages (English and French) which was really interesting to me. And Wee Free Men is funny in Pratchett’s special way where the funniness sometimes goes much deeper than expected.
oh, Erica, thanks so much! You’re the BEST.
Off to check my library…
Easily the funniest book I have ever read is “What I’d Say To the Martians” by Jack Handey (http://www.amazon.com/What-Id-Say-Martians-Threats/dp/1401322662) I was reading it while Ron was watching TV one night and I had to put it down ’cause he couldn’t hear the TV over my laughter.
You can read some of the essays from the book on The New Yorker website: http://www.newyorker.com/search/query?query=authorName:%22Jack%20Handey%22
ok, Sara, laughing so loud TV can’t be heard is a VERY good thing and what I need to do. off to get the book, thanks!! xo