So, who are your comedy favourites? I'd go for Wodehouse and Pratchett for consistent laughs.

Posted: 21/10/2008 11:58:22

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David Sedaris makes me laugh out loud. Check him out.

Posted: 21/10/2008 11:59:55

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Wodehouse and Adams. Adams is probably not as consistent as Pratchett (and I say this having only read Good Omens, but Pratchett gets consistent laughs out of my wife no matter how many of his books she reads), but Hitch Hikers is just so outstanding and I liked the Dirk Gently books too.

SAF

Posted: 21/10/2008 12:00:07

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Ditto. With Douglas Adams, the guys who wrote '1066 and all that, ' Jerome K Jerome and, while not strictly a novelist, Joss Whedon for the best comic dialogue, ever.

Posted: 21/10/2008 12:02:12

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Ditto. With Douglas Adams, the guys who wrote '1066 and all that, ' Jerome K Jerome and, while not strictly a novelist, Joss Whedon for the best comic dialogue, ever.

Yeah, I'd have said Whedon too if we're bringing in TV. But then I'd have said a lot of other people too.

SAF

Posted: 21/10/2008 12:03:34

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Wodehouse and Adams. Adams is probably not as consistent as Pratchett (and I say this having only read Good Omens, but Pratchett gets consistent laughs out of my wife no matter how many of his books she reads), but Hitch Hikers is just so outstanding and I liked the Dirk Gently books too.

SAF

You, of all people, have only read 'Good Omens'?

My. God.

well...

If your wife's a Pratchett fan I expect that remedied, soonest.

If you liked Gaiman's influence, have you also checked out his 'Anansi Boys'? It's a corker - as well as being a meditation on the nature of story and humour. A MUST read for a comedy author. As is Tom Holt's 'The Walled Orchard'. These are the only two books that examine humour as a theme, as well as using it as a style, that still manage to be funny, that I have ever read

Posted: 21/10/2008 12:07:01

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Have to think about that for a while, but have you ever wrote what you think in your mind is funny, because as the writer you can see in your thought what you are trying to get across to the reader, In chapter 11 of my book "I Loved You You Lied" there is a fight scene, that I think is funny as hell, about half way through the chapter, check it out and let me know, hey you might get on of those empty 4 spots on my shelf.....AE

Posted: 21/10/2008 12:07:26

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Yeah I've had some Tom Holt recommended to me.

And I do mean to read some (more) Pratchett, but for some weird reason I was resistant while Evil awaits publication. Nothing whatsoever against Pratchett, but while I play music to *suit* the mood of what I'm writing I tend to go for reading matter that's quite different to whatever I'm currently working on.

SAF

Posted: 21/10/2008 12:10:10

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Yeah I've had some Tom Holt recommended to me.

And I do mean to read some (more) Pratchett, but for some weird reason I was resistant while Evil awaits publication. Nothing whatsoever against Pratchett, but while I play music to *suit* the mood of what I'm writing I tend to go for reading matter that's quite different to whatever I'm currently working on.

SAF

I understand completely.

Tom Holt is... an iffy... recommendation. His standard stuff can be brilliant, or sadly flat. But 'The Walled Orchard' is one of his historical novels - and one of my favourites. It involves a writer in ancient Greece trying to hide from Dyonisis. And is both smart and funny. (Weirdly, Anansi boys has a plot involving the main character avoiding Anansi, an African trickster/story god). Avoiding gods apparently makes for good comedy. Both of these helped me think about my own writing, in a good way. And not just in a 'can I do this' kind of way. Both of them are, at some level, about the nature of story and the nature of comedy.



Posted: 21/10/2008 12:16:10

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Ditto. With Douglas Adams, the guys who wrote '1066 and all that, ' Jerome K Jerome and, while not strictly a novelist, Joss Whedon for the best comic dialogue, ever.

Tom Sharpe. Please don’t look at me like I have said a dirty word! It is farce writing at its best. It does make you laugh.

Wait! Joss Whedon as in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I have never read any of his. Do you mean the graphic novels?


Posted: 21/10/2008 12:23:15

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