humourous

By Douglas Adams.
Begun 27 Feb 2008; finished 29 Feb.
For the Author A-Z Challenge.
Review originally written c. Mar 2008.

Hooray, after promising to read 4+ years ago, I’ve finally read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy! Can’t call myself a SF aficionado and not have read Douglas Adams, right? So when I began my reading A-Z Author Challenge, Adams was (literally!) at the top of the list.

Hitchhiker’s Guide was both what I expected and not what I expected. Many of my friends had read it and bandied the humour and quotations around, so I knew some of its quips and catchphrases. Since it was originally a radio series and meant to be read aloud, I tried to do that (silently in my mind), and kept reminding myself that the humour needs to be verbalized, not read. And it was neat to see where the quotes originated and fit into the story.

However (and this is a big “However”), the humour left me completely cold. Read the rest of this entry »

By Sam Savage.
Begun 08 Nov 2007; finished 09 Nov.

Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife is the bibliophilic equivalent of the Pixar movie Ratatouille, but Firmin doesn’t get the same respect and treatment by humans as Rémy does. He is a rat to the core, trying to read books in a human world, but remains abhorred and repulsive as a rat would.

This is essentially a whimsical story about a rat who happens to be a bibliophile, and through that starts adopting human interests, some of a rather insalubrious sort. Savage walks a thin line between appropriate and excessive (thus unrealistic) anthropomorphism, and sometimes gets carried away. But this book doesn’t take itself very seriously — indeed, it laughs deprecatingly at itself. Some hilarious scenes are when Firmin attempts to communicate with humans after ‘learning’ some phrases from a tourist’s English-language handbook, or when he watches pornographic movies in a cinema and starts falling in love with one of the stars on screen. These scenes manage to be genuinely amusing instead of lame, because the whole tone of the book is one of whimsy and fun.

It’s a whimsical, jocular read — not a fabulous book, but funny and light-hearted. And perhaps it could be a sly caricature of the extent a bibliophile would go — demean himself, make a fool of himself — for the sake of those beloved books.

Bought from Jeff and Ann VanderMeer’s book sale.

By Jerome K. Jerome.
Begun c. Feb 2007; finished 07 Mar.

Jerome K. Jerome’s travelling fable, Three Men on the Bummel involves the same three friends who went on a boat trip in the first book, Three Men In A Boat. The trio of Englishmen, now older and married, decide to go on a cycling tour around Germany. It employs the same wit and satire and slapstick humour as the first story; even though I don’t have much to say about it — it’s but a light-hearted, whimsical read — it was thoroughly enjoyable.

If you have a few hours to spare and are looking for something light and humorous to read, and/or enjoy witty writing, don’t miss these two books. They are well worth the effort to find and read. (Three Men In A Boat is on Project Gutenberg; Three Men on the Bummel is less well-known but I’m sure a text can be found on the Internet.)