Fast paced humorous books?

[Marcus]

Hi all!

 

I just finished Christopher Moore's "Island of the Sequined Love Nun", "Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove" and "Practical Demonkeeping". I tried out "Coyote Blue" but found it doesn't have the same fast paced style as the other books and quit reading it half way.

I love the way the other books skip from character to character real fast and how in the end all the characters come together in forming the plot and ofcourse I love the humour and absurdistic style of the books.

 

So if you have any suggestions please tell me!

[Chrissy]

Jasper Fforde. Initially give his Nursery Crimes Division books a go; 'The Big Over Easy' and 'The Fourth Bear'. If the style suits you, then you can make a move on his Thursday Next series of books; 'The Eyre Affair', 'Lost In A Good Book', 'The Well Of Lost Books', 'Something Rotten', and 'First Among Sequels'.

 

Tom Sharpe has written some funny books, although I'm not sure if they are what you are thinking of. Julian Rathbone is another that I found able to write about the historical absurd in a compelling way.

[Lucybird]

I second Jasper Fforde

[chesilbeach]

I'll third Jasper Fforde and add Mark Gatiss - try the Lucifer Box trilogy, The Vesuvius Club, Devil In Amber and Black Butterfly.

[Ruth]

I was going to post about the Lucifer Box novels as well. Very entertaining and fast paced.

[BookJumper]

I'll fourth Jasper Fforde, and point you in the direction of his predecessors in learned funnyness while I'm at it:

 

- Douglas Adams, [The Increasingly Inaccurately Named Trilogy of Five] The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

- Terry Pratchett, Discworld series (they can be read in pretty much any order; my personal favourites are Wyrd Sisters - a parody of Shakespearean tragedy; Maskerade - a parody of The Phantom of the Opera; and Soul Music - about Rock'n'Roll).

[Raven]

^ Humorous though they are, I wouldn't describe many of the Discworld novels as fast paced, they quite often take a while to get going.

 

I'd second your Hitch-Hikers recommendation though!

[dave165]

I would suggestCarl Hiaasen. Very funny crime novels generally set in Florida.

[Marcus]

Thanks for the suggestions! A lot of Jasper Fforde so I think I'll start with him. I also recently finished Atomic Lobster by Tim Dorsey and thought it was quite a nice read.

[george82]

Hi all!

 

I just finished Christopher Moore's "Island of the Sequined Love Nun", "Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove" and "Practical Demonkeeping". I tried out "Coyote Blue" but found it doesn't have the same fast paced style as the other books and quit reading it half way.

I love the way the other books skip from character to character real fast and how in the end all the characters come together in forming the plot and ofcourse I love the humour and absurdistic style of the books.

 

So if you have any suggestions please tell me!

 

oh... that's great

 

At times when I'm stressed out, I do like to read books that are full of humour, in fact some fast paced books.

Edited September 21, 2010 by Michelle
Post moderated, link removed.

[~Andrea~]

Have you read any Ben Elton? I loved Stark but read it years ago - remember it being a real page-turner though. Dead Famous is good too.

[Elin]

Erlend Loe's books are absurd and easy and most of them are fun.

 

Same goes for Douglas Coupland, especially All families are psychotic, it's easy to read, fast paced, definitely absurd and funny.

 

I think I have to find some of Jasper Fforde's book myself now