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What a let down


Pads
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Just read Dawn French's A tiny bit marvellous ...sadley it wasnt at all......

I really looked forward to reading it after reading how funny it was ....

It didnt even raise one smile

From such a funny woman who I have enjoyed watching on the telly over the years this was a massive let down.

Any one else read it ? What do you think ?
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I don't find Dawn French very funny to start with, so would have no expectations from anything she wrote.

Thanks for posting that though, as sometimes people have books they pass on to me, and I'll definiately give it a miss, if ever offered it.

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I too don't find Dawn French very funny, though sometimes books can be better then their "persona".  However, I have come to distrust such critics' words as:  "brilliant, humorous, best ever ..... you know the sort I  mean, meant to make you think you must read it.  I have lost count of the ones which were supposed to be "laugh out loud" when I didn't even smile!  Fortunately I buy few books now, we have a  superb book exchange locally I can use it as my "library" and thus if I don't like it - it goes back!

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I have loved all the Tom Sharpe books with the exception of the last one (cant recall name) that he wrote after a very long break, I concur with a review I read on amazon, it is not worthy of the great man, save your money and re-read one of your existing Tom Sharpe novels.

I read loads of books, good, bad and indifferent, for the first time in many years I recently gave up on a book after reading perhaps 50 pages as it was in my opinion utter Kr@p which was a real surprise as the author was Stephen Fry someone who I find to be really intelligent and witty.

The book is called "The stars' tennis balls" should you ever find yourself short of toilet paper.

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Absolutely agree Pads. I'm not that keen on her in the first place and only read it because a guest left it here.

I don't like Stephen Fry very much in the first place so I won't be reading his book either.

I was also disappointed in Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question.

I think I may be heading for a second childhood because I'm hooked on the Septimus Heap books by Angie Sage.

Hoddy
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One of the funniest books I have read is "French Revolutions" by Tim Moore (I think I've got the name right.)

He's a Tour de France enthusiast and the book is about him cycling the route of one of the Tours and all the daft things that happen to him during his ride. It's quite an informative read, and I'm definitely not a cycling fan, but he has a great sense of the absurd and writes really well. That made me giggle.

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I was also disappointed in Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question

I was so looking forward to that as I had seen Howard Jacobson on 'Breakfast' and he seemed such a nice man and made the book sound interesting so I ordered it and read it before it won the Booker Prize -  I thought it was dire....the year before I'd read Wolf Hall - which I thought was pretty average....so now I have just decided to steer away from Booker Prize winners - I have more luck with 'The Orange Prize' or Costa Coffee Prize or books friends send me - a book I have recently enjoyed was  A Gathering Light .....not new but a good story....

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[quote user="Frecossais"]One of the funniest books I have read is "French Revolutions" by Tim Moore (I think I've got the name right.)

[/quote]

 

Have you read Spanish Steps by Tim Moore?  It about him doing the pilgrimage to St James de Compostella and is both very funny and rather makes you feel like doing part of it yourself.  Not that I will of course.

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Written humour is difficult to quantify - what is side-splittingly funny to one is average to another - I can remember crying with laughter, years ago, when reading one of the James Herriot books where he describes driving a car with no brakes and having to go round and round a farmhouse because he couldn't stop.  The OH didn't think it was that funny at all[8-)]
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