#humor

Quasit's Daily Book Recommendations: "Three Men in a Boat (Not To Mention The Dog)" (1889) by Jerome K. Jerome

Age Range: 16 and up
Genre: Humor

Three young Englishmen in the late 1800s decide to spend a fortnight boating on the Thames for their health. And yet the book feels remarkably modern and is •astonishingly• funny.

A classic of English humor; I'm quite dismayed that I hadn't discovered it before now! It's one of the funniest books I've read in a long time (and I've read many funny books). I found myself laughing out loud quite often, and couldn't resist reading sections of it aloud.

It's astonishing that a book written 137 years ago should feel so modern. I hadn't realized that such dark humor had been •invented• back in 1889!

The occasional turns into more somber and lyrical prose are a bit jarring at first; they're quite reminiscent of "The Wind In the Willows" (1908) by Kenneth Grahame​, which was published 19 years later. But you soon get used to them. And the serious passages are quite brief, just sufficient to cleanse the palate (so to speak) before the next comic gem.

The illustrated EPUB editions at Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks are excellent and, of course, free. The illustrations are well-formatted, clear, and enhance the text. If you appreciate humor, you have no excuse for missing this book!

standardebooks.org/ebooks/jerome-k-jerome/three-men-in-a-boat

Incidentally, I "found" Three Men In a Boat via Robert A. Heinlein's "Have Space Suit - Will Travel". The protagonist's father is a fan. I'd read the book (Heinlein's that is) a dozen times before, easily - but I always assumed that "Three Men in a Boat" was fictional. For some reason while reading "Have Space Suit - Will Travel" out loud to my son, I found myself wondering if "Three Men in a Boat" was real; and Wikipedia soon set me right. I'm glad it did.

Oh, I almost neglected to mention: there's an audio book of "Three Men in a Boat" read by Hugh Laurie. A perfect choice, of course. It can be found in sections on YouTube, or, I presume, it can be purchased. But I must say that I laughed more when •reading• the book then while listening to it. I'm not quite sure why!

Happy reading! 🤓📖

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#TheOnion going hard at #SamAltman.
It's hard to pick, but I think this is my favorite line:
"Why did you decide to devote your life to AI?
I just saw so much suffering in the world that needed to be automated."
#OpenAI #funny #humor
https://theonion.com/the-onions-exclusive-interview-with-sam-altman/