Today I had the entire day to myself as it was a holiday with my wife and kid away to a relative's place.
So it was one of those days which was just perfect for turning pages of some of my old favourites. I decided to give chuckle and smile a chance and first plunged into stylish prose of Wodehouse - widely regarded as the'the funniest writer to have put words on paper'. Couple of short stories from his collection'What Ho' put me in right frame to explore further and as if by divine design, my hands fell on that old classic,'Three Men in a Boat'.
I started with a few decent smiles, gradually they turned to grins and finally I was amidst full bellied laughter when my mother came close from kitchen to examine what the matter was.
'Oh, book!' She remarked with a tone which implies'that explains it' and went on with her cooking and I with my laughing.
On more serious note, though I found Wodehouse good, I will have to hand it over to Jerome K. Jerome for writing the funniest stuff within a single cover. After a while, for a change of flavour, I came back to P.G. and was dished with a short story(in fact a chapter from one of his Jeeves novel) which had me in splits and tears and I realised with glee that I was a little premature in handing the mantle to J.K.J.
In fact it need not be a two horse race after all. For how can I forget the lunatic world of Douglas Adams(Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) or the classic anti war masterpiece of Joseph Heller(Catch 22)? And then there are those wonderful touching reminisces of country vet named James Herriot(All Creatures Great and Small) which can give any or all the above a real run for their money.
So, as of now it is a five horse race and I am in no hurry for choosing the winner. In fact I am looking for more and more horses for if the idiom'the more the merrier' was coined - it was precisely for these types of races.
May be you all can suggest a few more!
