The Booklist – Christmas Cheer
Wave goodbye to boredom and sleep after this year’s Christmas dinner as Bookhugger’s publishers suggest several titles guaranteed to raise eyebrows, encourage debate and tickle out a laugh from even the most jaded.
QI: The Book of the Dead, by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
In The Book of the Dead you will meet hundreds of Dead People, some well-known, others completely obscure, organised into 42 short chapters that play merry hell with the usual classifications. So, instead of Royalty, Scientists and Sportsmen, you’ll find rather more diverting categories like People who died Penniless, The One-Legged, Only Children, People who failed at School, Those only Remembered by a Single Quotation and the Last People to Know Everything.
Why did a church composer invent the hand grenade? What was Leonardo’s proudest achievement? If The Book of the Dead doesn’t persuade you to immediately join the massed ranks of those looking at the radishes from below, it will certainly make the tricky business of Living a tad less grim and a lot more interesting.
To celebrate the launch of The Book of the Dead, take the ‘Which Quite Interesting dead person are you?’ personality test.
The Hell of it All, by Charlie Brooker
‘Mankind clearly peaked about 40 years ago. It’s been downhill ever since. For all this talk of our dazzling modern age, the two biggest advances of the past decade are Wi-Fi and Nando’s. That’s the best we can do.’
In his latest laugh-out-loud collection of misanthropic scribblings, hideous Q-list celebrity failure Charlie Brooker tackles everything from the misery of nightclubs to the death of Michael Jackson, making room for Sir Alan Sugar, potato crisps, global financial meltdown, conspiracy theories and Hole in the Wall along the way. The collapse of civilisation has never felt this funny (unless you’re a sociopath, in which case it’s been an uninterrupted laugh riot since the days of the Somme).
This book is guaranteed to brighten your life, put a spring in your step, and lie to you on its back cover.
Simon’s Cat, by Simon Tofield
With over 20 million hits on YouTube in little over a year, Simon’s Cat, is a genuine word-of-mouth phenomenon. Fans from all over the world have fallen for this adorable but anarchic feline who will do just about anything to be fed.
This autumn, Simon Tofield’s beautiful drawings and warm humour come alive on the page in the first of a series of irresistible stocking-filler humour books.
Read an interview with the author here.
Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story, by Paul Auster
Paul Auster’s charming Christmas fable has found new life in this beautifully illustrated edition.
It begins with a dilemma: a writer has been asked by the New York Times to produce a story that will appear in the paper on Christmas morning. The man agrees, but he has a problem: how do you write an unsentimental Christmas story? He unburdens himself to his friend at the local cigar shop, a colourful character called Auggie Wren. ‘A Christmas story? Is that all?’ says Auggie, before striking a deal. For the price of lunch he’ll pass on ‘the best Christmas story you’ve ever heard. And I guarantee every word of it is true.’
What follows is utterly beguiling, a story – involving a blind woman, a lost wallet and a Christmas dinner – in which everything is turned upside down.
Crime at Christmas, by C. H. B. Kitchin
A Christmas party in Hampstead is rudely interrupted by a violent death. Can the murderer be one of the relatives and intimate friends celebrating the festive season in the great house? The stockbroker sleuth Malcolm Warren investigates, in this brilliantly witty mystery from this classic crime writer.
First published in 1934, the second in the Malcolm Warren series sees our some-time detective unravel the mystery behind two gruesome deaths in a mere twenty-four hours. A master of suspense and surprise, Kitchin sets the festive scene by conjuring up the most vivid of characters and presents us with a likeable narrator to guide us through.
‘Kitchin’s knowledge of the crevices of human nature lifts his crime fiction out of the category of puzzledom and into the realm of the detective novel. He was, in short, ahead of his day.’ H .R. F. Keating.
The Pocket Book of Boosh, by Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt
‘Welcome to what will in no doubt be a groundbreaking work of collage / literature.’ Howard Moon ‘Hey Camden children, Vince here. Hope you dig the Boosh book and all the groovy photos Bollo took. Skip past Howard’s bits though. Well dry.’ Vince Noir
I can think of no higher praise for The Mighty Book of Boosh than to say it is almost as good as a mid-70s Goodies annual. It has lots of pictures, and is shiny. Guardian
Read Bookgeeks’ review.
The QI Annual 2010, by QI
The third great QI Annual written, drawn, photographed and lavishly blu-tacked together by the many writers, performers and brains from the BBC1 TV series, including: Stephen Fry, Alan Davies, Rowan Atkinson, Jeremy Clarkson, Bill Bailey, Jo Brand, Phill Jupitus, Jimmy Carr and many more.
