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Three Men In A Boat

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Jerome K. Jerome – Three Men In A Boat

No personal library should be without a copy of "Three men In A Boat." Although it was written in 1889 it is timeless. It is a book I find myself reading every other year or so. It is in the top three or four of my all time favourite good books to read.

This is also probably the funniest book you will ever come across. Although he wrote this more than a hundred years ago, Jerome K. Jerome's humour is something that we can all identify with, proving that a good sense of humour is ageless.

The book is based on events which actually happened, and as Jerome wrote in his preface to the first edition: "all that has been done is to colour them; and, for this, no extra charge has been made".

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Alexander McCall Smith

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Alexander McCall Smith may be a familiar name to you as he has written more than 30 books. Perhaps you are acquainted with his No.1 Ladies Detective Agency books a delightful and charming series about a lady detective in Botswana. One book you may not have come across however is Portuguese Irregular Verbs.

It is completely different from the Ladies Detective Agency books and you might even wonder if it is by the same author. This is the first of three books by Alexander McCall Smith featuring Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld.

The dear professor is an eminent and very tall German philologist, (someone who studies language and its history ) and the author of the definitive work on Portuguese Irregular verbs, a 1200 page tome. He sees himself as a great scholar, but unfortunately few others share his high opinion of himself.

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Alexander McCall Smith The Finer Points Of Sausage Dogs

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If you enjoyed "Portuguese Irregular Verbs", the first of the Von Igelfeld adventures I am sure you will enjoy "The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs" the second in the von Igelfeld trilogy.

Once again Von Igelfeld finds himself in some strange and often bizarre circumstances. Alexander McCall Smith's humour is dry and the results are often incredibly funny.

In this book Von Igelfeld travels to America. He does not really want to go, but in the never ending game of "academic one upmanship" he cannot allow one of his associates to be invited to lecture there first. He "pulls strings" and finagles an invitation to lecture at a University in Arkansas.

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Alexander McCall Smith At The Villa Of Reduced Circumstances

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This is the third book in Alexander McCall Smith's Dr. von Igelfeld series. While perhaps not quite as entertaining as the other two, this book is still a fun read, especially if you are "hooked" on the professor.

"At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances" has a reduced number of stories compared to the previous two.

This volume is divided into two parts. In the first, appropriately called "On Being Light Blue" von Igelfeld has a four month sabbatical to Cambridge.

This story involves the Professor having to deal with the strange and eccentric habits and mannerisms of Cambridge academics as well as their university intrigues and political struggles. He also has to share a bathroom which results in more hilarity, especially given his opinion of English toilets.

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