Funny You Should Say That: Amusing Remarks from Cicero to the Simpsons

by Andrew Martin (Editor)

A treasury of more than 5,000 remarks, quips, and observations includes examples from ancient Greece to the modern world, in a volume that is complemented by brief speaker biographies and is thematically arranged under such sections as food, sports, and education.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction

528 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Andrew Martin (born 6 July 1962) is an English novelist and journalist.

Martin was brought up in Yorkshire, studied at the University of Oxford and qualified as a barrister. He has since worked as a freelance journalist for a number of publications while writing novels, starting with Bilton, a comic novel about journalists, and The Bobby Dazzlers, a comic novel set in the North of England, for which he was named Spectator Young Writer of the Year. His series of detective novels about Jim Stringer, a railwayman reassigned to the North Eastern Railway Police in Edwardian England, includes The Necropolis Railway, The Blackpool Highflyer, The Lost Luggage Porter, Murder at Deviation Junction and Death on a Branch Line. He has also written the non-fiction book; How to Get Things Really Flat: A Man's Guide to Ironing, Dusting and Other Household Arts.

Reviews

[Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll forgive the editor for being British. As a collector of quote books, I'd say this attempt is decently organized and other collections could take a hint or two at everything from font to layout and topic selection. The trouble is that it does lean a bit towards the east side of the Atlantic. And I praise any attempt to cover both intellectual and pop culture quotes, but I cannot agree with the editor's sense of humor. There's nothing particularly witty, clever, amusing, or interesting about many of the lines he has chosen. Go figure. Honestly, you'd do better off with another book of quotations unless you're stuck in an airport for 7 hours.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a humor reference book that I'd love to own. There were several laugh-out-loud quips here, although the majority are just clever (not that "clever" is ever bad!) A fun resource on clever quotations.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a quote or reference book, then a leisure read. However, it has some great and funny quips!

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting book, and funny, but not meant to be read straight through (as I tried to do). I got it from the library and wished I had made note of some of my favorite quotes.