Thursday, August 7, 2008

LOL


Since I spend a lot of time in my car driving to and from work, meetings, etc., I have signed-up to receive books on tape from www.simplyaudiobooks.com
It's better for me to read the serious stuff right off the pages, so I tend to order light-hearted stuff narrated by terrific voices.

I am laughing out loud when I listen to any of the Jeeves/Wooster series by P.G. Wodehouse. They are hilarious! This morning as I was driving in to work I was slapping the steering wheel, laughing, and hitting rewind so I could hear a searingly witty line again and again.

Jeeves is Bertie Wooster's valet (you should know that my secret dream is to have my own valet) and the setting is, of course, England. P.G. Wodehouse started writing this series in 1919. It was also made into a BBC series starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry (I own the set if you ever want to borrow.)

Bertie is part of the idle rich living it up in London and various English country estates. He is surrounded by friends with the best names such as Gussie Fink-Nottle, Pongo Twistleton, and Tuppy Glossop, has a couple of aunts who come right at him with the best knife-sharp lines, and although worldly and wealthy he is surprisingly naive. Any time Bertie comes up with a plan to fix anyone's problems it turns into a disaster. Enter Jeeves--always calm, brilliant, low key, a perfect gentleman's gentleman, and ready to save the day.

One of the best lines that had me laughing this morning was the following from Aunt Agatha to Bertie, "Wake up, Bertie, you old ass! she cried in a voice that hit me between the eyebrows and went out at the back of my head." I'm laughing as I type this. The book I'm listening to today, Right Ho, Jeeves, is full of lines like that. Anyway, it starts my day off in a toddling-good way!

1 comment:

  1. I can't wait to check this out, maybe download on my iPod tonight for the trip to San Fran! Thanks and again wonderful job with the lesson yesterday. Your lessons always feel like you are giving them to just me. Almost like an older sister I've never had, straight to the point and each rings true in my heart. I still remember things you have said about the Bood of Mormon and all day today I keep reminding myself to listen to the voice that is not my own. Many thanks and I hope you have a wonderful week.

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