Not So Funny When It Happened edited by Tim Cahill

Yikes, just when I had read one in this series that rated average, it slipped back down to below average again. And to add insult to injury, this book shared some stories with some of their other books that I've read (Whose Panties are These, Sand in my Bra, and more). I mean, if you don't have time enough to at least have unique stories in each of your books, perhaps you shouldn't be publishing them. But alas, they're probably just trying to make money and needed the filler.

This book is a part of a series on humourous travel short stories. And the stories are all short, but I wouldn't call them all humourous. In fact, this book didn't have very many that I considered giggle worthy. One story was lamenting a large rump while on the beach, another is about having breakfast with a baboon. Still other stories involve airport travel and travel by train with a frog. They were all set in different places, some in the United States, others in various parts of the world. But honestly, for a good portion it didn't even matter where they were as it had no bearing on the story.

I just can't figure out why the editor of this book thought some of these stories were funny. Sure a good portion are from well known humor or travel writers. But to be honest I hadn't heard of most of them and there was probably a reason for that. They didn't even make me crack a smile at times. Sure there were a few gems but there weren't very many. Some of the stories could be considered uncouth but there wasn't really anything too objectionable.

Not a good book in a not so good series. I can't wait until I'm finally through the last of this series and can move on to better things.

Not So Funny When It Happened
Copyright 2000
200 pages