Alexander McCall Smith

I had the good fortune to attend a lecture at Pacific Lutheran University where I heard Alexander McCall Smith. Alexander is a 60 year Serial Novelist born in Africa and technically from Scotland. He is one of the funniest men I heard speak in a great while and I'm now determined to read every book he has ever written. I've included below a list of HIS favorite humorous books. These aren't ones that he's written, just ones that make him giggle. Seriously. He came out on stage to sound of a bagpiper, wearing a kilt and blazer with an absurd comb-over. I was immediately intrigued.

If anyone has read him before let me know what you think. I'm torn about which serioes to start first--he has four.

Alexander McCall Smith's favourite humorous books

Alexander McCall Smith is a professor of medical ethics at Edinburgh university and the author of more than 50 books. He is best known for his series about a female Botswanan detective, The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency. His latest work is a collection of short stories, Portuguese Irregular Verbs.

1. Mapp and Lucia by EF Benson

2. Lucia in Wartime by Tom Holt

3. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
4. The Young Visiters (sic) by Daisy AshfordMr Salteena, "an elderly man of 42", enjoys inviting young girls to stay with him.

5. Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
6. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

7. The English Teacher by RK Narayan

8. Die Gefangennahme eines Postboten (The Capture of a Postman) by Michael von Poser

9. The Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-year-old Boy by Sigmund Freud
10. The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury