If I could give this book 1 million stars, I would!

"Tu-whit tu-whoo" is what British owls cry, and Jerome K. Jerome certainly wooed me with his wit and owlish intelligence. He is such a funny bird!

In *Three Men in a Boat*, my favorite scene had to be the various fishermen claiming and bragging that they had caught the fish on the wall in the boardinghouse living room, and in *Three Men on the Bummel* I laughed out loud in so many places that I lost track.

Speaking of losing track, just like the three blokes did a few times in Germany on woodland roads and paths, you need to go lose yourself in these books for a few hours. (Note the hilarious scene with the shop delivery boys and dogs in Marlow on the Thames, which is where my husband happens to hail from and where we had our UK wedding.)

A heck of a lot of fun for anyone who is willing to skim past the very 1890s attitudes toward social politics.

---

“It always does seem to me that I am doing more work than I should do. It is not that I object to the work, mind you; I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart.

You cannot give me too much work; to accumulate work has almost become a passion with me: my study is so full of it now, that there is hardly an inch of room for any more. I shall have to throw out a wing soon.

And I am careful of my work, too. Why, some of the work that I have by me now has been in my possession for years and years, and there isn’t a finger-mark on it. I take a great pride in my work; I take it down now and then and dust it. No man keeps his work in a better state of preservation than I do.

But, though I crave for work, I still like to be fair. I do not ask for more than my proper share.”

MY FAVORITE BOOK
and now i own it:)

i’m so happy thank you aksmksmwkmsksmwkmswmsmsmsms

Still laugh-out-loud funny after all these years. The central joke is the way our attempts to create idyllic situations seem doomed to fail. A group of us had great fun discussing this book at the first Idler Book Club. Jerome was the editor of The Idler magazine during the Edwardian era and also wrote many essays on idleness, collected in Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow and Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow.

I really, really tried to read this, but just not for me. too dated, too wordy. just not funny.

Interesting book but not much pleasure reading it. Quite out-dated

Since this book was an influence on Connie Willis' fabulous and funny novel (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), I figured I should read it and see what she was getting at.
It's a short, comic Victorian novel. The humor is based on the fact that none of the events of the book are of any importance whatsoever, but that the narrator makes every little thing out to be practically an incident from a heroic epic.
It's very short, and it is funny - but I think it's good that it's short, because I don't think that it could have been sustained much longer.
(Willis is funnier.)

What can I say about this book. It is the funniest, best written comedy book ever to have been written. Sadly it makes all comedic writers, myself included, sound forced, clumsy and gauché.

Happily there has never ever been a film adaption that was anywhere approaching the quality of the writing and all have failed to reproduce the gentle mocking humour.

This book is a must read, it is more important that you read this book than any other one you could think of especially if you happen to like English culture from a time when there were gentlemen endeavouring to pursue 'gentlemen's pursuits' whatever they are.

One word of warning, do not under any circumstances read anything else by poor Jerome K. Jerome all of his other writings range from poor to terrible, 'Three Men in a Boat' was the pinnacle of his achievement, which is sad because it was, I believe his first book. So don't bother with the second book that they have rammed into this edition which is called 'Three Men on the Bummel' it is dreadful, buy or indeed download from Project Gutenburg 'Three Men in a Boat' and read it, then like me you will want probably want to go out and buy two special edition hardbacks because you will read one often and save one for your bookcase.

This book is like that it is a treasure and a treasure of the English language

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It's laugh-out-loud funny in many spots.

Apparently Jerome had intended to write "The Story of the Thames", its scenery and history, with some "humorous relief", but the humor took over the book. (He had just returned from his honeymoon and "had the feeling that all the world's troubles were over".)

So it turned out to be mostly a set of funny stories about the three men (to say nothing of the dog) and their adventures on the Thames and other bodies of water. There is the occasional bit of history and scenery tossed in, and Jerome waxes poetic once in a while, but the effect is rather spoiled because I would get a paragraph or two into a poetic bit before realizing that he wasn't building up to a joke.

Three Men on the Bummel isn't quite as good, but has its hilarious moments. It takes place years later, when two of the three men have wives and children they must figure out how to ditch so that they can take a bicycling tour of Germany. It was written not long before WWI, and the references to the extreme orderliness of German society are discomforting. Jerome finds much to admire, but deplores their "blind obedience to everything in buttons".

Two delightful and timeless pieces of whimsy about an age when good-meaning British duffers still ruled the world. Well, not really, but it's nice to pretend. Take a gentle meander up the Thames and through the countryside of Germany with the redoubtable Mr. Jerome. Still fun.

Сложно говорить об этой книге. Она классная, милая, добрая, местами смешная, местами остроумная... Трое интеллигентных молодых английских джентльменов решают разнообразить свои будни путешествием на лодке. По ходу действия они рассуждают о самых разных вещах, умно и тонко шутят друг над другом и всячески развлекаются.
Книга очень милая, и оттого кажется наивной, хотя наив этот не так прост. К сожалению, сюжет не захватывает, поэтому эта книга скорее для беззаботных дачных выходных, или - да, для речного круиза.
В целом здорово и легко читается.