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Sometimes, in our seriousness, we neglect the pleasure (and mental relaxation) that come from light, humorous reading. Obviously, humor comes from the Lord, just like everything else that is good (even the bad things in life started out as good things He made but that the enemy twisted). There are funny bits in the Bible – can you read Rhoda’s response to Peter’s knocking at the door in Acts 12 without chuckling? An American author who is known for his light-hearted and often humorous stories is O. Henry (see my review of a collection of his stories). In Great Britain, although there are many authors to pick from, one who stands out is P. G. Wodehouse.
P.G. Wodehouse lived from 1881 to 1973 and was known as a comic genius. He spent most of his life as a citizen of Great Britain but became an American citizen in 1955. He is probably best known for his Jeeves and Wooster novels, although I like his other novels better (my favorite is A Damsel in Distress). But he also wrote many delightful short stories, twelve of which are collected in The Man With Two Left Feet and Other Stories. Wodehouse, like O. Henry, pokes gentle fun at people in clever plots but you can tell that he really likes his characters. Some of the stories bring a quiet smile and some bring a hearty laugh but all are fun to read. My favorite in this collection is At Geisenheimer’s, perhaps since it reminds me so much of a story that O. Henry might have written. Take a break sometime from your serious reading and read a little Wodehouse, if only one short story at a time. And if you like these stories (high school reading level), there are many more to pick from – he was a prolific writer.