All Reading Addicts need a bit of a laugh now and again so we have scoured the internet for some of the best literary puns, bookish jokes, and wordy funnies around. A little bit of fun wordplay can brighten up even the dullest days for many readers and writers, especially when it is particularly clever… Or particularly daft.
We hope to make you giggle, groan, and guffaw!
Do you dare continue? These jokes do not get any punnier… I mean, funnier…
Some of these are koala-ty jokes!
We hope that raised a smile, or made you laugh. If you can offer any more wordy or bookish puns and jokes we cannot wait to hear them!
A study from the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics says parents who read to their children are not only strengthening their bond but also increasing their chances at school. The study shows that kids who are read one short book a day enter their first school years hearing almost 300,000 more words than those whose parents didn’t read to them at all. Of course when parents read more than one book the number increases again; five books per day increases their vocabulary by 1.4 million words!
The best kind of puns are the ones you don’t see coming, that hit you upside the head with their quick wit and frustratingly clever word play. We are suckers for playful language here at For Reading Addicts, and to be honest even a simple pun can lighten the mood.
Check out some of the best literary puns we have come across on the world wide web- some more groan-worthy than others!
2019 has been a busy year for the site so far with over 300 new definitions being added thanks to an increase in online slang and a rise in social and political debate on social media. Some may moan about ‘identity culture’ causing devision, however many more find the new language created around gender and sexuality to be empowering and inclusive. One such word added to Dictionary.com is ‘aromantic’, meaning: “a person who is free from romantic attraction to anyone or free from the desire for romantic love.” For those who would identify as ‘aromantic’ this addition to the dictionary is a validating and positive experience.
We have chosen a selection of our favourite additions below, but visit the dictionary website for the full list of new and popular words and phrases for 2019.
Among the most commonly misspelled were “niece,” “cancelled,” “desert”, and “beautiful.” And then there is the state of Massachusetts, whose most Googled request was for the spelling of their own state… Awkward.
Check our the map below!
A French book fair ‘Scène Young Adult’ at the Salon du Livre in Paris has drawn the ire of French authors, who say that replacing French words with English is “unbearable act of cultural delinquency”. Scene YA signs and displays read “Le Live”, “Bookroom”, “photobooth” and “bookquizz”, described as “sub-English knowns as globish”.
Well known writers such as Leïla Slimani, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Muriel Barbery and Catherine Millet all took great offence at English infiltrating their literary space and wrote an open letter published in Le Monde expressing their disappointment.
Other words of 2018 include Vegan, MeToo, and Gaslight- a real reflection of the direction 2018 has taken. Many of this year’s most used, newest, and redefined words are coming from the left side of the political spectrum. As a reaction against ingrained cultural sexism, institutional racism and xenophobia, words like gammon or whitewash have been on the rise.
Some may find the word ‘gammon’ offensive, and they are entitled to express their distaste, however the word is only truly offensive to those who the word is aimed at. The word first came about when a pattern emerged on BBC’s Question Time. It became apparent that older white men became quite pink in the face while ranting about ‘bloody foreigners’, ‘Brexit’, and the EU. It is not, despite many wannabe victims insisting it so, racist.
The full list of Collins Dictionary’s Words of the Year 2018 are below.
I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue has been on our radios since 1972 with regulars Humphrey Lyttelton, Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer, Tim Brooke-Taylor, and Willie Rushton. Throughout the years, the “antidote to panel shows” has featured comedy greats such as Sandi Toksvig, Pam Ayres, Victoria Wood, Bill Oddie, Richard Osman, Stephen Fry, and Jo Brand.
As well as the genius of Mornington Crescent, the team regularly come up with entries into the Uxbridge English Dictionary, an imaginary dictionary full of daffynitions (similar to transpositional puns).
Check out our selection of daffynitions below!
Well now a student at an unknown university has created the most useless phonetic alphabet imaginable. Could you imagine anything less helpful? Scroll down to see.
Ok, so perhaps the only people impressed with cheeky banter from a retail social media account are possibly just Reading Addicts… And it is a good job you are all here!
Settle down with a cup of tea and these 15 witty, silly, and funny quips from Swansea Waterstones.
I read a book about ship building the other day.
It was riveting…