READERSVOICE.COM aims to give a few samples from interesting secondhand books. 

Here are a few humor books, gleaned from the recent Lifeline Bookfest, which is an enormous sale of secondhand books run by the charity Lifeline, in Brisbane. They should have events like this all around the world. You never know what you’ll find.

Leopold Fechtner, 1911-2001, spent decades collecting funny gags. Many of these are featured in his book 5000 one and two liners for any and every occasion, published in 1973 by the Parker Publishing Co., of West Nyack, New York. Mr Fechtner was the curator of the American Museum of Humor in New York. The museum was founded in 1972 and was located in SoHo, Manhattan. It closed in 2002. Mr Fechtner reportedly had a personal library of 3500 books and magazines of humor. He lived in Kew Gardens, Queens. 

Here are some of his gags: “Will you love me when I’m old and grey?” “Why must I wait that long?”

 “In case I take out this life insurance on my husband and he dies tomorrow, what will I get?” “Ten years.”

“Doris became engaged to an x-ray technician.” “I wonder what he sees in her.”

“Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?” “At the bottom.”

“How did you find the weather when you were away?” “I just went outside and there it was.”

My friend wants to work in a bank. He says there is money in it.

When I told my doctor about my loss of memory, he made me pay in advance.

I’ll never forget my first words in the theatre. Peanuts! Popcorn!

— See also Leopold Fechtner’s book Encyclopedia of Ad-Libs, Crazy Jokes, Insults and Wisecracks, published 1977 by Parker Publishing.