Thanks for these suggestions! I'm already a fan of Fry and Laurie, of David Mitchell, and have read the Night Watch. (And some Asimov, but in my native tongue.) So it's highly likely I'd enjoy the rest of these things.
Asimov is a very mediocre writer, stylistically speaking. People read Asimov for the ideas, not for his prose, so I wouldn't recommend him in the context in which we're speaking.
