# I Want Something Light and Amusing to Read **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [January 24, 2022, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312 "2022-01-24T15:09:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2022, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/101 "2022-01-26T18:14:17Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Really? I don’t find [Christopher Moore’s] style at all like Vonnegut’s. [. . .] > > I don’t find their styles similar at all. Well, Great Minds Don’t Always Think Alike. I saw some vague resemblance to Vonnegut in his style. And it wasn’t just me – the blurb on the back cover of one of his books gushed that he is the next Kurt Vonnegut – I though that was a bit overboard. Kurt Vonnegut he ain’t exactly. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/102 "2022-01-27T02:14:41Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Really? I don’t find his style at all like Vonnegut’s. I’ve never felt the need to quote a Vonnegut witticism every other page the way I do with Moore. In fact, Vonnegut doesn’t seem at all given to witticism. He writes stories that are weird and frequently outrageous, but not laugh-out-loud funny. > > I don’t find their styles similar at all. Feels more Pratchett to me than Vonnegut. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/103 "2022-01-27T12:32:36Z")
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving From Wikipedia - “The novel deals with serious spiritual issues, such as the importance of faith, matters of social justice, and the concept of fate in the context of an outlandish narrative.” I remember laughing out loud at several points while reading this when it first came out. I should probably read it again. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole I read this after a similar thread about funny books. I liked it a lot. Other people, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/104 "2022-01-27T15:18:59Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving IMHO, amusing but not light. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/105 "2022-01-27T15:29:24Z")
If you haven’t read them, there are always **Jane Austen’s** novels. _Emma_ and _Northanger Abbey_ are outright comedies and _Pride and Prejudice_ has slyly comic elements strewn throughout (the novel starts with the sentence “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”, one of the wittiest first lines ever) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/106 "2022-01-27T15:32:05Z")
For an often amusing take on diagnostic cytopathology, don’t miss Richard DeMay’s _The Art And Science Of Cytopathology_. He has a quirky writing style and wry comments on various weighty matters, and speaking of weight, even though it’s a four-volume set, the individual books aren’t all that heavy, though the price might be off-putting to some. If you’re after even more amusement, buy what Amazon claims is the Middle English version of the book: [https://www.amazon.com/Richard-Mac-Demay-Cytopathology-2011-10-16/dp/B01GNOSSBO/ref=monarch\_sidesheet](https://www.amazon.com/Richard-Mac-Demay-Cytopathology-2011-10-16/dp/B01GNOSSBO/ref=monarch_sidesheet) Since that style of English went out of fashion about 1500 A.D., I imagine that DeMay comes off sounding like Chaucer: _Ye knowe ek that in forme of celles is chaunge_ _Withinne a thousand cohesive groupes, and wordes tho_ _That hadden mitotic activitees, now wonder nyce and straunge_ _Us thinketh hem, and yet thei spake hem so_ Should be a gas. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/107 "2022-01-27T17:27:48Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > IMHO, amusing but not light. Point taken. Not as heavy as say, Atlas Shrugged or as light as the Hiaasen books. Like the Wiki entry says, serious issues but I found it easy to read. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/108 "2022-01-27T18:30:42Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > If you haven’t read them, there are always **Jane Austen’s** novels. _Emma_ and _Northanger Abbey_ are outright comedies and _Pride and Prejudice_ has slyly comic elements strewn throughout (the novel starts with the sentence “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”, one of the wittiest first lines ever) Or perhaps _Pride and Prejudice and Zombies_. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a zombie in possession of brains, must be in want of more brains.” ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/109 "2022-02-06T13:16:01Z")
Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer **Sorcery and Cecelia**. Epistalotory book in the Regency era. And there’s magic. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/110 "2022-02-06T13:36:27Z")
Many of these are anthologies, collections of columns written for various magazines. Anything by Robert Benchley. Patrick F. McManus for “ourdoorsey” themes. Last books that made me laugh out loud. Jean Shepherd books (Remember the movie “A Christmas Story”?) Daniel Pinkwater’s autobiographical books. Rather obscure, but “Cobwebs and Cream Teas” and “Dry Rot and Daffodils” by Mary Mackie. As the cover blurb has it: “Behind the scenes in a National Trust House”. Betty MacDonald is famous for “The Egg and I”, but she also wrote three sequels well worth reading. We Took to the Woods by Louise Dickinson Rich - life in the Maine Woods. The Northwood’s Reader’s series by Culley Gage - life in Michigan’s upper Peninsula . ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/111 "2022-02-06T15:47:49Z")
For Pratchett fans, and fans of detective novels, I recommend **Bridge of Birds** by Barry Hughart. It won the 1985 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and it deserves to be better known. There are also two sequels which are just as good. The books are set in ‘an ancient China that never was’, with magic, gods, ghosts, etc. They are light, readable, fast-moving, with intricate plots, and many original ideas, and hilarious throughout. > **[Bridge of Birds: Two five-star reviews | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and...](https://fantasyliterature.com/reviews/bridge-of-birds/)** ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/112 "2022-02-06T16:30:28Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > What are some light and funny books that I can read? I love history, so amusing takes on that are an option _Chicken Every Sunday_ by Rosemary Taylor. (Adapted into a movie.) _Ernie’s America. The Best of Ernie Pyle’s 1930s Travel Dispatches._ _Hard Tack and Coffee_ by John D. Billings. Later incorporated in _Soldier Life in the Union and Confederate Armies_ (Humor is mainly the Union army part.) Edited by Philip Van Doren Stern, Bill Veeck’s sports books, but especially _Thirty Tons a Day_. For first-person reminisces, any of the books put out by Reminisce magazine. For example: _When the Banks Closed, We Opened Our Hearts._ ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/113 "2022-02-06T16:35:52Z")
Can you believe I’ve read two of these? _Chicken Every Sunday_ and _Hard Tack and Coffee_. We must share the same tastes. I’ll look into the others you mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/114 "2022-02-06T16:42:24Z")
If you liked Hard Tack and Coffee (U.S. Civil war) you might try Over the Top (WWI) by Arthur Guy Empey. Darker, but with flashes of humor. Else… The Bark Covered House by William Nowlin. Drug Store Days by Richard Armour ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/115 "2022-02-06T22:55:23Z")
I’d forgotten all about Reminisce magazine. I think I looked forward to them more than my grandma did. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312/116 "2022-02-07T02:25:15Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > Daniel Pinkwater’s autobiographical books Or any of Pinkwater’s novels, no matter what age group they’re aimed at. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-something-light-and-amusing-to-read/958312.md?page=5)