# Recommend some truly funny books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 7, 2005, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420 "2005-07-07T05:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/1 "2005-07-07T05:48:35Z")
Millions, We’re not talking about collections of funny short stories here. Of those, there are tons. We’re talking about novels, ones that are out there to amuse us all. I started “Geek Love” a week ago on the recommendation of a workmate and it was miserable and depressing, well-written in segments, sure, but I didn’t like a single character and I ended up leaving on a plane out of Oakland half on purpose, half on accident. I can’t do that to my brain again. I need something like Confederacy of Dunces (of course, nothing will be held to that fairly unreachable standard), something to make me want to stay inside on Sundays. blue, birdmonster ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/2 "2005-07-07T06:09:47Z")
These are books I considered laugh-out-loud funny. YMMV. _Big Trouble_ by Dave Barry _Thank You, Jeeves_ by P. G. Wodehouse There are more, but it’s late and I’m tired. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/3 "2005-07-07T06:22:24Z")
_Lucky Jim_, by Kingsley Amis. The funniest book ever. ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/4 "2005-07-07T07:00:52Z")
_Straight Man_, by Richard Russo. It’s pure comedic gold, with some biting satire and disharmony lingering beneath the surface. I’ve never had quite so much fun reading a book before. I assume that you’ve seen all the talk in CS about Terry Pratchett’s books. Most of them are pretty hilarious. I think, for humour value, _Hogfather_ is a good bet. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/5 "2005-07-07T07:04:41Z")
Neal Stephenson’s _Cryptonomicon_ is the only book I can remember reading that had me literally laughing so hard I was gasping for air. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/6 "2005-07-07T07:08:32Z")
I was going to recommend Wodehouse, too–but only his Jeeves and Wooster novels; the others aren’t as good, IMO. My favorite is _The Mating Season_. Pure genius. Also, I just finished reading (for the third time)\* Evolution Man\*, by Roy Lewis. A strange but very funny book. The reader reviewers on Amazon are [breathless](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679750096/qid=1120720970/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-8401033-9413467) about it. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/7 "2005-07-07T07:15:24Z")
I was going to recommend Sarah Caudwell, but I couldn’t remember her name until I very coincidentally ran across it in [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=324315) thread. Extremely funny, but with a dry, minimal wit that might no appeal to everyone. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/8 "2005-07-07T08:45:18Z")
I’m going to put in a few reccomendations, but take 'em with a grain of salt: I never could get into Confederacy of Dunces, so YMMV. Donald E. Westlake is grand fun. He has a series of books focusing on a gang of ne’er-do-well crooks, lead by a chap by the name of Dortmunder. IMO, the best of this group is Jimmy the Kid. There was a cheesy movie made from the book starring Gary Coleman and Don Adams, but it didn’t really translate well. Alas, it’s currently out of print. This [collection](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446693022/ref=pd_sim_b_4/104-4563497-0951930?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance) of short stories may be a good introduction to Dortmunder and his gang, but I can’t reccomend it from personal experience. I don’t know whether you like fantasy or not, but if you do the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede are very amusing. Granted, they are usually considered ‘young adult’ books, but are enjoyable for decrepit adults, too. The first book in the series, chronologically, is [Dealing With Dragons](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/015204566X/qid=1120726123/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_ur_1/104-4563497-0951930?v=glance&s=books&n=507846), and is a good place to begin. A number of typical fairy tale and fantasy conventions get turned upside down, to great effect. Continuing the ‘young adult’ thread I have going: Richard Peck’s books dealing with Blossom Culp are a riot. The first book in this series is [The Ghost Belonged to Me](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140386718/qid=1120726303/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_ur_1/104-4563497-0951930?v=glance&s=books&n=507846), but the best book of the three I’ve read is [Ghosts I Have Been](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0141310960/ref=pd_sim_b_1/104-4563497-0951930?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance). Wodehouse is another good reccomendation. I’m inclined to the opinion that Jeeves is the most evil, and Machiavellian, servant character ever created, but that’s a minority opinion, I’ll admit. And does nothing to change the enjoyment that the books give me. Finally, I’ll include my two favorite Farley Mowat books. He’s best known, of course, for Never Cry Wolf, which while it shows some of his humor isn’t what I’d consider a funny book as a whole. However, he has two memoires that purport to be accounts of his own experiences that are grand fun. The first is about growing up with an unusual dog: [The Dog who Wouldn’t Be](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553279289/qid=1120726686/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_ur_1/104-4563497-0951930?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). The second is his account of the trials and tribulations of owning his own sailboat: [The Boat who Wouldn’t Float](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/055327788X/ref=pd_sim_b_2/104-4563497-0951930?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance). Both are highly reccomended. If the touches of humor in Dog appeal to you for seeing what living with a budding naturalist might be like, I also want to suggest Gerald Durrel’s [My Family and Other Animals](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0142004413/qid=1120726762/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_ur_1/104-4563497-0951930?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). And now I’ll shut up before I keep typing til sunrise. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/9 "2005-07-07T09:41:37Z")
Robert Asprin’s **MYTH series** And the first two books of his **Phule’s series** **Good Omens** (of course), by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman ---
**Author:** ![blackhobyah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blackhobyah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blackhobyah)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/10 "2005-07-07T10:28:21Z")
It’s hard because funny is so much a matter of personal taste, and sometimes of the person you are when you’re reading. I second “My Family and Other Animals”, it’s terrific. Favourites of mine are Jane Gardam’s “Bilgewater”, a sweet, but with a sharp edge, coming of age story about a very bright young girl. “Queen of the Tambourine” by the same author, which is a series of letters from one woman to another woman, as both their lives fall apart. It doesn’t sound funny, but it is, as the letter writer gets increasingly desperate. It’s been years since I read Evelyn Waugh’s “Decline and Fall” but I thought it was hysterical at the time, and not as precious as the better known, “Brideshead Revisited” which is rarely funny at all. If you can bring yourself to read poetry, Chrisopher Fry’s, “The Lady’s not for Burning” has his characteristic limpid humour at its best. I heard this play on the radio when I was a teenager, and I’ve read it several times since. It is an odd enchantment, but worth a try perhaps. Connie Willis “To Say Nothing of the Dog”, is time-travelling fantasy and Victorian pastiche all in one. Amusing and very clever. I loved this book. Another off-beat series which I enjoyed a lot are the Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next novels, which are endlessly inventive. I’m not sure how to describe them, they’re literary mysteries set in an alternative universe, where fiction has the same presence as TV. Sort of. You’d really have to read one to get the idea I think. More mainstream funnies … in the way of crime I’d recommend Eileen Dreyer and Robert B Parker for terrific one-liners. I find it hard to read the earlier Spenser mysteries without giggling out loud. ---
**Author:** ![Aankh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@Aankh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aankh)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/11 "2005-07-07T11:24:08Z")
Superb linguistic and political humour: _The Complete Yes Minister_ and _The Complete Yes Prime Minister_, both by Jonathan Lynn and Anthony Jay. Irreverent religious humour: _Good Omens_ by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Brit humour (with the pinky fingah out, wot): Anything by P.G.Wodehouse. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/12 "2005-07-07T11:29:48Z")
Everything I have read by Christopher Moore has me laughing out loud. ---
**Author:** ![MikeTheTiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3be4f8/32.png) [@MikeTheTiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeTheTiger)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/13 "2005-07-07T11:29:55Z")
Forrest Gump M_A_S\*H ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/14 "2005-07-07T11:34:56Z")
Cold Comfort Farm had me laughing so hard I cried. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/15 "2005-07-07T11:48:37Z")
_Auntie Mame_ and _First Lady_ by Patrick Dennis. ---
**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:** [July 7, 2005, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/16 "2005-07-07T12:16:06Z")
I recently enjoyed Kick me : adventures in adolescence by Paul Feig. Summary from my library’s web site: The creator of the cult classic TV series, "Freaks and Geeks, " offers a truly hilarious and blisteringly honest look at his real-life high school experiences to which every adult can relate. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/17 "2005-07-07T12:18:09Z")
Kinky. Kinky, Kinky, KKKKiiiiinnnnnkkkkkkyyyyy. As in Kinky Friedman, mystery writer. His books are laugh out loud funny. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/18 "2005-07-07T12:29:55Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > These are books I considered laugh-out-loud funny. YMMV. > > _Big Trouble_ by Dave Barry > _Thank You, Jeeves_ by P. G. Wodehouse > > There are more, but it’s late and I’m tired. _Big Trouble_ was also made into a really first rate (and often overlooked) movie as well - features Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Tom Sizemore, Jason Lee, Dennis Farina, lots others. Hysterical. Excellent. Can’t recommend it enough. “So this is Miami? They can keep it.” “Was that a goat?” “You can’t beat these when they’re fresh.” ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/19 "2005-07-07T12:59:42Z")
My favorite Westlake is Help, I’m Being Held Prisoner. > [@OtakuLoki](#): > > Donald E. Westlake is grand fun. He has a series of books focusing on a gang of ne’er-do-well crooks, lead by a chap by the name of Dortmunder. IMO, the best of this group is Jimmy the Kid. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420/20 "2005-07-07T13:09:05Z")
Second for Richard Russo’s **Straight Man**. Apparently I’m the first to mention Bill Bryson: start with **A Walk in the Woods**. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-truly-funny-books/311420.md?page=2)