# Recommendations of Humorous Literature? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 27, 2007, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556 "2007-06-27T00:25:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/21 "2007-06-27T06:48:15Z")
Authors that have made me laugh out loud reading on public transport: Canadian Mordecai Richler, banned South African now Englishman Tom Sharpe, Philip Roth - The Great American Novel got me into baseball, all of Bill Bryson is laugh out loud funny, Carl Hiassen if you like thrillers or maybe Kinky Friedman. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/22 "2007-06-27T07:31:14Z")
_Bridge of Birds_ by Barry Hughart, a chronicle of the adventures of Master Li and Number Ten Ox in a fantastic version of ancient China. I have read it at least once a year for many years now, and I still laugh out loud at it. It also has the virtue of engaging characters and a rather beautiful story. I believe it’s available in an omnibus with two other books of their adventures (the remainder of the chronicles having been destroyed by the Neo-Confucians for corrupting the Empire, as I recall ;)). Another slightly odd pick: _Calamity Trail_ by Dan Parkinson. It’s hard to find, being out of print, but you might find a cheap copy on Amazon. I’m not into westerns, and would never have read it had I not heard my father–who almost _never_ laughs out loud–snickering over it. It turns out that it’s more surrealist slapstick comedy wrapped around fantasy wrapped around a parody of a western. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/23 "2007-06-27T10:56:34Z")
**Thorne Smith** wrote some great comic novels back in the 20s & 30s - he’s maybe best remembered for _Topper_ but I’d suggest either _Turnabout_ or _The Stray Lamb_. In one a husband and wife switch bodies and in the other a man turns into a series of different animals. Some of the scenes are priceless. Or, for a more modern author, try \*_Barry Fitzhugh_. _Pest Control_, for instance. A struggling bug exterminator is mistaken for a hit man… ---
**Author:** ![SpectBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@SpectBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpectBrain)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/24 "2007-06-27T18:17:47Z")
[QUOTE=Miss Purl McKnittington] I third Chris Moore. I just read _A Dirty Job_, and found it both bizarre and hilarious. I also second Patrick McManus. He writes humorous essays, so there’s no plot per se, but he is hilarious. Surprisingly, he writes about outdoorsy pursuits (hunting, fishing) but does it so so well that people who don’t know the first thing about killing woodland creatures can enjoy it. You may also want to check out [To Say Nothing of the Dog](http://www.amazon.com/Say-Nothing-Dog-Connie-Willis/dp/0553575384) by Connie Willis. It’s not as, let’s say jaded as the other books you’ve named, but the humor is dry and the tone is light. A book that makes me smile and laugh every time I read it. [/QUOTE] I’d like to add a second for Christopher Moore. I’ve read most of his published books and they’re all hilarious. Try “Island of the Sequined Love Nun”, “Practical Demon keeping”, or “Fluke”. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/25 "2007-06-27T18:53:03Z")
[QUOTE=SpectBrain] I’d like to add a second for Christopher Moore. [/QUOTE] Try to keep up. You were actually fifth. Second and third also miscounted, but I’ll give second the benefit of a doubt and chalk that up to a simulpost. 🆒 I’ve also read Barry Fitzhugh and Donald Westlake. I’d suggest them after Moore, Hiassen, Buckley, and Dorsey. I’d even add Brian Wiprud ahead of Fitzhugh and Westlake. Dave Barry and Patrick McManus are essayists, which isn’t what you asked for. However, Barry does have a novel, Big Trouble, which was big fun. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/26 "2007-06-27T18:55:33Z")
[QUOTE=don’t ask] . . . banned South African now Englishman Tom Sharpe . . . [/QUOTE] Of all the stuff mentioned in this thread so far, Tom Sharpe seems to me closest to the sensibility that appealed to the OP in Heller’s _Catch-22_. _Riotous Assembly_ is utterly appalling and screamingly funny at the same time, and _Indecent Exposure_ isn’t far behind it. _The Great Pursuit_ is probably funnier if you’ve had some connection with the literary world, and ranks behind the others for that reason only. The others are at times almost too bitter and over-the-top, but still hilarious. Twain is not a bad suggestion, especially in some of the more scabrous and lesser-known works (_Letters from the Earth_, “Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven”, etc., but ultimately Twain has an affection for humanity that I see no evidence of in Sharpe’s work, and that’s not really a feature of _Catch-22_ as I recall it, though it’s been many years since I read it. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/27 "2007-06-27T19:04:12Z")
Carl Hiaassen - by no means great literature, but most of his books have me laughing out loud at least once. Janet Evonovich’s Stephanie Plum books - also not great literature - in fact these may be classed as complete and total trash, but she always does make me laugh - and it isn’t like they are difficult. David Sedaris can be funny - I think it sort of depends on how sentimental he feels, but I know a lot of people who always find him funny. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/28 "2007-06-27T19:21:50Z")
[QUOTE=Askance] **The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy** books from Douglas Adams should keep you going quite a while. [/QUOTE] Glory Lane by Alan Dean Foster is in a similar vein. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/29 "2007-06-27T19:25:01Z")
Hiassen- Go with _Sick Puppy_. Just started _Fluke_ after finishing _Lamb_ by Moore, and I agree that he’s hilarious. Looks like I get to second Tom Robbins. Vonnnegut has some funny stuff, too. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/30 "2007-06-27T19:46:55Z")
[QUOTE=rackensack] Of all the stuff mentioned in this thread so far, Tom Sharpe seems to me closest to the sensibility that appealed to the OP in Heller’s _Catch-22_. _Riotous Assembly_ is utterly appalling and screamingly funny at the same time, and _Indecent Exposure_ isn’t far behind it. _The Great Pursuit_ is probably funnier if you’ve had some connection with the literary world, and ranks behind the others for that reason only. The others are at times almost too bitter and over-the-top, but still hilarious. [/QUOTE] I’ll third the Tom Sharpe. Gut-bustingly funny (and horrible), particularly the two South African ones; and one of my faves, the lesser-known _The Throwback_. I laughed until I nearly pissed myself reading that one. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/31 "2007-06-27T19:50:01Z")
Bill Bryson, as someone said, is often laugh-out-loud funny. He’s a travel writer, and some of his stuff is kind of irritating (he always goes for the joke over accuracy), but sometimes he’s fantastic. My mother-in-law gave me a book of travel humor essays once, and late at night, exhausted, I read the Bill Bryson essay about France to my wife. Two or three times in the reading, I had to stop reading because I couldn’t breathe, and I knew the next passage would require tremendous self-control to read; by the end of the essay, we were both in tears from laughing so hard. To this day either of us can say, “That was one sick bird,” and we both lose it. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/32 "2007-06-27T20:03:19Z")
Noone thinks Elmore leonard is funny? Well no not all of them, but how about Get Shorty? Also a couple of out of print detective prodies by Andrew Bergman are very funny, one is called “Hollywood and Levine” and the other title I cannot remeber except that it has a year in the title (1944 maybe) and Humphrey Bogart is the detective. Also, I haven’t read it in a very long time but “Been down so long it seems like up to me” by Richard Farina struck me as being very funny at the time. ---
**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:** [June 27, 2007, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/33 "2007-06-27T20:17:25Z")
[QUOTE=Incensed] BTW-Sorry if this is a thread which you guys have seen too often and are sick of [/QUOTE] The last thread we had along these lines was [this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=409188), although it’s a bit more general than what you’re asking for. A few more recommendations that I don’t think got mentioned in either thread, but that IMHO qualify as both humorous and literature: [Killer Diller](http://www.amazon.com/Killer-Diller-Clyde-Edgerton/dp/0345410300/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-4977424-6220818?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182973465&sr=1-1), by Clyde Edgerton, had at least one laugh-out-loud moment for me. It’s a sequel of sorts to _Walking Across Egypt_, which I also greatly enjoyed but don’t remember as being quite as funny. [Wobegon Boy](http://www.amazon.com/Wobegon-Boy-Garrison-Keillor/dp/0571195636/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-4977424-6220818?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182973988&sr=1-1) is possibly Garrison Keillor’s best novel: funny, satiric, and poignant. [Handling Sin](http://www.amazon.com/Handling-Sin-Michael-Malone/dp/1570717567/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-4977424-6220818?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182974052&sr=1-1), by Michael Malone, is great fun and was a favorite of **Birdmonster** when I recommended it to him. And now, since this thread has threatened to broaden out into funny books in general, a recommendation that’s certainly not what the OP asked for, but which I throw out because it’s the funniest book I’ve read recently and because it strikes me as exactly the kind of book Dopers would love. Like a really good Straight Dope column or General Questions thread, it’s well-written, laugh-out-loud funny, and learn-a-lot informative: [Sperm Are from Men, Eggs Are from Women: The Real Reason Men And Women Are Different](http://www.amazon.com/Sperm-Are-Men-Eggs-Women/dp/0762426802/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-4977424-6220818?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182974750&sr=1-1), by Joe Quirk ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/34 "2007-06-27T20:31:22Z")
Everyone above, plus Gene Weingarten’s ‘I’m with Stupid’ and everything every written by PG Wodehouse. Oh, and I second Christophe Moore. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/35 "2007-06-27T20:41:48Z")
[QUOTE=Malthus] I’ll third the Tom Sharpe. Gut-bustingly funny (and horrible), particularly the two South African ones; and one of my faves, the lesser-known _The Throwback_. I laughed until I nearly pissed myself reading that one. [/QUOTE] My problem with _The Throwback_, funny as it is, is that like a lot of later Sharpe the characters who get the worst of it aren’t necessarily evil enough to deserve it. Yeah, they range from unpleasant to nasty, and I wouldn’t want to hang out with them, but the fates meted out to them seem a bit much. In the South African novels, there was at least the evil of apartheid to serve as a justification for what happens. Didn’t stop me from naming one of my creatures on the old [TechnoSphere](http://www.janeprophet.com/technoweb1.html) online world “Lockhart Flawse”. A nasty one, he was. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/36 "2007-06-27T20:45:31Z")
You might want to try Christopher Buckley’s books. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/37 "2007-06-27T20:53:22Z")
[QUOTE=FisherQueen] Oh, and I second Christophe Moore. [/QUOTE] Now you’re just messing with me. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MTRG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71c47a/32.png) [@MTRG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTRG)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/38 "2007-06-27T20:54:12Z")
A lot of stuff from Hunter S Thompson is good. I really liked _The Rum Diary_. Humorous, factual, historical? You be the judge. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/39 "2007-06-27T21:14:23Z")
[QUOTE=MTRG] A lot of stuff from Hunter S Thompson is good. I really liked _The Rum Diary_. Humorous, factual, historical? You be the judge. [/QUOTE] I second the Thompson suggestion (big suprise _there_, right guys? 😃 ). I suggest _The Curse of Lono_ or _Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas_. As for Pterry, he oghtta dedicate the next book to the SDMB, what with us drumming up all the business for him. Right, Pterry? 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Incensed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Incensed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incensed)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556/40 "2007-06-28T01:30:09Z")
[QUOTE=MTRG] A lot of stuff from Hunter S Thompson is good. I really liked _The Rum Diary_. Humorous, factual, historical? You be the judge. [/QUOTE] I haven’t been able to find Thompson’s novels; I checked the local university library and they are fittingly labeled “Item Missing”. I think the “Good Dr.” would have liked that. I have read a couple of collections of his political ‘essays’ (I suppose thats the word), as well as a Bio about him entitled _Fear and Loathing; The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson_, by Paul Perry. Judging from what I read therein, the second part of your quote pretty much applied to his life as well as his work. The phrase ‘Hunter arrived with a six pack of beer’ (or something similar) appeared so often a non-native English speaker might have mistaken it for his title. And then there is the scene were he spends a job interview trying on hats from a box…which he brought with him…to a job interview… Most of the other books/authors mentioned are new to me, so I just want to thank you guys again for all the recommendations-I should have enough reading material to faciliate life as a recluse, for the forseeable future anyway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-of-humorous-literature/409556.md?page=3)