xardon
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posted on February 16, 2001 05:49:17 PM new
Inspired by stusi's "funniest movie" thread, I thought I'd start one about funny books. While laugh out loud movie comedies are fairly common it's unusual to find a book that elicits a similar response.
I find anything by Carl Hiaasen to be hilarious. I've often burst out laughing in public while reading his books. A new writer, Tim Dorsey, mines the same bizarre Floridian behavior and is almost as funny....a considerable accomplishment.
Hiaasen readers should start with "Tourist Season" and go through the books in order.
Other books I've found to be exceptionally funny may not be for everyone, but I'll recommend them anyway.
"The Accidental Tourist" by Anne Tyler is both serious and seriously funny. Her other books qualify as well.
"White Noise" by Don DeLillo. Especially for teachers. The protagonist is the non-German speaking head of the Department of Hitler Studies at a small college.
"A Winter's Tale" by Mark Helprin (not Wm. Shakespeare, although his is not bad). A magical realism novel to rival the best of Borges or Marquez....and funny, too.
I read entirely too much, if that's possible, and would enjoy hearing other's recommendations.
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bootsnana
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posted on February 16, 2001 05:58:17 PM new
Fannie Flagg cracks me up. She wrote Fried Green Tomatoes at The Whistle Stop Cafe and Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man.
I also love the All Creatures Great and Small Series by James Herriot (not sure if I spelled his name right)
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BlondeSense
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posted on February 16, 2001 06:05:08 PM new
I finished "Coyote Blue" by Christopher Moore and loved it, and am anxious to find a copy of "Practical Demonkeeping".
As far as general essays, just about any collection by Robert Fulghum -as in "Everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten".
Thanks for starting this thread, I'm looking forward to getting some good leads too.
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Shadowcat
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posted on February 16, 2001 06:12:18 PM new
Anything by PG Wodehouse(My personal fave is "The Mating Season" ).
I love Hiaasen's titles, the way he plays on the words. Read "Tourist Season" and cracked up all the way through it. It was like Wodehouse met John D. MacDonald.
Another funny author in the mystery genre is Janet Evanovich. Her Stephanie Plum books are a scream.
Anything by Terry Pratchett.
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snowyegret
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posted on February 16, 2001 06:34:00 PM new
Dave Berry All
Kant (but I'm laughing at my befuddlement)
The Stupids by Jim Allard (how I feel after reading Kant)
The Chilton Manual for my car
The Bacchae Euripides
Anything by Martin Amis is hysterical
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gravid
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posted on February 16, 2001 06:43:43 PM new
L. Neil Smith has written some rather funny science fiction involving alternative time lines where the US took a more Libertarian path. His first The Probability Broach and The Gallatin Divergence were quite good.
I have often suspected Carl Hiaasen knew more than a few members of the Southern branch of my family. I shall try out this Tim Dorsey.
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xardon
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posted on February 16, 2001 06:51:55 PM new
I'm making a list too, Blondesense. I really don't need much of an excuse for a trip to the bookstore.
I like alternative SF too, gravid. Harry Turtledove does it well. Have you been following the war between the Tosevites and the Race?
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snowyegret
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posted on February 16, 2001 06:56:53 PM new
xardon: I'm going to check out Mark Helprin (but as good as Borges???? Nobody's that good.)
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xardon
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posted on February 16, 2001 07:13:03 PM new
The locale is different, Snowy. Helprin's setting is New York in the early part of the 20th C. as opposed to South America. A comparison to Borges or Marquez would also reveal a paucity of gitanos. I think you will, however, find many similarities. His other books are also well done but don't carry on the magical realism theme. "A Soldier of the Great War" is a good one.
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lotsafuzz
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posted on February 16, 2001 07:40:25 PM new
ANYTHING by Erma Bombeck (and I probably spelled that wrong).
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gravid
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posted on February 16, 2001 07:46:19 PM new
xardon - Oh yes. Just say no to ginger!
I just sold some Hiaasen books in Large Print
and warned in the description that they were irreverent and not politically correct.
I mean all these serious people who view whales as gentle intelligent creatures are NOT going to appreciate Dicky the Dolphin being way too fond of people. Let me tell you I'd never be able to get in the pool with one and keep a straight face now.
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xardon
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posted on February 16, 2001 08:10:56 PM new
Well then gravid, I take it you will understand if I begin all future conversations with, "I greet you, Big Ugly".
Followed, of course, by an emphatic cough.
I also should have mentioned PJ O'Rourke. Even non-Republicans can enjoy his writing. I've been a fan since his NatLamp days.
John Irving's "The World According to Garp" is another funny book. I've not enjoyed his subsequent efforts at all, though. The bear obsession/metaphor/symbolism is totally confusing to me.
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VeryModern
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posted on February 16, 2001 08:15:09 PM new
"Tales of the City" series Armistead Maupin
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gaffan
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posted on February 16, 2001 08:20:45 PM new
On the SF side, Stanislaw Lem's short works (one collection was "The Star Diaries", I'm sure there are others). I'm in awe of Lem's translator, as is just about everyone who's read any Lem...
On the non-fiction (sort of) side, P.J. O'Rourke's Parlaiment of Whores... in which one can learn that the three branches of gov't are money, television, and bull----, and many other useful things. The first time I read it, I almost never got through a whole page without laughing so hard I had to stop reading, because not wetting my pants required all my concentration.
-gaffan-
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xardon
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posted on February 16, 2001 08:49:53 PM new
Gaffan,
His translator is Michael Kandel. Nice of you to give the guy credit. I was a language major in college and literary translators were the objects of no small amount of reverence.
Borges was translated by many, even though he spoke english well. Hurley, Bonner, Weinberger, and Irby are a few that I recall. Marquez insisted upon Gregory Rabassa.
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Powerhouse
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posted on February 16, 2001 08:57:45 PM new
"Q Clearance" by Peter Benchley (author of "Jaws" ) - A comedy-political-spy thriller about a white house press pool writer and his misadventures when his promotion requires that he recieve all Q-clearance material and the unique attempts he makes to get rid of the material as well as the spys that attempt to acquire it from him.
TOO funny!
[ edited by Powerhouse on Feb 16, 2001 09:00 PM ]
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mcjane
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posted on February 16, 2001 09:53:10 PM new
I'm an avid reader and the best book I ever read & there's not even a close second.
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
(Yes bootsnana you spelled it right.)
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bunnicula
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posted on February 16, 2001 09:58:00 PM new
Pest Control by Bill Fitzhugh (an insect exterminator is mistaken for a hitman)
The Innocent Eve by Robert Nathan (the Devil is afraid Man will destroy the world, so he tries to get the nations of the world to intrust him, as the "ambassador of Tartarus," with the Bomb. Takes place at a cocktail party in Washington).
Mark One: The Dummy by John Ball, who also wrote "In The Heat of the Night." (a writer of spy novels goes to Iron Curtain countries to collect his royalties & finds himself involved in an espeionage plot with folks who are convinced he *is* the character he writes about.)
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gaffan
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posted on February 16, 2001 10:33:44 PM new
Xardon -
I remember stopping in mid-paragraph when I'd just read a bit of way clever wordplay, including some triple-axle fourple-entendre and a bad pun, and thinking it HAD to be translated from English to English. Formidable skills has Mr. Kandel.
-gaffan-
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tarisa
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posted on February 16, 2001 11:31:07 PM new
I've got a penchant for British authors (my English hubby got me started on them).
*Any* of the discworld novels by Terry Pratchett - they're a little slow to start (first 10 pages maybe), but they have me laughing out loud on planes or anywhere in public.
Tom Holt is also a good one, as is Robert Rankin.
I'd classify all 3 of the above as sci-fi/fantasy *but* I normally don't LIKE sci-fi/fantasy - they totally break down all barriers - they're great for anyone.
Terry Pratchett is ESPECIALLY good if you're well-read - you'll find some really obscure and REALLY funny off-hand references to a lot of classical literature.
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GrumpynAM
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posted on February 17, 2001 06:37:23 AM new
The funniest book that I've read that comes to mind is "The End of the Road" by Tom Bodet (the voice in the Motel 6 commercials), it's about a fictitious town in Alaska. The characters are well developed and very eccentric. Had me laughing out loud in the middle of the night
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gravid
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posted on February 17, 2001 11:13:27 AM new
xardon - If only you knew how appropriate big ugly is - I wear a 22/36 shirt and have to weight myself on a freight scale....I got a watch with the bracelet type band and had to buy 3 extra links to get it to fit. The jeweler said he usually takes two out..
My sweet little wife says I am not ugly but she does worry about me turning into a geezer with thick curly eyebrows.
On translation - Mrs. Heinlein became very fluent in Russian and hoped russian novals would be better in the native tongue, but said they were even darker and more depressing in Russian.
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looney2ns
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posted on February 17, 2001 11:58:29 AM new
All of the Piers Anthony "Xanth" series.
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gravid
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posted on February 17, 2001 05:23:07 PM new
I just came back from the public library - we have a beautiful 70,000 square foot one here in Rochester MI - with two of the books recommended here and the new Harry Turtledove
book Colonization: Aftershocks
So there Superior Sir (xardon)
Trouble is I will only have time to read two tomorrow and cook and list some auctions - so many books so little time - and I am writing one of my own and refuse to start a second before the first is done. But I can make some notes about ideas....
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enchanted
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posted on February 17, 2001 05:39:51 PM new
I just saved this whole thread so I can go back and read all the books 
I'm another fan of PJ O'Rourke's Parliament of Whores book. The man is altogether too funny for his own good and my safety while reading.
I always like Harlan Ellison maybe he's not intentionally funny but I always read it as very very dark sci-fi humor. Very dark sarcasm and wit.
Sold a few of the Terry Pratchett Discworld novels. Read a bit before I sold them and then was sorry I hadn't finished them, they sold very fast.
great thread!
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even59
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posted on February 17, 2001 07:00:38 PM new
Anything by Ilf and Petrov
PG Wodehouse
earlier Elmore Leonard
Someone reminded me recently of
A Confederacy of Dunces
which I had read about 16 years ago.
Maybe Tom Wolfe earlier stuff, again.
Philip Roth...Yikes!
Has Catch 22 author done anything lately?
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even59
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posted on February 17, 2001 07:08:01 PM new
Farley Mowat..not necessarily laugh out loud funny but a GREAT story teller.
There's a few authors from the New yorker. Here's one I really enjoy
Joseph Mitchell Up in the Old Hotel
book of shorts.
[ edited by even59 on Feb 17, 2001 07:11 PM ]
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xardon
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posted on February 17, 2001 07:24:58 PM new
I haven't yet read that one, gravid. I usually wait until they come out in paperback. After all this time I've yet to imagine a clear picture of the invader's physical appearance. I've got this mental image of Kermit the Frog that's working for me but I think it lacks sufficient menace.
For those who are not familiar with the Worldwar series by Harry Turtledove I'll provide a brief introduction. The first book is set in the early days of WWII. The US has only just joined the war. At the height of the hostilities, when neither the axis or allied forces have yet to establish a military advantage, the Earth is invaded by aliens. History proceeds from this premise with interesting results.
Turtle dove is a well known writer in the alternative history genre. His most well known book is "The Guns of the South". Imagine the waning days of the Civil War and the improbable introduction of AK47's into the Confederate armory. The Battle of the Wilderness is vividly realized with this unusual modification. Owen Parry's "Faded Coat of Blue" is the first book in another Civil War series. No flights of fancy, just well researched history. I'll be following this one too.
I used to avoid serial novels, preferring a book to end on the last page. Recently, though, I've found myself embroiled in a number of them. The Otherworld series by Tad Williams, a cleverly rendered virtual reality series and an addicting series by Jack Whyte that deals with the Arthurian legend. Whyte is a rather wooden writer but a fine storyteller. He attempts, with considerable plausibility, to ground the familiar King Arthur story within a known and seemingly accurate historical perspective. It rings true.
I've also just read Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky", a good old fashioned space opera that reminded me of "The Mote in God's Eye", and "Timeline" by Michael Crighton. I'm no fan of Crighton but I'm a sucker for time travel books. It wasn't bad.
It seems I've more than derailed my own thread here, venturing far afield of the original topic. Feel free to follow suit. I do like to talk about books.
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enchanted
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posted on February 17, 2001 07:35:46 PM new
I love to talk about books Xardon
what is everyone currently reading? I love to ask this question, the variety is always interesting.
Right now I just started reading The Devils of Loudon by Aldous Huxley. Interesting period of time and interesting story, some of his prose is a bit of a dense impenetrable thicket though.
Just finished in the last week or two, House Atreides by Frank Herbert's son, a "prequel" to the Dune sci-fi series and quite good. Also finished Elvenbane by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey, a good story in the fantasy genre.
Since I'm always reading more than one book at a time, I'm also reading Raptor Red out of curiosity, it's a paperback about the adventures of a female Utah raptor dinosaur, written by a scientist who helped excavate the skeleton of this species. He loves dinosaurs and it shows in the book, a light read, good for kids I think.
Also started Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, anybody like that? It's the second time I've tried to get through it and maybe I'm just not up for a World War II story right now.
Thinking of starting Ivanhoe by Scott, I never read that book and it looks good.
well I could go on....
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xardon
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posted on February 17, 2001 07:35:51 PM new
"Catch 22" is a great and funny book, Eve. The author, Joseph Heller, has written a few other books but I've never read them. "Good as Gold" and "God Knows" are two that I recall reading about.
Years ago I read Joseph Wambaugh's "The Choirboys" and it reminded me of "Catch 22". I stil think it's the best thing Wambaugh's done. It's a little dated but still a hilarious read.
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