I don't know about you, but after a pandemic of almost a year and last week's power outages and freezing cold temperatures, I could use a few books that make me laugh out loud.
And what makes me laugh out loud? Some odd juxtaposition of jocularity, unexpectedness, and great truth.
Here are a few that worked for me...
Sci fi/Fantasy: Terry Pratchett's The Color of Magic and Small Gods; Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; The Princess Bride.
Nonfiction: A.J. Jacobs' Drop Dead Healthy, It's All Relative, and The Year of Living Biblically; Dreyer's English; All Creatures Great and Small.
Light Fiction: Life According to Lubka; A Breath of French Air; The President's Hat; The Switch.
Comics: Strange Planet and Stranger Planet.
Classics: Three Men in a Boat; Italo Calvino's The Cloven Viscount and The Nonexistent Knight; The Importance of Being Earnest; Don Quixote; Excellent Women; Gulliver's Travels; Candide; James Thurber's The Wonderful O and The 13 Clocks; Tom Sawyer; A Confederacy of Dunces.
Kid books: Hank the Cowdog; Sideways Stories from Wayside School; The BFG: Winnie-the-Pooh; The Wind in the Willows; The Adventures of Treehorn; Where the Sidewalk Ends; Anne of Green Gables.
Picture books: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus; The Monster at the End of This Book; Diary of a Worm; I Want My Hat Back; Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes; A Kiss for Little Bear; King Bidgood's in the Bathtub.
And don't forget my favorite joke book, A Pretty Good Joke Book.
This is a good and useful list!
ReplyDeleteI love a good laugh, but can only recall a handful of books that gave me the giggles. I must remember to write those down in the future.
ReplyDeleteTerry Pratchett and Douglas Adams both wrote fantastic stuff.
ReplyDeleteMy post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-that-made-me-laugh-out-loud/
I've read some of these and I quite agree!
ReplyDeleteGreat set of books there - absolutely agree with the Pratchett and Adams and must get round to reading 3 Men in a Boat at some point! These are my books that made me laugh out loud - some recent reads and some familiar classics.
ReplyDeleteI hope your electricity is back and stays on. What a year it’s been already. Pity we can’t use a Harry Potter powder so you can beam into our home! I’d feed you comfort food and we could sit and read together.
ReplyDeleteA Breath of French Air sounds great, adding to my list. Classics is a category I’ve been neglecting lately.
Thank you so much, Tina. A Breath of French Air was quite surprising.
DeleteI love those Mo Wilhelm books so fun.
ReplyDeleteMo is the best.
DeleteHi Deb! If Elza didn't highjack my post, we would have had a few in common! Three men in a boat, The Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, The importance of being Earnest. And I had a P.G. Wodehouse on my list too.
ReplyDeleteBut I/Elza changed our minds last night and just went with: Ten Feline Book Titles that made me laugh out loud
Haha! Love it, Mareli.
DeleteThis is a great list. I had several picture books that I was going to add to my list. I could do one just with picture books.
ReplyDeleteI could, too. In fact, I should.
DeleteWe certainly do need a little bit of a laugh these days. I seldom read funny books, mostly because I seldom find them funny. But there are exceptions. I loved The President's Hat, Three Men in a Boat and Candide. Three Men in a Boat I will re-read for a classic challenge this year.
ReplyDeleteThe last real funny books I read are by a Swedish author, linguist, teacher etc called Sara Lövenstam. She has written four books about grammar and they are really funny. Believe it or not. She is absolutely hilarious in explaining grammar, show us what is written in public documents and papers. Great fun indeed.
Dreyer's English defies its staid title. I had to write down several of the paragraphs for the book because they amused me so much.
DeleteI am cross checking your list and my TBR. It seems that I haven't been reading enough humor these days, doing exactly opposite of what I should and want to do. I need more humor in my life now.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is exactly why I am reading All Creatures Great and Small.
DeleteGood list--I'd forgotten the Year of Living Biblically! I haven't read the President's Red Hat, but I did love The Red Notebook and do plan to read more of that author's books.
ReplyDeleteI wish A. J. Jacobs would write something new.
DeleteMo Willem books are always good for a laugh, no matter how old you are.
ReplyDeleteOof, I forgot about AJ Jacobs. He's always good for a belly laugh!
ReplyDeleteI didn't participate today, because I couldn't think of recent books that made me lol, except one in French I'm currently reading and that won't be translated into English I believe, so not really relevant to my readers.
ReplyDeleteThree Men in a Boat, yes!
But you laughed that much in Don Quixote? And Candide, really??
I did. I thought Don Quixote was hilarious. Candide, too.
DeleteDon't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus was a favorite around here - as were most of Mo Willem's books! It definitely made for a funny read. I forgot about Hitchhiker! Definitely a funny book! I love Adams' sense of humor.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter used to LOVE Pete the Cat. We read books about him almost every night. He is a cool, funny cat for sure. I'm into genealogy, so I also enjoyed IT'S ALL RELATIVE.
ReplyDeleteHappy TTT!
I went with a list of authors who can be relied on to make me laugh, and AJ Jacobs made my list! Terry Pratchett probably should have made my list, too, but I actually haven't read much of his yet, beyond The Color of Magic and Good Omens.
ReplyDeleteI am taking note of all these books that make people laugh as I could use some good chuckles these days.
ReplyDeleteI have read a couple of the classics, and many of the kids/picture books, but as for the rest, half of them are on my TBR and the others are new to me.. so I need to look for them
ReplyDeleteGreat list. I totally agree about "Three Men in a Little Boat", Louis Sachar and Shel Silverstein. All fantastic.
ReplyDeleteMy TTT has totally different books.
I'd forgotten the humor in Wind in the Willows and Don Quixote -- perfectly good entries for this week's TTT! And I love me some picture books, so thanks for some awesome suggestions. Happy TTT
ReplyDelete~ Lex (lexlingua.co)
I’ve got the Strange Planet books on my list, they look really funny.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great list. Hitchhiker's Guide was funny, wasn't it? I'm off to put together my own list of humorous books. We all could use a good laugh right about now!
ReplyDeleteOh, I like how you divided them by genre! The Texas weather was so crazy, wasn't it? We're in the North Texas area, and we avoided any power outages or plumbing issues, but many around us didn't. The warmer weather has been nice. ;) Happy Reading!
ReplyDeleteOh yes! There are a raft of books here that also made me laugh:)). Needless to say Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, Three Men in a Boat, Winnie the Pooh (still cracks me up) and The Wind in the Willows... Have you encountered the Don Camillo series by Giovannino Guareschi?
ReplyDeleteI have read and enjoyed several of these.I required Dreyer's English as a second textbook this semester. My students adore it!
ReplyDelete