What's the funniest book you've read?

[zinfamous]

Confederacy of Dunces comes to mind for me. Still, I think I probably laughed more and harder at David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty Some Day than any other book. I actually brought on my post-9/11 deployment and it brought be a lot of pleasure and relief from a stressful situation.

David Sedaris, I think, is probably best enjoyed on tape. I love his riding, but listening to him deliver his work in his voice--I'm thinking particularly the moment in Me Talk Pretty when he's talking about learning French, horribly "I love to speak French! Most! Most!"

His short pieces in the New Yorker from time to time are always excellent.

 

[misle]

Hitchhiker's Guide books
Catch 22
Christopher Moore is pretty humorous
The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Where the Red Fern Grows

Yeah that part at the end where the kid's mom is sewing Old Dan's innards back in had me rolling on the floor back in the day.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Another vote for Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon

Funniest line in the book:

Build up: Ronald Reagan (yes, that Ronald Reagan) is interviewing one of the main characters in the book about his war heroism. Bobby Shaftoe is still groggy from the morphine they give him for his injuries.

Ronald Reagan has a stack of three by five cards in his lap. He skids up a new one: "What advice do you, as the youngest American fighting man ever to win both the Navy Cross and the Silver Star, have for any young Marines on their way to Guadalcanal?"

Shaftoe doesn't have to think very long... "Just kill the one with the sword first."

"Ah...Smarrrt—you target them because they're the officers, right?"

"No, fuckhead!" Shaftoe yells. "You kill 'em because they've got fucking swords! You ever had anyone running at you waving a fucking sword?"

 

[SphinxnihpS]

David Sedaris, I think, is probably best enjoyed on tape. I love his riding, but listening to him deliver his work in his voice--I'm thinking particularly the moment in Me Talk Pretty when he's talking about learning French, horribly "I love to speak French! Most! Most!"

His short pieces in the New Yorker from time to time are always excellent.

David Sidaris related to Amy Sidaris?

 

[wheresmybacon]

David Sidaris related to Amy Sidaris?

Amy is his sister.

I don't see how some of you guys are propping up Snow Crash as humor. I liked it for being ahead of its time, but I didn't think it was even remotely funny. Stephenson's style is annoying. Just not my cup of tea.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Amy is his sister.

I don't see how some of you guys are propping up Snow Crash as humor. I liked it for being ahead of its time, but I didn't think it was even remotely funny. Stephenson's style is annoying. Just not my cup of tea.

The guy's name is Hiro Protagonist
He's the delivenator!
He carries a samurai sword
L. Bob Rife
Reason
Fisheye
Glossolalia
YT
A sardonic AI assistant
Raven (a nuclear superpower)

The book is lulz from beginning to end.

 

[Miscthree]

The Facitiae of Poggio

 

[Paratus]

Funniest line in the book:

Build up: Ronald Reagan (yes, that Ronald Reagan) is interviewing one of the main characters in the book about his war heroism. Bobby Shaftoe is still groggy from the morphine they give him for his injuries.

One of my favorite was where Randy gets showered with pig shit to "increase shareholder value" I was laughing so hard through that part.


So many great lines from both Crypto and Snowcrash

 

[Locut0s]

even read as a fiction novel, the bible is fucking boring.

I took "The Bible as Literature" during college (I was a Lit major) and it was a struggle to get through.

(funnily enough, the class was taught by an atheist professor)

Seems fitting to me. To properly analyse it as literature you have to be able to pull back from it as a work of "religious truth" and see it as any other work.

 

[zinfamous]

Seems fitting to me. To properly analyse it as literature you have to be able to pull back from it as a work of "religious truth" and see it as any other work.

Yet, you can't teach a proper English Lit (or any European or early American lit) course without addressing the Bible at length. ...and it pretty much has to be presented as religious truth to appreciate the literature of the time.

 

[Locut0s]

Yet, you can't teach a proper English Lit (or any European or early American lit) course without addressing the Bible at length. ...and it pretty much has to be presented as religious truth to appreciate the literature of the time.

Umm certainly. But what I meant is that to analyse it as literature it helps not to believe in it as scriptural truth yourself.

And while it certainly has to be presented as religious truth to appreciate the literature of the time and the motivations behind the writing, this doesn't mean one has to or should believe in it oneself.

 

[UberNeuman]

M*A*S*H - by Richard Hooker was pretty damn funny - and Forrest Gump by Winston Groom.

- and the zombie books by Max Brooks.

 

[AMCRambler]

Tim Dorsey's books are pretty funny ie:

Triggerfish Twist
Stingray Shuffle
Hammerhead Ranch
Nuclear Jellyfish

...and so on. They all chronicle his main character Sergei Storms. Sergei is a chemically imbalanced psychopath obsessed with Florida tourism and it's history. His sidekick is a stoner named Coleman who is dumb as bricks. Sergei hates the denigration occurring in his great state and goes out of his way to create new and elaborate ways to kill the assholes that piss him off or make a bad name for Florida.

 

[Bryophyte]

David Sedaris, I think, is probably best enjoyed on tape. I love his riding, but listening to him deliver his work in his voice--I'm thinking particularly the moment in Me Talk Pretty when he's talking about learning French, horribly "I love to speak French! Most! Most!"

His short pieces in the New Yorker from time to time are always excellent.

I used to love when NPR would replay 'The Santaland Diaries' every year at christmastime. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=161Fyi6fid0

 

[kevbot]

I don't believe anyone has mentioned Dave Barry. He has plenty of stuff out there and I find him hilarious. Also, The World According to Garp.

Sounds like a trip to the library might be in order.

 

[Zebo]

Anything by John Irving. A prayer for Owen meanie had me rolling.

 

[kage69]

Hard to say, but I'm a huge fan of pretty much anything by Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.

Hodge's The Areas of My Expertise was pretty funny. Max Brooks is great too.