What is the Funniest Book You Have Read?

[Ex Nihilo]

The various works of fiction by Adrian Plass are always amusing.

Wuthering Heights

I have a copy on my bookshelf, of which I have managed to read about 20 pages. Perhaps there is a subtle humour there that I'm missing.

It's unintentional.

 

[Mindaboo]

The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr. My children and I read this book together and we laughed until were crying.

 

[toddpedlar]

Robert E. Howard the Sword and Sorcery fantasy writer wrote a book about a guy named Breckenridge Elkins "A Gent from Bear Creek" that is crazy funny.

I was going to say early Dave Berry until I saw this one. I had forgotten all about it.

Another one, I forget the author but he was local to Idaho: "A fine and pleasant misery." It was about camping. His description of campfires had me in tears.

Sounds like Patrick McManus...?

 

[LockTheDeadbolt]

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller or The Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll.

In a different vein of humor, anything an atheist writes about objective morality (i.e. Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris, et al) is pretty hil-stinkin-larious to me...

 

[ReformedWretch]

Ann Coulter books always make me laugh (at those she writes about, as I personally like Ann)

 

[wfl3]

I remember reading Catch-22 as a teenager and absolutely crying. So, I picked it up within the last few years and was stunned how bad it was - I stopped reading it pretty quickly!

William

 

[KMK]

I don't remember anything unwholesome, but Woody Allen's "Getting Even" is an hilarious complilation of short stories. Especially funny is a story about Dracula showing up early for a dinner party during a solar eclipse!

 

[christianyouth]

Amazon.com: My Life and Hard Times (Perennial Classics): James Thurber: Books

This book is great! James Thurber, most popular for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and the short story that is featured in a lot of literature text books, The Catbird Seat, was said to be a superior humor writer than even Mark Twain by none other than E.B. White.

 

[VictorBravo]

Robert E. Howard the Sword and Sorcery fantasy writer wrote a book about a guy named Breckenridge Elkins "A Gent from Bear Creek" that is crazy funny.

I was going to say early Dave Berry until I saw this one. I had forgotten all about it.

Another one, I forget the author but he was local to Idaho: "A fine and pleasant misery." It was about camping. His description of campfires had me in tears.

Sounds like Patrick McManus...?

Yup! That's him.

 

[Scynne]

I don't read much (read: 'any') humour, so I'm going to have to all lame-like and say "Pebble in the Sky" by Isaac Asimov...

 

[jaybird0827]

Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs.

 

[py3ak]

An honorable mention should also go to Mark Twain's McWilliams stories.

 

[ColdSilverMoon]

Yes, there were inappropriate parts and yes it is absolutely hilarious in a post-modern existential way (i.e., Catch 22).

My all time favorite (as a man who had a pregnant wife on five different occasions) was Dave Berry's book Babies and Other Hazards of Sex. More true to life you cannot get.

Catch-22 is the only book I laughed out loud multiple times while reading. For anyone remotely familiar with the military it is truly hilarious - the author's 1960 satire of the military is just as applicable today as it was then. It's not anti-military per se, but does illustrate the absurdity in its mentality at times.

 

[davidsuggs]

Perhaps rather cynical, but...

InnovateChurch: 8 Innovative Ways to Lead and Grow the Church by Jonathan Falwell

 

[PresbyDane]

I am gonna go with Calvin and Hobbes as well.

 

[Kevin]

Southern Ladies & Gentlemen, By Florence King

 

[shackleton]

Calvin and Hodges and Far Side, if those count.

 

[KMK]

I don't remember anything unwholesome, but Woody Allen's "Getting Even" is an hilarious complilation of short stories. Especially funny is a story about Dracula showing up early for a dinner party during a solar eclipse!

I found this here: Humorous Quotes from Getting Even @ WorkingHumor.com

They are quotes from Woody Allen's "Getting Even"

# It is no secret that organized crime in America takes in over forty billion dollars a year. This is quite a profitable sum, especially when one considers that the Mafia spends very little for office supplies.
# The Cosa Nostra is structured like any any government or large corporation - or group of gangsters for that matter.
# Death, incidentally, is one of the worst things that can happen to a Cosa Nostra member, and many prefer simply to pay a fine.
# Can we actually "know" the universe? My God, it's hard enough finding your way around in Chinatown.
# The universe is merely a fleeting idea in God's mind - a pretty uncomfortable thought, particularly if you've just made a down payment on a house.
# Eternal nothingness is O.K. if you're dressed for it.
# Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends.
# Smiling is bad form unless the composer has intended the music to be funny, as in Till Eulenspiegel, which abounds in musical jokes (although the trombone has the best lines.)
# If a girl looks more at home in a jar of wine sauce than in an evening gown she's got big problems.
# Why pork was proscribed by Hebraic law is still unclear, and some scholars believe that the Torah merely suggested not eating pork at certain restaurants.
# How curious your last letter was! Well-intended, concise, containing all the elements that would appear to make up what passes among certain reference groups as a communicative effect, yet tinged throughout by what Jean-Paul Sartre is so fond of referring to as "nothingness."
# Why are our days numbered and not, say, lettered?
# If God is everywhere, I had concluded, then He is in food. Therefore, the more I ate the godlier I would become. Impelled by this new religious fervor, I glutted myself like a fanatic.
# Standing next to me was a nerve-shattering blonde, who waxed and waned under a black chemise with enough provocation to induce lycanthropy in a Boy Scout.
# I was unable to get a date on only six weeks' notice.
# An evening of pantomime - one of the only spectator events outside of a fire that he could hope to understand.
# He spends most of his time writing, and is currently revising his autobiography to include himself.
# Freud's death according to Ernest Jones, was the event that caused the final break between Helmholtz and Freud, and the two rarely spoke afterwards.
# Helmholtz had developed an experiment where he would ring a bell and a team of white mice would escort Mrs. Helmholtz out of the door and deposit her on the curb.
# In my day, for five marks Freud himself would treat you. For ten marks, he would treat you and press your pants. For fifteen marks, Freud would let you treat him.
# If man were immortal, do you realize what his meat bills would be?
# I don't believe in afterlife, although I am bringing a change of underwear.
# I am quite confident my fierce loyalty, which can only be described as canine, will pay off.
# I like being a private eye, and even though once in a while I've had my gums massaged with an automobile jack, the sweet smell of greenbacks makes it all worth it. Not to mention the dames, which are a minor preoccupation of mine that I rank just ahead of breathing.
# The Jews were into God for a lot. It was the old protection racket. Take care of them in return for a price. And from the way Rabbi Wiseman was talking, He soaked them plenty.

 

[Matthias]

Not the funniest, but I found a ton of humour in Luthers Bondage of the Will.