Hot take: Books that make us laugh

Name a book (or books!) that made you laugh out loud.

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The Leaky Establishment by David Langford

Ready Player One featured a technical support scenario where a fellow attempting to use a sword in his role-playing game was experiencing some frustration. The support tech had some sage advice for him that was spectacularly immature and in poor taste. I could not stop giggling.

>2 Darth-Heather: Good call!

I'm not a great one for LOLing, but Space Captain Smith and sequels do it for me.

It’s not a thigh-slapping book but early in Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree a comment by one character made me laugh so hard I fell off the bed. Never had that happen before. It wasn’t so much the comment as the context. Something to do with night sightings and a field of watermelons.

The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore

Cooking With Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson

And Now, Here's Max by Max Ferguson. A funny autobiography, mostly of Max's time at CBC Radio. I read it a lot during my teens, and it always cheered me up.

Also, anything by the late, great Terry Pratchett.

The Water-Method Man by John Irving. Still does the job.

500 Mile Walkies and Boogie Up the River both by Mark Wallington. If you have ever lived with a dog this will make you laugh out loud in recognition.

I heartedly agree

The incomparable Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog). There is a reason that this book has been continuously in print since 1889. Get an audiobook version--just don't listen while you drive!

The Benchley Roundup, Robt Benchley

Enslaved by Ducks is a must-read for animal lovers and animal slaves of every kind. Hilarious in parts and sad in others, but it's the humor that I remember.

Almost anything by Gerald Durrell, but especially My Family and Other Animals. A couple of other authors that come to mind are P.G. Wodehouse and Georgette Heyer.

Bossypants by Tina Fey - she always makes me laugh:)

Lamentations of the Father by Ian Frazier. I think the same essay can be read for free here.

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella. Read aloud for twice the fun!

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde--when I realized mid-book what he was suggesting about the original book, I couldn't stop laughing.

How high the moon! Love it.

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco...not all of it, but there are some passages that leave me roaring with laughter.

A Confederacy of Dunces always makes me laugh out loud.

If you like science fiction with a snarky spin, "The Worst Man on Mars" by Mark Roman and Corben Duke as well as the "Alien Affair" series by Scott Skipper had me laughing out loud, sometimes to tears.

This year Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast Of Champions and Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest.

"Furiously Happy" by Jenny Lawson was so much fun to read! Loved it!

Long Daze at Long Binh is the "first truly funny book about the Vietnam War." It's a humorous memoir that manages to be quite funny without making light of war in any way. A series of entertaining short stories about the co-authors-- two draftees who wound up going to Vietnam together as Army medics.

>12 vwinsloe:, I've steered clear for so long, but I just keep hearing more and more good things; it's gonna tip the scale eventually

>15 NorthernStar:, somehow I forgot about that author, good pick

>19 Jim53:, Fforde was suggesting something? Darnit, I missed that. His humour was a little not my thing for some reason, but he's a popular guy

>21 EdithRudy:, in a scenario way, maybe? I think I see what you mean

Three Men and a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. Came across it on a list a few years back as one of the best-loved books in Britain. Imagine Monty Python taking a two-week boating journey along the Thames -- unbelievably modern in feel, the book was written in 1889.

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller made me LOL from beginning to end. There were passages in The Risk Pool by Richard Russo that also had me laughing out loud.