Funniest Book Ever Read

[barbara0207]

To my mind, Douglas Adams is the funniest writer ever. Too bad he is dead.

Once I heard him read from his works in Heidelberg. That was even funnier because he could do the voices of Marvin and the stupid killing machine brilliantly. He also read from 'Last Chance To See', adding witty comments. I know there is a recording of that lecture (CD), but I can't lay my hands on it. Can anyone help?

[Granny5]

To my mind, Douglas Adams is the funniest writer ever. Too bad he is dead.

Once I heard him read from his works in Heidelberg. That was even funnier because he could do the voices of Marvin and the stupid killing machine brilliantly. He also read from 'Last Chance To See', adding witty comments. I know there is a recording of that lecture (CD), but I can't lay my hands on it. Can anyone help?

Barbara0207, if you go to Amazon.co.uk and search for Douglas Adams click on shop and then click on The Hitckhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a price for the audio book will come up. Don't know if it's the lecture you were talking about.
Hope this helps.

[bibliophile190]

I also laughed my way through Don Quixote. It's just so funny, albeit a bit dry.

[amanda_isabel]

funnies book i think was sex slave: how to find one, how to be one.

not a lot of thought into it. but amusing enough.

[formality hater]

I really enjoyed reading Misery Guts by Morris Gleitzman.A little childish but very funny!

[Pensive]

Okay, I have a strange sense of homour. So for me they would be:

Pride and Prejudice - Mr. Bennet's wit and satire! Black humour I like.
Mort - Ironic, I found it a kind of funny

And perhaps some books from Harry Potter series. I also found many funny bits in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings but I wouldn't call all these books basically funny. They are dark too.

And yes, George Bernard Shaw's plays. My favourite kind of humour!

[AuntShecky]

Wow. This opens up really good possibilities for many posts.
For general humor (non-fiction): Don't forget Thurber, Benchley, Frank Sullivan and contemporary humorists
Woody Allen,Russell Baker (also editor of humor anthologies), George Carlin (yes he writes books!), and
David Sedaris. Ironically, earlier this year David was in hot water because the exaggeration necessary for humor writing caused some spoilsports to say it was "fiction."

And in that fiction category -- the master of course is Mark Twain.
More modern comic authors? Thomas Pynchon. Peter DeVries. Elliott Baker. (Remember that last one cause
I spent precious minutes on an Internet search. I was trying to get the title of his book that takes place on a US Navy ship in WWII. Maybe somebody can help me out here. Anybody know?)
I left off the authors whose books make you laugh except that they are unintentionally funny. Otherwise I'd be posting all day! But Twain really did a number on his contemporary, James Fennimore Cooper.

http://journals.aol.com/auntshecky71...without-clues/

[barbara0207]

Barbara0207, if you go to Amazon.co.uk and search for Douglas Adams click on shop and then click on The Hitckhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a price for the audio book will come up. Don't know if it's the lecture you were talking about.
Hope this helps.

I've got some audiobooks of the series, but Amazon hasn't got the lecture. But thanks all the same for answering, granny. (BTW, just call me Barbara. )

[NickAdams]

Molloy= Samuel Beckett.
I described to my wife as Woody Allen meets William Faulkner.
I don't know the accuracy of that, but you use what you know.

[Bakiryu]

Neil Gaiman: most of his books crack me up. Specially Good Omens and Anansi Boys (The chapter with the lime was priceless.) Most Prattchet books are quite funny too!

[applepie]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Insanely funny; but you have to be in the right frame of mind to read it (or have a twisted sense of humor)..... I've recommended it to a number of people who just couldn't get through it, and thought me crazy for loving it.

I have to agree with you Biblio. This was the funniest book I've ever read. I'm actually getting ready to read it again to put some laughter back into my days. I've been feeling far to serious lately. My husband doesn't get my love of the book since he was one who couldn't make it through it. He tends to think it is nonsense, and I'm laughing at so much of the book while reading him funny passages. He just ignores me now when I have it out.

[SleepyWitch]

Small Gods...Terry Pratchett.....

all Discworld novels! especially the older ones. the new ones are cool too and I like them better on the whole, but the older ones are full of puns and thinly-veiled irony about English/ British culture

[SirJazzHands]

For me it would probably be Don DeLillo's White Noise (even if I hated a lot of the book, the funny parts were hysterical), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and.. I have to admit The Adventures of Tom Sawyer made me laugh out loud a few times as well.

[StayGolden]

Definitely Hitchhiker's Guide.

[Dark Muse]

"Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett comes to mind.

That is the first thing I thought of, but in addition I would also say

The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O'Shea

Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins

The Legend of Nightfall by Mickey Zucker Reichert