Funniest Book Ever Read

[Savarucci]

Mark Twain has written some incredibly funny essays, if that counts. "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences" I had to read in installments, so as to avoid asphyxiating myself with laughter. The same goes for "How to Make History Dates Stick."

I'll have to look those up, thank you! Read this one if you haven't already. http://www.lahacal.org/gentleman/twain.html
He wrote instructions on how to rescue a lady from a burning building. It's absolutely hysterical.

Let's see, books...
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which everybody and their grandmother has mentioned already. XD
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. Sir Percy in his fop-mode is priceless, as is Marguerite's encounter with this one disgusting innkeeper and the snuff/black pepper incident. (Never snort pepper, folks.)
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I didn't care for Holden as a person, so for me this book was mostly a good source of schadenfreude. I'm a horrible person.
A Patchwork Planet, Anne Tyler. A former derelict tries to get his life back in order.
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee. Scout is just too funny. XD
Hamlet, Shakespeare. Hamlet's one-liners are pretty good.

[bonnie banks]

Three men in a boat, jerome k jerome
Catch 22, Heller
Gridlock and another set in Australia [can`t remember title] Ben Elton
Gormenghast 1&2, Mervyn Peake

[ben.!]

The Importance of being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.

Or any of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, he's just so funny.

[hollywoodkid]

Ah, my first post - how very exciting!

The Diary Of A Nobody - actually made me hoot with laughter
Twelfth Night - Malvolio stuff is brilliant
Brideshead Revisted - Anthony Blanche is so funny. Every word he says makes me giggle naughtily.

However, Catch 22 just wound me up. By the end of the book i thought i was going mad - i used to hurl it across the room in sheer frustration!

[PabloQ]

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
James Fennimore Cooper's Literary Offenses -- Mark Twain
Sick Puppy -- Carl Hiasson
Cat's Cradle -- Kurt Vonnegut
Second the vote for P. G. Wodehouse
A Confederacy of Dunces too.
Gulliver's Travels -- Swift

[sixsmith]

What are some of the funniest books people have read?

"Portnoy's Complaint" (Philip Roth). Immature, misogynistic but undeniably hilarious and Roth's breakout book.

"Catch 22" (Jospeh Heller) - Satire at its best. A work of comic genius.

"The Information" (Martin Amis) - Delicious skewering of the literary life and the envy and pettiness it can engender.


Thoughts??

[kevinthediltz]

"A modest proposal" made me crack up. But only because alot of people in the class I read it in didnt realize that is was satire.

[Lokasenna]

It might not be a great work of high literature, but Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman is probably the funniest thing ever written.

For something a bit more intellectual, then I'd go for Evelyn Waugh any day: something like Scoop or Decline and Fall.

[Mariamosis]

I have not read all of the posts so I may be repeating here.

I found myself laughing many times in many of Kurt Vonnegut's books. (with such characters as Kilgore Trout)

Also, the way Vladimir Nabokov addressed the reader in Lolita (ex: assuming I was a bald man) ... very humorous

[higley]

Lately I've been digging around for Bill Bryson, who wrote "Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" and "I'm a Stranger Here Myself." The humor is so tongue-in-cheek, with that touch of self-deprecation, and perfect phrasing.

[mollie]

George and Weedon Grossmith's Diary of a Nobody was utterly hilarious.

[Tsuyoiko]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and sequels by Douglas Adams

Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes

The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol

[Wilde woman]

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - the Rape of the Sabine scene with Alfred.

And, as many have mentioned, Hitchhiker's Guide.

Anyone read David Sedaris?

[dafydd manton]

Neil Munro - The Para Handy stories.
Stephen Leacock - anything
Vladimir voinovich - The Adventures of Private Chonkin

Unbelievably, I'd forgotten the Para Handy stories. Thanks for reminding me!!

[Qaphqa]

Many of the stories in the Decameron are quite funny.