Funniest Book Ever Read

Don Quijote definitely.

Vile Bodies makes me laugh out loud and so has some Pratchett.

I didn't really find Carroll's Alice stuff funny.

Nick mentioned Molloy. He is right, that opening novel of Beckett's trilogy is very funny (in the way Waiting for Godot is funny.) But at the very same time, his work as a whole is melancholy, "nihilisitic." To be able to pull this off without depressing the entire world is a rare gift, indeed.

I see the same thing in Mark Twain, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, and Kurt Vonnegut.

Matt Beaumont: e. - a novel of liars, lunch and lost knickers
Matt Beaumont (again): Staying Alive
Tom Robbins: Fierce invalids home from hot climates
Maria Dahvanah Headley: The year of yes

Stuff by Nick Hornby usually makes me laugh out loud. Some of his books annoy me, but even then I usually laugh.

sogladatay

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
Cat's Crade by Kurt Vonnegut

Confederacy of dunces

Lucky Jim by Kingsly Amis is hilarious.

Hey wait a minute, we've had the subject of this thread before. I remember bringing Lucky Jim up. While I'm at it, books by David Lodge are extremely funny too.

I got a real kick out of the Canterbury Tails

I found The God Delusion hilarious.

Top of the list would be Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman

in addtion, just about everything I have read by Tom Robbins, though I would have to say I think Still Life With Woodpecker, and Skinny Legs and all thus far were my favorites.

And I thought that the Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O'Shea was pretty funny.

The Legend of Nightfall, my all time favorite fantasy book by Mickey Zucker Reichert also had a touch of comedy to it.

Candide
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Cat's Cradle

Wow! I just realized that most of the stuff I read is not all that humorous. That's going to change.

Catch-22 (Heller)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)
most of Jane Austen's are fun
Pale Fire (Nabokov) made me laugh when I realized in the end it was all hoax

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mickeymack

Anything by P G Wodehouse makes me laugh, especially the Jeeves and Wooster books. In fact I am reading Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves at the moment and it's wonderful,Light as a soufflé but witty and entertaining. If you haven't read him I strongly recommend him to you. If everyone read Wodehouse there would be no depression in the world!

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Good call. As I was reading this string and was assembling my list I overlooked Wodehouse. Jeeves is a hoot.