Someone asked me at dinner the other day for a book recommendation—a funny book recommendation. It was difficult to think of any right away! Although I laugh while reading many books, I haven’t read many books that I would characterize as comedies. So I turned to Facebook with the question, “What’s the funniest book you’ve ever read?” I received quite a variety in the results! I have gathered them all here for convenience. (Note: I have not read most of these.)
- Cervantes, Don Quixote (1615).
- Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal (essay, 1729).
- Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling (1749).
- Voltaire, Candide, ou l’Optimisme (1759).
- Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers (1836).
- Edgar Allen Poe, «Never Bet the Devil Your Head» (1841).
- Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).
- Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (1889).
- Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband (play, 1895).
- P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975), generally recommended.
- Psmith, Journalist (1915).
- Leave it to Psmith (1923).
- Summer Moonshine (1937).
- World of Mr. Mulliner (1972).
- O. Henry, «Ransom of the Red Chief» (1910).
- Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall (1928).
- Evelyn Waugh, Scoop (1938).
- Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim (1954).
- W.E. Bowman, The Ascent of Rum Doodle (1956).
- Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (1961).
- Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth (1961).
- Michael Green, The Art of Course Acting (1964).
- David Lodge, The British Museum is Falling Down (1965).
- Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979).
- John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces (1980).
- Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes (comic strip, 1985-1995).
- Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, Good Omens (1990).
- Terry Pratchett, Small Gods (1992).
- Dave Barry, Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys (1995).
- David Foster Wallace, «Shipping Out» (1996). Reprinted in A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again (1997), or available here: https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf
- Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog (1997).
- David Sedaris, general recommendation. Best known for his essay collection Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000).
- Augusten Burroughs (1965-present), general recommendation. Best known for his memoir Running with Scissors (2002).
- Chuck Klosterman, essays. Best known for his essay collection Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto (2003).
- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal (2004).
- Michael Perry, Off Main Street (2005), especially «Rock Slide!», a story about kidney stones.
- Mark Helprin, Freddy and Fredericka (2005).
- Karen Russell, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (2006).
- David Wong, John Dies at the End (2007).
- Christopher Moore, Fool (2009).
- Justin Halpern, S███ My Dad Says (2010).
- Tina Fey, Bossypants (2011).
I also want to add Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift and «Revelation» by Flannery O’Connor. Happy reading!