Different/Humourous Books.

[Christopher]

These are the kind of books found often in the humour section, or lost deep in the bookstore itself. Have you come across any particulaly amusing Gems of Literature recently?

I'm currently aquiring them at a rapid rate:

- Schlotts Original Miscellany (a book of very miscellanous fact)
- Unoriginal Miscellany (Parody of above, lots of weirder miscellanous fact + fake ones)
- How to Rule the World (a guide on how to conquer, rule, and govern the world as the title suggests. It was written by a man that attempted a coup himself but was ratted out by the barber)
- Jetlag guide to Molvania (A tourguide to a very funny Fake country)

[Metatwaddle]

Dave Barry is incredible. His earlier humor is sometimes a bit immature, but his travel guide and his political satire book are both amazingly funny. I laughed out loud reading just about every page.
I also like Bill Bryson. He wrote A Walk in the Woods, a chronicle of his Appalachian Trail hiking adventure, and Neither Here Nor There, about his travels in Europe. He's got the most perceptive way of telling stories and he makes people sounds so absurd at times.

As for fiction and fantasy and all that good stuff... Terry Pratchett is the only way to go. He's a fantasy writer/satirist, and he's just brilliant at creating his own whimsical yet logical characters and worlds. You have got to start reading his Discworld series. It's wonderful.

[Crescendo]

The Bathroom Reader series. What great books.

[vivian58]

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, of course! In my opinion, they're better than the Discworld books, but alas there are only 4 versus however many billion books Pratchett was written. :p

[robot]

I've only read one book from the Discworld series, but it was definitely one of my favorite books. Although, I can't imagine many things being more hilarious than a Hogfather and random annoying "mythical" entities.

[wolftracker]

I adore Sarah Vowell, she writes humorous essays about American life.

[Atamand]

The Bathroom Reader series. What great books.

I have two. Great for, well, bathroom reading!

And the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Great books.

[Crystal Cloud]

The Bathroom Reader series. What great books.

I have two or three at home. They're great!

[Hunter Lupe]

HHGTG is an excelent book.

Terry Pratchet gets better every year -- downright hilarious, although it's easy to miss some of the puns if you're a younger reader (the key here is not to skip anything).

[Crescendo]

The Bathroom Reader series. What great books.

I have two. Great for, well, bathroom reading!

And the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Great books.

Yay! Other Bathroom readers. ^^ I thought I was the only one keeping them in business.

I read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy one year ago...didn't know there was a series. I'll have to check it out. ;)

[Igg]

Bill Bryson's travel books ^_^

[wolftracker]

Bill Bryson's travel books ^_^

and his books on the English language. the man's just a genius all around.

[Lilac~The Fainting Queen]

i found To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis to be highly amusing, i laughed out loud several times while reading it. she's an amazing scifi/fantasyish type author who sometimes throws in romance (writes a ton about time related phenomena and time travel), her other books are great too and also sometimes amusing, but much more serious, I'd say, so they don't really fit into this thread. anyway, i loved the book, thought i'd mention it. definitely has become one of my all time favorite books.

oi, i've got to get around to reading some pratchet works, heard so much about them but have yet to read 'em due to huge reading assignments the past year in school (we rocketed through books, at least fifteen last year and five over the summer). thanks for reminding me, haha!

[Metatwaddle]

My God, this is awesome. I had no idea anyone besides me was into Terry Pratchett or Bill Bryson!

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, of course! In my opinion, they're better than the Discworld books, but alas there are only 4 versus however many billion books Pratchett was written. :p

Meh. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles were good, but they were a little... well, it seemed like they were geared towards younger readers than me. So it might just be an age difference.

And the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Great books.

The Hitchhiker's Guide was pretty good, but I like Discworld better. I'm about to read Life, The Universe, And Everything, so I'll let you know what I think.

Anyone here have a favorite Discworld character? For me it's Granny Weatherwax. She's so candid and stubborn and smart and generally hilarious. I like Sam Vimes too, though. I was never a big Rincewind fan.

[Smart Duck]

I liked the Enchanted forest, and her book of short stories, whatever it's called. Terry Pratchett is the best humourus novel writer though. I like Commander Vimes.