Top 5 Tuesday is created by the always prolific Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and this week we’re talking about books that really tickle the funny bone. And I don’t mean books that had a humorous line, or some quip that brought a smile to your face. I’m talking about books that made you literally LOL!
Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe
by Preston Norton
Whenever I’m confused with why I keep requesting ARCs when I clearly don’t have time for them, I remember this book. I wasn’t expecting much, but it was one of the first “big company” ARCs I was able to get. Then, I end up finding a spirit animal in Cliff (Neanderthal) and an insanely funny book.
“My fight-or-flight response was currently telling me to get the hell outta there. Except that my fight-or-flight response had a third, less-evolved option called deer-in-the-headlights.”
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
A classic. And timeless. I’m sure there are piles of books that were funny during their time, but age has a way of removing relatability or making a shocking punchline seem banal and obvious. This however, retains all of its original magic. Clever, witty stuff that is keeps being funny even with re-reads.
“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.”
A Man Called Ove
by Fredrik Backman
This book wrecked me. Oh, sure, it has comedy and plenty of it. It’ll make you laugh one moment and melt your heart the next. Then just as it allows your heart to become something as stable as jello, STOMP! But, yes. Lots of funny!
“Now you listen to me,” says Ove calmly while he carefully closes the door. “You’ve given birth to two children and quite soon will be squeezing out a third. You’ve come here from a land far away and most likely you fled war and persecution and all sorts of other nonsense. You’ve learned a new language and got yourself an education and you’re holding together a family of obvious incompetents. And I’ll be damned if I’ve seen you afraid of a single bloody thing in this world before now….I’m not asking for brain surgery. I’m asking you to drive a car. It’s got an accelerator, a brake and a clutch. Some of the greatest twits in world history have sorted out how it works. And you will as well.” And then he utters seven words, which Parvaneh will always remember as the loveliest compliment he’ll ever give her. “Because you are not a complete twit.”
Furiously Happy
by Jenny Lawson
This was another surprise. Not that I wasn’t expecting comedy. Everyone and their mom told me this book was funny. I went in with a bit of skepticism. How can it be that funny? It is. It’s that funny.
“Like my grandmother always said, “Your opinions are valid and important. Unless it’s some stupid bullshit you’re being shitty about, in which case you can just go fuck yourself.”
A Confederacy of Dunces
by John Kennedy Toole
This one is a very different kind of comedy. The lines themselves aren’t funny. The situations aren’t necessarily funny. But the main character, Ignatius J. Reilly, is really, really funny, even though he’s never trying to be. He’s funny in his audacity, the things he’s willing to say, the apparent lack of shame he has in everything he does. All made more interesting by the idea that the author just might have been writing something semi auto-biographical…
“I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.”
I’ve seen Furiously Happy everywhere, and everyone says it’s hilarious. I have yet to pick it up. I’m not much of a nonfiction reader, so I feel like it wouldn’t be for me.
The only one on this list that i’ve read is Furiously Happy and that one made me laugh until I was bawling. I had to stop working because I was laughing so hard and couldn’t see!
Great list! I really want to read A man called Ove!
My post!