Episode 159; Books to Escape The Bad Stuff & Funny Books…

[Carol Ann]

I'm never sure whether I should be posting my comments on the Reader's website or in this group, so I'll apologize now posting it on both.

Thanks for discussing these topics. I think about these very things quite often and really enjoyed your conversation about them. A great escape book for me is not defined so much by its genre or mood but more by whether or not it’s a story that I can lose myself in. I need a story that is fluid, enabling me to be totally unaware of the author’s presence, and having characters, events, and settings that I can connect with and invisibly tag along with them.

My most recent escapist book is The Marvels by Brian Selznik. The book itself is beautiful; its hefty 665 gold-tipped pages felt like an indulgence the moment I picked it up. A majority of the book has no written words but instead, it has intricate sketches readily portraying emotions, plot, and scene of a story that spans 150 years and 5 generations of the Marvel family. It is in the sketches that I escaped to another world/time/life. True, it is a children’s book but that doesn’t mean it’s any less interesting or intriguing. In fact, it made it much easier to read and engage with. I’m with both of you in believing if I really enjoy a book, that makes it a perfect escape.

Regarding books that make you laugh, I have yet to find a book that makes me ROLF but one that often had me chuckling was the audiobook version of “A Prayer for Owen Meany” by John Irving. Simon, I truly hope you soon find one that has you ROLFing. Plus, I’d love it if you’d share your cackles, chuckles, giggles, snickers, and belly laughs with us sometime. I can bet you’ll have all your followers laughing along with you. The Readers Laugh-in! Love your podcast!

[Nickelini]

Another great episode!

Escape books -- when my mom was dying, I found solice in Anna Karenina. Not exactly a happy book, but completely different from life in 2016. My other escapist go-to books are Pride & Prejudice and Bridget Jones's Diary.

Funny books -- maybe not ha ha funny, but highly amusing: Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, Notes from a Small Island (Bill Bryson), What a Carve Up! (Jonathan Coe), Fruit: a novel about a boy and his nipples (Brian Francis), The Book of Lies (Mary Horlock), and Bird by Bird (Anne Lamott). Some of these made me laugh out loud in public.

[Janet]

If you're not too religious, you'll laugh out loud at this one.....Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. His other stuff is pretty good too....I loved A Dirty Job

[Kara]

Here are some of my favorite funny books & authors!

Anything David Sedaris and I highly recommend the audiobooks. He reads them all & you can rewind to hear the best bits over and over. Me Talk Pretty One Day and Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls are my favorites.

Jenny Lawson, again in audio! She has such a great voice, both vocally and as a writer.

American Housewife by Helen Ellis is the funniest book I've read this year.

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, naturally.

The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion. They're like smart romantic comedies in book form. Don's dry unassuming voice is my cup of tea.

The books of women comediennes: Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling. You guessed it: go for the audio!

And of course, the queen: Jane Austen, specifically Pride and Prejudice and Emma.

I think I have slightly different comedic tastes to Simon (I loved The Martian and I recommend it to everyone) ;-)

[Laura]

I just listened to the latest episode about funny books and I completely agree that it is difficult to find funny novels. However, I'm currently reading The Sympathizer (as the summer reading assignment) and it is hilarious!! Not in a jokey way, but the author's dark, sarcastic sense of humor is fabulous. Great pick and I'm looking forward to the discussion!

[Kim]

My comfort reads (not already mentioned) are: The Bernie and Chet detective series by Spencer Quinn; M.C. Beaton's Hamish MacBeth series; the Jan Karon Mitford novels featuring Father Timothy Kavanagh. All these books are also amusing, maybe not coincidentally.

Hm. Just realized I said "comfort" and not "escape." Maybe that's why when Simon and Thomas were discussing the topic, there was some surprise at seeing dystopian novels or novels containing violence included. Escape can just include anything that takes you away from your current circumstances. And that would be very personal. I always want comfort books to escape, but not everyone would.

Funny books? There are very few that make me laugh out loud. Memoirs are often poorly written. But I am always amused by Richard Russo's novels (he wrote "Nobody's Fool.") Also, the memoir "In Stitches" (about a medical student) had some pretty funny parts.

[Daniel]

I'm not a big ell-oh-eller although I cry at the drop of a cat... er hat. "Comic" novels tend to leave me cold. A Confederacy of Dunces was merely meh. The Sellout was too angry to be funny. The last books that made me actually chuckle and put the book down for a minute to enjoy a belly laugh were Joe R. Lansdale's Hap & Leonard series. I'm usually laughing at a crackhead being set on fire or someone getting kicked so hard in the testicles that their eyeballs pop which tells you more about my own proclivities than the state of comedy in literature.

In my defence, I also find Jane Austen really funny.

[Richard]

For me, there's something very comforting about settling into a big Anthony Trollope novel. Jane Austen and Dickens provide good comfort reads, too.

As for funny books, I thought Lucky Jim was funny when I read it many years ago, but the only other Kingsley Amis book I've read left me cold. Thomas's comments about Lucky Jim make me wonder whether I would still like it. (But then, unlike Thomas, I think that Catch-22 is a great and very funny novel.)

I agree with Maggie about Pride and Prejudice and Emma. On the whole, I prefer the subtle humour of writers like Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope to more obvious attempts to be funny. Then again, I've really enjoyed some of Bill Bryson's books.

[PJ]

For funny books, I recommend anything by Terry Fallis. "Up and Down" and "No Relation" are the best I've read so far.

[Terry]

The title of this book made me LOL. I have not read the book. My DH loves Patrick McManus for the humor and sometimes it has him ROTFL.

[Michael]

Not many books make me laugh, more a quiet smile, but Anthony Trollope managed it in Barchester Towers, especially some of the scenes featuring the Archdeacon (it was a few years ago when I was more impressionable).

P G Wodehouse can also be amusing when you're in the right mood, but in small doses, they can become repetitive.

At a more juvenile level, we've just marked the centenary of the birth of Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Fantastic Mr Fox).


For escapist reads I revert to the certainties and neat resolution of inter war crime fiction, especially Dorothy L Sayers, the sort of stories that could not be written today, but provide a comfortable diversion.

[Sue]

I agree with Simon that for escaping from the world, Wilkie Collins is the man! Also Bill Bryson for funny/amusing is the other man. Saying that, maybe you have to be American and living or have lived in the UK to find it amusing. Enjoyed your podcast.

[Mimi]

I have to agree with "Station 11," it is rare to have such a beautiful meditation on beauty, love, and community wrapped up in a post -apocalyptic book