Audiobooks discussion
Archives
>
In search of a little levity...
date
newest »
newest »
I have listened to most of David Sedaris and "The Sweet Potato Queens Field Guide to Men," but I'm in search of some more seriously funny stuff. Any recommendations out there? For those of you who haven't gone this route, listening to the funny stuff almost always turns around a day gone bad!
I laughed quite a bit at the Princess Bride, too.When I think about laughing out loud at a book I will always remember the time I actually got kicked out of my fourth grade class durring "silent reading" for an uncontrolled fit of the giggles while reading The Mad Scientist Club by (I think) Donald Sobol.
In more recent years the Wizzard in Rhyme series by Christopher Stasheff probably made me laugh most often.
Was "The Princess Bride" the one that was the "good parts version" or something like that? Most recently I laughed my tuckus off at "The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession". But I think you might have to be a birder yourself to see as much humor in it as I did.
I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but I must recommend Douglas Adams. His books are simultaneously intelligent and goofy and a whole lot of fun. :^)
Three Men in a Boat as narrated by Martin Jarvis.What about a P. G. Wodehouse? I'm on vacation and don't have access to my copies to give titles and narrators, but how about Jeeves and the Mating Season as narrated by Jonathan Cecil?
If you don't mind some supernatural elements (think Buffy The Vampire Slayer), I'd really recommend the Christopher Moore books - You Suck! and A Dirty Job. And if you aren't offended by a humorous re-telling of the Jesus story, Lamb by the same guy is very funny.Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation is superb - funny and American History all in one. If you are a liberl, then John Stewart's America is also good listening, though much more political.
I just listened to Bill Bryson's Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid, which is a funny memoir of the 50's in Iowa.
I've heard good things about Amy Sedaris's I Like You and the group effort with her and others called Wigfield ... but I haven't listened to them yet.
Often comedians that you already know have books - Ellen Degeneres and Eddie Izzard both have books out there that are basically their standup routines that I have enjoyed a lot. I've seen George Carlin has several books, if you like him.
I still think that the two Bridget Jones Diary books are very funny, and the Stephanie Plum series (bumbling Jersey girl bounty hunter) by Janet Evanovich is always good for a happy pick-me-up.
Oh! And the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary are brilliantly read by Stockard Channing - yes, they're kid books but we were kids once too :)
Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods is a very funny listen for a long uninterrupted drive. Gets a little choppy to listen to in city traffic.
I'm a big fan of Molly Ivins' early audio books. I listened to these three:You Got to Dance With Them What Brung You: Politics in the Clinton Years
Nothin' But Good Times Ahead
Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?
I'm pretty much try not to make external noise while reading, so it's got to be a pretty good book to make me laugh out loud. As such, both "The Liar" and "The Hippopotamus" by Stephen Fry have performed this function in recent memory. Pretty much anything by Douglas Adams, Jasper Fforde, and Terry Pratchett gets me close. I think I remember "Sick Puppy" by Carl Hiaasen doing quite the same.A second for "A Girl Named Zippy", though I may have only chuckled.
Also, "Running With Scissors" and the following memoirs by Augusten Burroughs
Candy Freak by Steve AlmondApathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan
Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis
These are the ones that most come to mind becasue they are either recent reads or just always hilarious. It doenst take much to make me laugh out loud but these succeeded in spades.
Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger made me laugh out loud. A lot of books claim to be funny, but this one really was.
ANYBODY CAN DO ANYTHING - Betty MacDonaldDOG OF THE SOUTH - Charles Portis
CRACKPOT: THE OBSESSIONS - John Waters
CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES - John Kennedy Toole
A SUPPOSEDLY FUN THING I'LL NEVER DO AGAIN - D.F. Wallace
LIFE AMONG THE SAVAGES - Shirley Jackson
RAISING DEMONS - Shirley Jackson
PURSUIT OF LOVE - Nancy Mitford
THE PUSHCART WAR - Jean F. Merrill
Stephanie--I love seeing Charles Portis show up on someone's reading list! I have several of his books autographed, and got to have lunch with him at The Buffalo Grill in Little Rock one day not long after Gringos came out. Even better to find someone who's read more from him than just True Grit! I might have missed out on some of those if I hadn't been friends with his niece in college. She is brilliant and funny and well-read, so I knew I'd appreciate anything that came from her family.
Belinda, this is so funny. I actually looked at your list of books and thought we must be kindred spirits. Portis is fantastic...I got turned on to him when my husband worked at Overlook Press, which reissued his books after they had been out of print for a long time. I adore TRUE GRIT, too. Love the no-nonsense protagonist (who is a teenaged girl, no less!) and the fight scene at the end was so gripping. Reading it was like watching a movie unspool in my head.What did Portis's niece think of him? As I recall, my husband said he was a bit quirky, conducting all of his correspondence on a manual typewriter. Heard he is a bit of a recluse, too. Hey, whatever works. If I were able to write books of his caliber, I'd become a shut-in, too!
She adores him, of course, and the feeling is mutual. The whole family is quirky and brilliant, and while they're quite warm and charming, do seem (especially to someone who's OUT THERE, like me) to treasure privacy. My friend is someone I'd describe as a "quiet genius." She's easily one of the smartest people I know, but very humble, and loves people. She's a GP at a small-town practice, like her father before her. There is another brother who is an accomplished photographer.I think most of my Portis editions are Overlook editions!
I remember a while ago I was reading a Stephanie Plum novel (by Janet Evanovich) late at night and I got the giggles. I had to stuff my face into the pillow so as not to howl with laughter and wake everyone up. :)
OK, on top of getting some great book recommendations (my local library doesn't have a lending copy of "Supposedly Fun Things I'll Never Do Again," bah!) from this conversation, I've got some to add:1. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
(made me positively CRY with laughter - on a plane!)
2. Body, by Harry Crews
3. Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
4. Any of Fran Leibowitz's essays, collected in the Fran Leibowitz Reader, in which she waxes poetic about hating kids and loving smoking
5. Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem
(also made me laugh uncontrollably at inappropriate moments)
I know this may be considered a "conventional" book but I really couldn't stop laughing the entire time I read Catch-22. I just recently caught the film version for the first time 2 days ago. Man, I totally fell in love with Arkin...he was perfect for Yossarian! Just the right comedic timing.
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome J. JeromeAnything by Patrick McManus
Exploits of a Reluctant (But Extremely Goodlooking) Hero by Maureen Fergus
The Adrian Mole diaries, by Sue Townsend
David Carkeet's The Greatest Slump of All Time, Double Negative,The Full Catastrophe & anything else you can get your hands on by this wonderful, witty writer.Flann O'Brien's The Third Policemen, The Hard Life, The Dalkey Archive, At Swim Two-Birds.
John Barth's The Sot-Weed Factor, The Floating
Opera
J.P. DonLeavy's The Unexpergated Code
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore had me giggling out loud on a red eye flight between San Francisco and New York City. A lot of the humor written into this book is enhanced for San Franciscans as the little details the author throws in that only someone from San Francisco can appreciate.
Bill Bryson's A Walk In the Woods is one of the funniest books I've ever heard. His In a Sunburned Country is nearly as funny.
Anything by Terry Pratchett is HILLARIOUS!
Going Postal by Pratchett is wonderful. I listened to it years ago and still crack up thinking about it.
YES!! Terry Pratchett is awesome!! I love Soul Music. His type of humor is the kind that makes you turn your head sideways and go, "Hmmm. That's weird." and then you chuckle.
Sherry-I'm listening to "Going Postal" right now. I love Pratchett's work and this is turning out to be a great one. One of my favorites is still "Monstrous Regiment"
I recommend P. G. Wodehouse for some rousing British humor. The short stories of Saki are also pretty amusing. If you enjoy Sedaris you should check out Augusten Burroughs. I've read a couple by him and look forward to reading more.
Going Postal was very good, but Amy is right, Monstrous Regiment was even BETTER... at least for women.
Also i thought "The Princess Bride" was a riot...how the author add notes.