A love letter to books that made me laugh out loud

As I was racking my brain and browsing my shelves for five books to put on this list, I realized that some of my picks are actually quite specific to my experience. What makes me laugh may not make others laugh. I tend to like a lot of snark, sarcasm, and black humor.

Are you experienced? by William Suttcliffe
This is a must read for anyone who has ever gone backpacking, hung out with backpackers or wants to see the realities of backpacking viciously made fun of. In the book, British teen David Greenfield follows his current crush Liz on a 3 month backpacking tour to India, not so much because he cares about expanding his horizons, but more because he wants a relationship with Liz. Along the way, David meets an “enlightened” backpacker who calls himself J, two “selfless” (and hopelessly misguided) girls who volunteer at a leper colony, a wealthy Indian Ranj who is running away from his prominent family, and an extremely hostile journalist. Good times!



The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey
This is a macabre rhyming alphabet book that features illustrations of 26 children either dead, dying, or about to die in a variety of ways. “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs, B is for Basil assaulted by bears.” I think my favorite is “Neville who died of ennui” but they are all so delightful absurd, that I come back to this book again and again.

Thank You For Smoking by Christopher Buckley
I am a militant anti-smoker, but I’m also annoyed by much of the whole PC movement. I picked this book up while I was working on a project for Philip Morris (advertising for a potential reduced exposure product or PREP that is billed as “the polite way to smoke” because it reduces secondhand smoke so dramatically – unfortunately, it also looks like a medical device) and the way it skewered the cigarette industry really fit my own experience. In the book, the main character, Nick Naylor, is a reviled tobacco lobbyist who hangs out with his fellow “merchants of death” – a firearm lobbyist and an alcohol lobbyist. When someone tries to kill Nick with an overdose of nicotine patches, it’s up to the MOD squad to get to the bottom of it. It’s very over the top and very funny.

Bitter with Baggage Seeks Same: The Life and Times of Some Chickens
Visual artist Sloane Tanen painstakingly arranged plastic chicks in elaborate dioramas and then wrote hilarious captions to accompany them. It’s kind of hard to explain how funny this is to someone who hasn’t seen it, but it is very funny. One of my favorites is a diorama with the chicks packed into a toy station wagon with suitcases on top and there is a sign for a fried chicken restaurant. The caption says “An eerie silence quickly enveloped the Cohen family wagon. That last turn had been a grave mistake. They were no longer en route to California but heading south, deep into the heart of Kentucky.”

The Complete Far Side by Gary Larson
Ok, this is cheating a bit, but I love the Far Side. This massive volume purports to contain every published Far Side cartoon and a few unpublished ones as well. LOVE!

Honorable mentions: Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events, David Sedaris, Jasper Fforde’s Tuesday Next series, Tom Robbins.

What books made you laugh so hard you fell out of your chair or snorted milk out your nose?