ITT: funny books. No rules, really.
I'll start with Apuleius's Golden Ass. It's a story about a young man who plays with magic and gets metamorphosed into a donkey. The whole thing is hilarious. Lots of lewdness.
John Gall (if that is his real name) is a total maniac.
don quixote
Stephen King's On Writing
No trolling, it's hysterical. His advice is sound, but his childhood memories and the way he tells them make me laugh. Very well-done
Obligatory: Rontel by Sam Pink. I doubt I'll ever read a book that makes me laugh as much.
The Dalkey Archive by Flann O'Brien.
>>7510567
Been looking this up and it looks great. What's the humor here--im trying to get a handle on it but I can't any excerpts, im going off reviews/the book jacket.
>>7510582
It's an insightful book about a weird topic written in a somewhat ironical register. It's a funny ~philosophical text that isn't hammy Barnes & Noble shelf-bait like "On Bullshit" or "Assholes: A Theory".
>>7510497
No pictures because my old comp died but
>Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy
Holy Shit. Excellent thriller but the tropes are out of this fucking world corny. It's cringeworthy, hilarious, and a a reasonable break from mostpodernism vs existentialism
>>7510497
White Noise by DeLillo
The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi
>>7512202
first time i've seen this book mentioned here. it's really good. the scene where he accidentally comes out is pretty hilarious.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Catch-22 and Catcher in the Rye are the funniest books I've read
>>7512299
reading this right now
did he just masturbate to his fucking dog
>>7512314
Yea. Just like us, amirite
>No Douglas Adam ITT
Checkem
the apple store desu senpai
Tristram Shandy you fucks
>>7512296
>tfw both on my bedside table right now
whole heckload of funny
Under The Frog - Tibor Fischer
Hilarious book about the early years of communism after WW2 in Hungary, following a young basketball player going through all the grotesque shit the new political system had to offer. Laughed out loud on every page.
"Has the new Hungary overcome the old three-layered class system of workers, bourgeoisie and nobility?" Roka asked, swiftly providing the answer (before anyone thought he was posing a serious question). "Not quite. There are still three classes in the new Hungary: those who have been to prison, those who are in prison and those who are going to prison."
"The good thing about Mao, like Marx, and in particular Lenin and Stalin, was that at one point or another, he had written or said everything from "I ordered the steak medium-rare" to "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" to "Chattanooga Choo-Choo". Everything had passed their lips, so you couldn't go wrong quoting from imagination."
>>7510573
Chuck Tingle's covers and titles are the best imo.
I always found Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon to be fucking hilarious. His weird ironic voice and borderline parodies of the historical figures he depicts (Douglas MacArthur in particular, basically heroically posing in a bathrobe while his house blows up around him) are amazing.
Also, people love to claim Don Quixote is dry but it's really so fucking funny as long as you're not in one of part 1's subplots. The scene where the Don threatens to kill a lion tamer if he doesn't let him fight his lions always stuck out as underrated
>>7513186
This sounds great
Communism a shit
Ignore the film, but the book is wonderfully meta, pulpy and inventive. I smirked, smiled and giggled plentifully throughout, but I also found the book surprisingly unsettling. It's a horror-comedy that knows how to balance genuine comedy and genuine horror.
>>7513721When They switch the girl out with a mannequin for a split second... That got under my skin.
Wong spends a decade on the book and it's great. Funnier and more unsettling than King. He spends, what, a year on the sequel—? And it's trash.
World War Last - Norman Spinrad (from Other Americas)
keked hard
>>7513186
No-one will ever believe me but this guy used to teach me at university
>>7513732
I've yet to read the sequel, but yeah, John Dies at the End really is funnier and more unsettling than King. That was very surprising to me, actually, with how brilliant the book was - there's atmospheric tension, playful dialogue and characters, scenarios that feel like riddleslike when Dave thinks he's killed himself and isn't sure if he's a doppleganger or not, shock value (I need to re-read the book really but I remember it feeling grotesque), etc. It's such an ambitious book and I hope people discover the book instead of the film.
>Not posting ghetto /lit/
>Not laughing like the snobs we are
>>7513798
> Benjamin Franklin
Beckett can be really funny.
Queneau and Jarry are really hilarious.Rabelais, Petrone and Cervantes too. Mark Twain will also make you laugh.
There's also a lot of very funny plays such as Cirano de Bergerac, The importance of being Earnest, Moliere's plays and the theatre of the absurd.
>>7510497
Three Men in a Boat
Pic related ha me laughing out loud real good but that was a long time ago. Still funny
>>7513191
What can you say about his writing?
Murphy and Molloy.
Machado de Assis, for real.
>Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas
>Quincas Borba
And that is just the beginning.
>>7512710
Don Quixote is funny. At some points with slapstick, at other points absurdity and occasionally with profundity.
>>7512147
Is that so? Nice. Got it for Christmas. Going to tackle it when I finally finish Infinite Jest sometime in the 2030's.
>>7513787
I believe you anon.
Was he any good?
>>7513186
i can almost taste the autism from this post.
Master and margarita
Moby dick
>>7512314
dat book is all caricature and no guffaw.
>>7513948
I've been wanting to read this. I was kinda disappointed with brazilian literature after i read O Guarani. Shit was so boring.
>>7513787
Why not, he must be around his fifties, living in the UK. How was he as a professor? I like his writing but lately his supporting comments on the current Hungarian government proved that he either doesn't know shit about what's going on in here or that he is hopelessly stupid.
>>7514234
Good for you pal, I suggest you actually google 'autism' as you clearly don't know what it means and chances are that you are affected.
>>7514926
thanks
>>7514342
Tip: Don't read José de Alencar
There are manybetterothers good authors.
I recommend you the Machado de Assis' Tales, Manuel Bandeira and Clarice Lispector.
>>7510497
Waiting for Godot.
>because dick jokes
>>7513964
>>7514926
He was a pretty good lecturer. He genuinely cared about what he taught, and often taught us thing that were interesting and not completely useful but fun.
I had him for Theory and the Novel in First Year, and Creative Writing in Third Year. He was pretty good in both.
Also, he assigned us a project of reading one of his own novels and writing a short critical piece on it which is kinda funny.
>>7514342
is that zeca pagodinho
>>7513954
>one of the more profound books in existence
>occasionally with profundity
I hate this board sometimes
>>7514957
Thanks bud.
>>7515119
Makes me jealous, lucky bastard!
>>7515230
He left halfway through the year though, which sucks.
>>7510824
>tropes
That's not the correct meaning of the word you fucking cunt.
>>7513779
Spinrad is massively underrated.
>>7513186
Played basketball throughout my childhood and my dad's parents both emigrated from Hungary in '56, so this is going on my list, thanks anon.
>>7514321
>Moby dick
Wasn't expecting all the laughs I'd have from this book
I laughed out loud the most while reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas though
>>7513915
>Murphy
Oh god this.
>when the one tenantkills himselfand the one woman speculates the event to be an accident in slapstick
>>7510508
it more sad than funny overall
>>7512933
This!
Other books that made me laugh out loud in public include Lucky Jim, Mason & Dixon. A couple of Kafka stories are pretty funny, Iike unhappiness and jackals and Arabs. Porcupines in the University by Barthelme is a hoot.
>>7515164
He might have meant that it's profundity was occasionally funny. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. It makes me feel good to give things to the less fortunate
>>7515673
i spelled its wrong
Christopher Fowler has some great horror/comedy moments. I heartily recommend 'The Bureau of Lost Souls'.
>>7512299
Read it, didn't laugh once. Don't understand what the fuss is about.
>>7512933
the patrician's choice
