The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsWhat is the funnest book you have read? I loved Susan Orlean's "The Orchid Thief". What
a wild ride that was. About obsession and turning the writing of a story inside out. The movie "Adaptation" then took it to another level and was as much about movie making as the book was about writing. I highly reccommend it to everyone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orchid_Thief
RiffRandell
(5,909 posts)catnhatnh
(8,976 posts)Which was a satire on guess whom???
OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)but I believe in gut instinct and the first thing that popped into my mind was Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I may end up seeing others that come close but damn that book was fun.
applegrove
(117,885 posts)limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)There was some Kurt Vonnegut that was pretty funny too, but I can't remember which titles.
pipi_k
(21,020 posts)in school.
One of the books I'm currently reading is "Fart Proudly"...a collection of essays and short poems by Ben Franklin.
I honestly never knew he was such a mischievous fellow, and I think I may have liked him very much if I had known him in person.
PS...it's not all about farts, though. His essay on choosing a mistress is a hoot, as is the one written by the fictional "Alice Addertongue"
EastTennesseeDem
(2,675 posts)There is no close second for me.
applegrove
(117,885 posts)Response to applegrove (Reply #9)
EastTennesseeDem This message was self-deleted by its author.
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)Dembearpig
(24 posts)Great literature and laugh out loud funny cover to cover.
PassingFair
(22,434 posts)Such a tragedy that he died before it was published, and that
he never got to write another.
A real miracle of a book!
nuxvomica
(12,329 posts)I made the mistake of reading it on an airplane flight, disrupting my fellow passengers with periodic outbursts of laughter. You don't even see it coming with that book.
annonymous
(882 posts)I also think Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen is hilarious but it's not for everyone as the humor is very dark.
Brother Buzz
(36,125 posts)The storyline was a little wacko, absurd, a stretch, but the writing was a laugh a minute.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,065 posts)OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)I've seen him several times on late night talks shows and I love those appearances. He cracks me up. And I love his sister too.
WhoIsNumberNone
(7,875 posts)BBC TV series = Better than the movie
Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)shortly after a trip to England. I found it hilarious, because he exaggerates English ways just a little bit...
I also enjoyed his book about Australia, In a Sunburned Country, which is similar in tone.
pipi_k
(21,020 posts)He has a pretty good book on hiking the Appalachian Trail too
Rob H.
(5,335 posts)It's about his attempt to walk the Appalachian Trail. His hilarious section on bears is worth the price of the book all by itself.
Edit: found an excerpt:
My particular dread--the vivid possibility that left me staring at tree shadows on the bedroom ceiling night after night--was having to lie in a small tent, alone in an inky wilderness, listening to a foraging bear outside and wondering what its intentions were. I was especially riveted by an amateur photograph in Herrero's book, taken late at night by a camper with a flash at a campground out West. The photograph caught four black bears as they puzzled over a suspended food bag. The bears were clearly startled but not remotely alarmed by the flash. It was not the size or demeanor of the bears that troubled me--they looked almost comically nonaggressive, like four guys who had gotten a Frisbee caught up a tree--but their numbers. Up to that moment it had not occurred to me that bears might prowl in parties. What on earth would I do if four bears came into my camp? Why, I would die, of course. Literally shit myself lifeless. I would blow my sphincter out my backside like one of those unrolling paper streamers you get at children's parties--I daresay it would even give a merry toot--and bleed to a messy death in my sleeping bag.
denbot
(9,894 posts)San Francisco vampires, and what not. He wove the first book in to two more, You Suck, and Bite me..
I've read about 5 of his books. They are all fun reads. If you like funny and fun check his stuff out.
http://www.chrismoore.com/books.html
OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)He's great. Lamb has been my favorite so far.
frogmarch
(12,143 posts)by Terry Pratchett made me laugh aloud the first time I read it, as well as all the times after that. I love it. In fact, I love all of Terry Pratchett's books.
Anyone know how he is?
From The Ashes
(2,623 posts)...he appears to be as busy as ever despite the early onset Alzheimer's. A new Discworld novel just out, and a new non-Discworld book due out in about 4 months.
frogmarch
(12,143 posts)so glad to hear it! Wow, this is wonderful news.
Whisp
(24,096 posts)a wild ride as well, very creative.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,266 posts)First person narrative of the adventures of Horse Badorties.
I highly recommend it.
Then again, I'm getting a lot of good suggestions from this thread. Thanks, applegrove.
JitterbugPerfume
(18,183 posts)or maybe Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
or
Breakfast of Champions
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)I love that book.
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)JitterbugPerfume
(18,183 posts)They think granny is cool LOL
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)JitterbugPerfume
(18,183 posts)and so do i
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)cyberswede
(26,117 posts)LOL'd through the whole thing (I think I was a junior in HS).
I haven't read Confederacy of Dunces, though. That might win out in the end.
PassingFair
(22,434 posts)but I can never remember any of it.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)When I lived in Miami, I worked for a city magazine, and one our editors did an interview with him. I begged to go along, but to no avail. He was my aunt's next door neighbor when he lived in Pennsylvania.
Initech
(99,881 posts)And of course who could forget "Big Trouble".
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)It has one of the funniest descriptions of a funeral I ever read.
AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)Arkansas Granny
(31,476 posts)ceile
(8,692 posts)LOL funny. I would read it on my breaks at work and get asked all the time "what's so funny?"
Adsos Letter
(19,459 posts)An amazing bit of writing for a first novel.
sarge43
(28,935 posts)The source of A Christmas Story
Adsos Letter
(19,459 posts)Jean Shepherd was a great humorist.
sarge43
(28,935 posts)one_voice
(20,043 posts)but there have been a few:
All Creatures Great and Small--James Herriot
Couplehood & Babyhood--Paul Riser
Outrageous--Charles Barkley. (yes, it had a lot of humor)
edited to say: oops I misread it as funniest however all these book could be funnest too.
av8rdave
(10,569 posts)Both had me in stitches.
dogknob
(2,431 posts)...but I read "Fool"
av8rdave
(10,569 posts)The lost gospel of Biff, Jesus' childhood friend.
What's amazing about it is that for as funny - and sometimes bawdy - as it is, it remains respectful and Biblically accurate with respect to the character of Jesus.
I definitely want to read more Moore!
eppur_se_muova
(36,222 posts)Although for balance you should try reading "Orchid Fever" to hear opposing views on CITES. It also the only book (AFAIK) to use the phrase "fox testicle ice cream jump rope" in a way that makes perfect sense, and was indeed inevitable in context.
DFW
(53,930 posts)By Tom Robbins
There was some line in there about a medieval Bohemian prince who met a woman from India, and it went something like:
"It is said that when a man is contemplating sexual activity, his hair grows faster. Alobar may need a shave before we get to the bottom of this page."
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Doc Holliday
(719 posts)If I were a religionist, it wouldn't have made me laugh so much. But being agnostic allows me to take all religions the same amount of serious...which is to say not very. Kevin Smith's film Dogma has the same effect, and for the same reason.
Ohio Joe
(21,607 posts)You don't have to be a wrestling fan to really appreciate it. An awesome book.
pokerfan
(27,677 posts)Candide is up there as well.