The Big 5: Books that Made You Laugh Out Loud

What are your Big 5 books that made you laugh out loud?

We've all read them, right?  You are working through a book and you just can't contain a chuckle at a story or the way the author put something.  Any book that made you laugh is eligible, but I want to encourage you to not list too many books that are in the "humor" or "comedy" section of the bookstore.  One or two of those at most.  I'm hoping to find books/authors with a more natural humor, not just books by comedians.  BONUS: If you want to offer a short (!) quote or funny part, feel free.  But it must be funny.  If it's not funny, I will sound the gong.  Also, please don't list things like Far Side books.  These need to be reading books.  If you don't know 5, list what you have. 

Comments

[Michael Foster]

I don't know if these qualify as books but any of the Calvin and Hobbes collections and The Bunny Suicide collections make me laugh.

[tony sheng]

anything by Tim Cahill. he's a travel writer and has written a lot for Outside magazine, which is where I found him from. his writing is both hilarious and touches on deep meaning as he writes about adventure, journey and culture.

[Account Deleted]

Stories I Could Not Tell While I Was A Pastor - Bruce McIver

Traveling Mercies - Anne Lamott

Divine Nobodies - Jim Palmer (also made me cry)

[Terry B]

After seeing a review in a Ravi Zacharias newsletter years ago, I've been hooked on the Mitford series by Jan Karon ever since~

The funniest chapter ever is chapter 13 in "A New Song" by Jan Karon in that series.

Timothy is a highly encouraging 60+ yr old pastor who recently got married for the first time to Cynthia.

They just moved from pastoring in the mountains of NC to a small church on the coast.

He's never been deep sea fishing, so he thinks this would be a good thing to do to connect with the folks in his small parish....

Chapter 13 describes his deep sea adventure and it is side splittingly funny!

I remember reading that chapter for the first time. I was reading in the bedroom, laughing and crying at the same time...and I couldn't stop...

I'd been going through a bit of a rough time to say the least and I think it did my family good to hear me laughing up a storm for a change.

[Richard A. Bailey]

1. Red Lobster, White Trash, & the Blue Lagoon, Joe Queenan (anything by Queenan is typically both hilarious and cutting)
2. Confessions of a Theologian, Carl F.H. Henry (when I shared the sections I found humorous with Dr. Henry, his comment was humbling as well as fitting to his character—"I wish it had set you weeping, rather than laughing." And at places it does that too)
3. Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
4. Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry (again, a book that makes you laugh and cry)
5. The Handsomest Man in Cuba, Lynette Chiang

[Ryan P.]

1. A Walk Through the Woods, Bill Bryson
2. Mark Driscoll's first two books
3. Brain Droppings, George Carlin (though I doubt I would ever read it again, I have never laughed so hard in all of my life)
4. The Courage to be Protestant, David Wells (not kidding)

[Tyler]

I can only think of two right now..

1. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. If on a winter's night a traveler, Italo Calvino

[Abraham Piper]

My answers.

Good memories.

[Beat Attitude]

From your side of the pond:

Leaving Home by Garrison Keillor- warm stories from Lake Wobegon, making everyday life-stories something worth treasuring.

From the *better* side of the pond:

The Road to McCarthy & McCarthy's Bar (both Pete McCarthy. An excellent, witty and observant travel writer. Sadly deceased I think from liver problems, which is not surprising if you read the books)

Anything by PG Wodehouse (Wodehouse creates a kind of parallel universe which is sheer escapism of the healthy sort)

Table Talk by AA Gill (british food critic. Caustic, bitter and sharp, and yet likeable.)

Come to Britain for a different class of humour, chaps :)

[Joel Burdeaux]

1. Catcher in the Rye (Sallinger)
2. Life After God (Coupland)
3. The Stand (King)

M-O-O-N... that spells funny

4. The Intimate Marriage (Sproul)

Sproul writing about relationships and sex is actually very funny...

5. Anything by Nick Hornby

[Todd Bumgarner]

A couple:

>Driscoll's Radical Reformission

>Don Miller's Through Painted Deserts (had me bleeding in about 3 distinct places).

[Jim U.]

Preaching and Preachers by Lloyd-Jones

[James Grant]

Anything by Dave Barry.
http://www.davebarry.com/

[Terry B]

As an aside, I've noticed several have mentioned P.G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves and Wooster".

We've recently become obsessed with the dvd's that were made based on the books.

Check 'em out on netflix if you can :)

[Paul Wilkinson]

Butterworth Takes A Vacation (Bill Butterworth - out of print)

Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass (Adrian Plass)(there are about 5 books in this series; Zondervan has rights to all of them but they're hard to find in North America)

No Swimming on Sunday (Lyn Cryderman; out of print Zondervan title that fell through the cracks; previously released as Gloryland)

A Field Guide to Evangelicals (Joel Kilpatrick)

Games Christians Play (a Harper & Row classic from at least 60 years ago that really needs to be updated or reissued)

... this is a tough question because Christians generally don't have much in the way of a sense of humor; we tend to get our laughs from the general market bookstores; not our own.

[Saralyn]

Seeing that these days I read kids' books most of the time, our favorite series are:

The Moffats, by Eleanor Estes

and

The Melendy Quartet (which includes The Saturdays, The Four Story Mistake, Then There Were Five, and A Spiderweb for Two), by Elizabeth Enright

Personally, I find anything by G. K. Chesterton extremely amuzing.

[Kevin Cawley]

John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces

[Micah Monroe]

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Beyond the Cosmos by Walker Percy

Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson

The Stand by Stephen King (M-O-O-N, that spells top five!)

[Micah Monroe]

Sorry for being the second one to use the M-O-O-N joke!

[Chris Meirose]

Dave Barry gets my vote too. And while Far Side doesn't count, Calvin and Hobbes absolutely has to count. So I am voting all things Calvin and Hobbes as my #1-#5 books.

Chris Meirose
http://wasecachurch.org

[Stephen Newell]

Mark Driscoll's first 3 books

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

That's about it.

[aaron swain]

1. Any of Mark Driscolls books
2. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
3. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis- Sometimes his analogy's are so funny and witty that it made me chuckle out loud
4. Your Best Life Now by Bro. Joel

[Kent S]

1. The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs (Alexander McCall Smith)

2. Dave Barry Does Japan (Dave Barry)

3. Home to Harmony (Philip Gulley)

4. Elmer Gantry (Sinclair Lewis)

[Jake Meador]

1) Plan B - Anne Lamott
2) All Families are Psychotic - Douglas Coupland
3) Now I Can Die in Peace - Bill Simmons
4) As You Like It - William Shakespeare
5) Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

[Nathan]

Flashbang by Mark Steele

[Carl]

1) Myth-Adventures by Robert Asprin
2) Phule's Company by Robert Asprin
3) Loose Tails (Bloom County) by Berkeley Breathed
4) Kathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You: A Good Beer Joint Is Hard to Find and Other Facts of Life by Lewis Grizzard
5) They Tore Out My Heart and Stomped That Sucker Flat by Lewis Grizzard

Lewis Grizzard was my Daddy's favorite author and humorist. It was through him that I read the above two books which I found very funny.

[Carl]

Speaking of Lewis Grizzard one of my favorite quotes of his:

Lewis’ advice to Atlantans in case of nuclear war: "If you live on the South side of Atlanta, get on I-75 and go south. If you live of the North side of Atlanta get on I-75 and go north. If you are a Yankee get on 285."

[NOTE: I-285 is a loop around Atlanta]

[Chuck Land]

Letters From a Nut by Ted L Nancy (a must read!)

[limpdance]

1. Emma - Jane Austen
2. Pride and prejudice - Jane Austen
3. Collected nonsense and light verse by G.K. Chesterton
4. The silver chair (Narnia series- C S Lewis), mostly because of Puddleglum!

[Matt Mc]

1. "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris

2. "Flashbang" by Mark Steele

3. "Cat's Cradle" by Curt Vonnegut

4. "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer

5. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S. Thompson

[Josh Montague]

Hard to pick one book, so here's authors...

5. Driscoll
4. Dave Barry
3. Dale Ralph Davis - his Focus on the Bible commentaries are funny and informative
2. Morris - Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (wait ... what was the category?)
1. Lewis - Chronicles

Lines like this are hilarious ... and completely missed by the movies:
“…a Unicorn and a fat, full-grown donkey indoors always make a room feel rather crowded.” (Last Battle)
“I know nothing so disagreeable as being kissed by a giantess.” (Silver Chair)

[Steve McCoy]

What an interesting list of books! Nice work all. I'm surprised it took David Sedaris so long to make the list. I haven't read him, but I have heard him speak before. Pretty good stuff. My list.

1. Confessions of a Reformission Rev by Mark Driscoll. I was continually sitting my wife down to read her sections I was laughing so hard. RadRef was similar, but not as much.
2. Pocket Guide to the Bible by Jason Boyett. Uses humor to make boring stuff readable. In his "Biblicabulary" section he defines "Lord's Prayer" and then uses it in a sentence: "My seventh-grade basketball coach used to lead us in the Lord's Prayer before games, after which he would start screaming and cussing."
3. Drinking with Calvin and Luther! by Jim West. I especially love the beer ratings in the back, like for Bud Light: "Tetzel's beer. We can hear him squealing, 'The King of Beers!' Close to liquid purgatory. Marketwise, Bud may be the king of beers, but not even Anheuser will claim it the 'beer of kings.' Anheuser argues that the three great enemies of beer are heat, air, and light. More precisely, Bud Light."
4. Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper. A bit of a cheat since it wasn't laughter from humor. It was nervous laughter to ease the massive amount of conviction I was feeling in my soul as Piper bashed me over the head with our glorious mission.
5. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. A page turner like few others for me, mostly because the humor was both truly funny and truly true.

[Adam]

In no particular order:

David Sedaris: When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Every single one of Sedaris' books is genius, but I laughed almost the entire way through his essay on quitting smoking and how he felt the need to recruit a new smoker so as not to create a smoker/non-smoker imbalance in the world.

David Rakoff: Fraud
Along the lines of Sedaris, but where Sedaris is scatological and intentionally low-brow, Rakoff takes aim his sophisticated Ney York life and how ridiculous it often is.

Tom Reynolds: I Hate Myself and Want to Die: The 52 Most Depressing Songs You've Ever Heard
A great book that explores (and pokes fun at) 52 of the most heart-wrenching and earsplitting songs of all time and explains the reasons we continue to listen to them.

Mark Driscol: Confessions of a Refformission Rev
The part about calling all of the men of the church together and handing them two little stones was hilarious and convicting.

Donald Miller: Blue Like Jazz
His description of the generally lazy and solipsistic writer's life was great. and true.

[cavman]

Tabletalk by Martin Luther- there are some earthy stories there that will make you bust a gut.
Confessions of a Reformission Rev. by Driscoll
Blue Like Jazz by Don Miller
Searching for God Knows What by Don Miller

Forrest Gump, a bit different from the movie and I can't remember the author

[Ken in Virginia Beach]

HERE I STAND - biography of Martin Luther by Roland Bainton. Why it made me laugh - quotations by Luther such as these:

"If ever a monk was saved by his monkery, it was I."

"In matters of the home, I defer to Katie. Otherwise, I trust the Holy Spirit."

"This shall be my recantation at Worms. Previously I called the pope the vicar of Christ. I recant. Now I call him the apostle of Satan."

(These are all paraphrased quotations.)

[Ken in Virginia Beach]

Also, tying this post in with your previous one --

EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES by Lynne Truss. Never has grammar been so humorous.

[Stephen K]

1. A Serrated Edge: a brief defense of biblical satire and trinitarian skylarking by Douglas Wilson
2. Confessions of a Reformission Rev. by Mark Driscoll
3. Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll
4. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
5. The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs

[teri]

1. Essay- "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" Mark Twain
2. The "Hyman Kaplan" books by Leo Rosten
3.(just published) "The $64 Tomato" If you've ever harbored ideas of getting back to the land- this guy has built a garden so you don't have to

[Amanda]

Kingdom of Couches, Will Walker This is a book on faith in community and was published by Campus Crusade for Christ. It is absolutely hilarious (and was also profoundly influential in my relationships!). It's not available at Amazon right now but you can get it at http://www.campuscrusade.com/WSN/couches.htm>here. I just think this is a great read!

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis

Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller

The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, Melissa Bank

[tom swartz]

anything by PJ O'Rourke or Dave Barry

Mere Christianity by CS Lewis(great for reading out loud to your wife).

Bill Bryson's travel books(not a walk in the woods)