As one grows older, those occasions in which a good, long belly laugh occurs grow fewer and farther between. As children, so much of what we saw and read and experienced was just so funny! Like the knock-knock jokes we told endlessly, to very very patient parents who concealed their rolling eyes and giggled politely. Where did the humor in life disappear to?
It hasn't gone anywhere, but if you are normal (or approximating normal) you have matured to the extent that what seemed hilarious at age 7, or 12, or 16, seems gross, or dumb, or sophomoric in your 20's or 30's. This is a bit of a disappointment, in a way; kids have it so easy when they need a laugh. Pick up a volume in the My Weird School series, and they're laughing all the way home. Whereas mature adults such as ourselves will seldom find that kind of satisfaction in a book anymore; hence, this post.
Donald Westlake has been around for years; I haven't read all of his books yet but I've read most of the Dortmunder series. These books, centering around a group of bumbling thieves, is as close to slapstick as one gets in literature. Dortmunder is just so pathetic -- but the situations he falls into are ridiculously amusing, and so are his friends. I especially like Stan.
If you want to be amused in a useful sort of way, the nonfiction of Bill Bryson is the way to go. Whether expounding on hiking the Appalachians (A Walk in the Woods), the English language (Mother Tongue), or the history of the home (At Home), he is relentlessly funny. The only one that disappointed me was the one about the Royal Society; unfortunately he is capable of writing serious nonfiction when called to do it. I, however, was unprepared for it; expecting a funny book I hurled it at the wall in disgust. It didn't deserve that kind of treatment, as it was an excellent book of its kind, but it's all about expectations, you know.
This would really fall under the fantasy genre, but it's just too funny to leave out: A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. Some people actually think this is philosophy, so that's funny too. Another fantasy author who is belly-laugh worthy is Terry Pratchett; his books are mostly based in the Discworld, a sort of parallel universe. My favorite is Monstrous Regiment; I also loved The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, which is a young adult book. It's actually the Pied Piper with a talking cat and some genius rats. Just fabulous.
The difficulty here is that once one has read this supremely amusing book, it's never as funny the second time around. So now it's your turn -- can you recommend any funny books for me?
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