DC Public Library discussion

Welcome to our May book discussion!

We can all take our lives (and ourselves) a little too seriously, so this month we’ve decided to sit back and spend some time reading and discussing something funny! Whether you choose a darkly satiric tale, a heartwarmingly humorous memoir, or a laugh-out-loud romp from one of your favorite comedians, be sure to take a little time to laugh with us this month.

Choose a book from our humor bookshelf, or pick one of these:

Funny Novels:
-If You Were Here by Jen Lancaster
-Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d'Art by Christopher Moore
-Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
-Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
-Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
-The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie

Humorous Memoirs and Essays:
-Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
-I Suck at Girls by Justin Halpern
-Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson
-Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell
-Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
-Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way by Bruce Campbell

Books by Comedians:
-America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't by Stephen Colbert
-The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee by Sarah Silverman
-Brain Droppings by George Carlin
-Me of Little Faith by Lewis Black
-Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler
-Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin

Please post a comment about your favorite funny book and let us know what you’re reading this month as well.

I'll be reading Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls! I bought the book and am a little worried that it won't be as good as his best stuff since well, he has to run out of good stories at some point, right?

I'd also HIGHLY recommend The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams to anyone who hasn't already read it and wants to laugh and be cheered up and have their faith in the universe restored. It can do all those things simultaenously.

I'm going to give Steve Martin's Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life a try. I fear that it might be more memoir than humor, but it's a worth a shot based on the reviews. If it's not that funny, I can always read something else from the list...

My favorite funny books are Youth in Revolt by C.D. Payne and A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke.

Who here has actually laughed out loud while reading? And what book(s) made you do so?

Usually I don't show expressions while reading, and only a handful of books have made me laugh so that other people can tell. Mainly David Sedaris and David Rakoff (RIP, he was SO darkly funny) and this one weird book called Apathy and Other Small Victories that made me laugh so hard I thought I was losing my mind!

There are other books that I find very, very funny, such as those by Jen Lancaster and Douglas Adams, or Bossypants, that didn't make me actually laugh while reading them.

I'm interested in hearing other peoples' experiences in reading humorous, or supposedly humorous books.

David Sedaris has definitely made me laugh out loud in the past, both when reading his work, and even more so when listening to him read (especially on stage). If you're looking to kill some time on a road trip, grab whichever audiobook of his you find on the shelf, it'll be worth it.

One of my favorite all-time funny scenes from a novel is a butter-eating contest in Inman Majors' Wonderdog. I had the opportunity to hear the author read it in person at our little independent bookstore in Blacksburg. He's not particularly well-known, but he's a really funny author, and I'd recommend his work to anyone who enjoys a humorous story with a southern twinge.

My wrote: "My favorite funny books are Youth in Revolt by C.D. Payne and A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke."

Youth in Revolt... I read it years ago but can't remember it... Have to look up my notes. Have A Year in the Merde on my nightstand! Coincidence city!

For pure hilarity there's no beating P.G. Wodehouse. For funny essays, I'd add Sloane Crosley to your list.

I agree that David Sedaris is great to hear as well as read. As far as Bossypants, it was hilarious to hear Tina Fey read it...I thought the audio format was really the better option for this title.

After finishing David Sedaris' newest, I have mixed feelings. It wasn't that funny a book, there were only a few stories that approached laugh-out-loud funny, and two of them I had already seen elsewhere. It continues his downward trend started in the disappointing "When You Are Engulfed in Flames." There wasn't even a story about a diabetic owl, or anything about diabetes at all, and for some reason the title was a big selling point for me.

HOWEVER, reading this collection also felt a bit like catching up with an old friend. Like many people here, I've been listening to and reading David Sedaris for a decade or more, and hearing about his recent adventures was strangely fulfilling. Even if he isn't as funny as he used to be, it's good to know he is still out there judging strangers and getting irritated at the little things.

I finished Steve Martin's Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life, and while it was not the funniest title I've read, it was still worthwhile.

Rather than functioning as merely a humor title, this memoir provides a nice glimpse into the process and serious trial and error that goes in to building a successful stand-up act. Martin shares many of his embarrassing failures on stage in the years leading up to his tremendous successes, and details his reasons for focusing his later years on acting and writing, rather than continuing as a stand-up.

If you're interested in stand-up comedy, this memoir will definitely work for you, but if you're looking for something that's a laugh-a-minute, I'd look at some of the other books we've suggested on this thread.