Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

I just finished two tragic books that end with people dying, and now I need a "pick-me-up"! Besides Jane Austen (which always give me a smile, but I've read them all - and will again!) Can anyone suggest a book from the 1001 book list that would fit the bill?

May I suggest Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams? That's a fun book.

The River Why by David James Duncan. Kind of a 'realistic fantasy romance' for lack of a better term. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a little dark (warped?) but hilariously written.

Linda wrote: "I just finished two tragic books that end with people dying, and now I need a "pick-me-up"! Besides Jane Austen (which always give me a smile, but I've read them all - and will again!) Can anyone s..."

Nick Hornby is funny. Sideways is funny. Hearts in Atlantis is non-horror Stephen King (the characters talk about books a lot) which isn't really funny but is more bitter-sweet and it is a great read. Thank You For Smoking is very funny.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a very light-hearted read and very enjoyable!

Try something different - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This book is a lot of fun.

How about Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.

Either of the Douglas Adams books. Is Good Omens on the list? Of there is always some good old fashioned adventure, go with some Jules Verne

Alice is Wonderland isn't really FUNNY funny,but it's light and quick.

Mort by Terry Pratchett. It's about Death hiring an assistant.

Thanks for the recommendations. I think I'm going to pick up Hitchhiker's Guide, Miss Pettigrew or Cold Comfort Farm. (since they are all on The List). In fact, I think I'll put all three on my To-Read list - they all sound entertaining. Thanks everyone!

Shelley wrote: "How about Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons."

Is this really a funny book?

A very good wry humorous writer from the 1950s is Peter DeVries.

Shelley wrote: "How about Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons."

Excellent, excellent choice. Funny parody.

Try anything by PG Wodehouse.

Thank You, Jeeves by Wodehouse is on the list. I just read it and laughed and laughed. Then watched the British series. Surprisingly not as funny as the book, despite Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry.

Melissa wrote: " Thank You, Jeeves by Wodehouse is on the list. I just read it and laughed and laughed. Then watched the British series. Surprisingly not as funny as the book, despite Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry."

If you like mysteries, the late Donald Westlake has some funny books, sort of madcap thrillers, such as The Hot Rock or Cops and Robbers, both of which were turned into good movies. When Westlake wrote more serious books, he wrote as Richard Stark.

The book that recently made me laugh out loud like crazy was actually a memoir about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, THE CACTUS EATERS by Dan White. He decides to go into long-distance hiking with his girlfriend without knowing much about it--and so it's one misadventure after another.

How about re-reading some children's classics? My favorite is HARRIET THE SPY. Re-reading it as an adult was a blast.

Aimee Bender's short stories are always great for a sideways laugh and an "ah ha!" weirdness factor.

TIPPING THE VELVET by Sarah Waters is a romp of a novel--a faux Victorian. A great read and often hilarious.

EGALIA'S DAUGHTERS: A SATIRE OF THE SEXES is a blast to read. It's very funny yet makes great comments about gender roles. It's about a world in which men and women's roles are reversed (just social roles, not biological ones). Men are called "Manwoms" because they are derivative of women, who are called "Woms." It's hard to wrap your mind around talking about it, but it really works on the page.

Also, you can't go wrong with David Sedaris!

Kate wrote: "Also, you can't go wrong with David Sedaris!"

Francine Prose's The Blue Angel is amusing. Another engrossing and entertaining light-hearted narrative is Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin. It's on my currently reading list and it's enticing.

Kate: Harriet the Spy made me want to be a writer! I think I read it 60 times in 3rd and 4th grade. It's fun to re-read.

Cynthia, That's exactly my experience with it too--e.g., read it many many times! I even wrote a fan letter to Louise Fitzhugh once when I was a girl, only to receive a letter back from her publisher telling me she had just died. Did you know that her life partner was the crime writer Sandra Scoppottone (who's still alive)?

Kate wrote: "Cynthia, That's exactly my experience with it too--e.g., read it many many times! I even wrote a fan letter to Louise Fitzhugh once when I was a girl, only to receive a letter back from her publis..."No Kidding! I did not know that. Wow.

A few that if not 'happy' are certainly lighter or more off beat fare -

The World According to Garp.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream is one of my favorites and the absurdity is elevated to high humor. Circus Circus was bad enough in a rational state in that era, let alone with 'a headful of ether'.

There's always the refuge of James Thurber and The 13 Clocks is certainly a charming and different fairy tale.

One more that is escapist and entertaining if not exactly happy is of course The Hobbit!

Happy reading.

Cold Comfort Farm is absolutely hilarious.

A Confederacy of Dunces is laugh out loud funny. It is a modern day Don Quixote tale set in New Orleans with a ridiculously funny main character! It is one of the favorite books I have read from the list.

Mark wrote: "Try anything by PG Wodehouse."

Second this! Loved it

Dbolden,

I strongly suggest you try any of the Rumpole books by John Mortimer. They're well-written and LOL funny. :)

After this original thread started, I decided on Cold Comfort Farm, which was light, funny and entertaining, and has become one of my favorites. Also read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which was also light and humorous, but I'm not much of a sci-fi fan, so it wasn't a favorite. Added Wodehouse to my TBR list. Not sure which of all these suggestions are on the 1001 Books list, which is what I'm shooting for. Thanks for all the suggestions!

Linda wrote: "After this original thread started, I decided on Cold Comfort Farm, which was light, funny and entertaining, and has become one of my favorites. Also read [book:The Hitchhiker's Guide ..."

Apparently the 1001-list is not very funny. Most of the suggestions above are not list books.

The following books mentioned above are on the 1001-list:
Thank You, Jeeves
Tipping the Velvet
The World According to Garp
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The 13 Clocks
The Hobbit
A Confederacy of Dunces
Pippi Longstocking

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis is anothe one I'd put in the lighthearted category and - bonus - it's a list book!

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is hilarious, Confederacy of Dunces is great and a true classic, Don Quixote, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Diary of a Nobody, The Good Soldier Svejk is very hilarious, History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, A Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul, Pippi Longstocking, Aesop's Fables, A Modest Proposal, Huckleberry Finn, and, taken with a huge grain of salt, my wife and I found the Marquis de Sade's Justine novel's over the top sadism totally hilarious and were almost rolling on the floor with laughter when reading it.

Read The Princess Bride or anything by John Green. Or anything by Jane Austen. Those kind of books are always really happy. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. That's a good book. Children's books are always a good way to go.

Liz M wrote: "Linda wrote: "After this original thread started, I decided on Cold Comfort Farm, which was light, funny and entertaining, and has become one of my favorites. Also read [book:The Hitc..."

Add Richard Brautigan's "Willard and His Bowling Trophies" to the light and funny reads on at least one version of the 1001 List. And don't forget "Huckleberry Finn"!

True, comedy is not prominent on the Lists, but many of the novels have notable comic elements such as "Catcher in the Rye", Upkike's Rabbit novels, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao",Gogol's "Dead Souls" (could be classified a comedy) and many others.

Of the true comedies (not already mentioned),so far I've read:
"Tristram Shandy"
"The Good Soldier Svejk"
"Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day"
"Cannery Row"
"Dairy of a Nobody"
"Dirk Gentry's Holistic Detective Agency"

And then there are the Lewis Carrol Alice titles...
And Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood" and other titles (if you don't mind the dark, gothic humor)..
and others in that genre...

Sorry, but if I am looking for a "happy" book, I wouldn't pick up Flannery O'Connor or The Catcher in the Rye. I've heard that Tristram Shandy is funny and entertaining, and likewise for Don Quixote.

I just finished The 13 Clocks and it was excellent - it's a fairly short children's chapter book, but one of the best I have read. I loved it.

1) The Evolution Man: Or, How I Ate My Father by Roy Lewis



A humorous account of an upwardly mobile Pleistocene family's life.

2) Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger



"The place is Brooklyn, the time is the early '40s, and young baseball fanatic Joey needs a hero badly in his life. How that hero becomes Charlie--and ultimately Joey himself--forms the dimensions of the novel's field, but it's the way the game is played that's so remarkable. The story's told not through conventional narrative but by way of Joey's abstract scrapbook: letters, postcards, news clippings, box scores, report cards, matchbook covers, dispatches from FDR, telegrams, even an invitation to Joey's own Bar Mitzvah and the gift list from the affair.

"Delightful throughout," this novel "develops a deeper traction when Charlie goes off to war, then turns poignant in its seemingly preordained aftermath."


3) Stolen from Gypsies by Noble Smith



This is a "hilarious novel set in the Napoleonic Age involving a stolen Gypsy baby, a tongue-tied accountant, a rich merchant, the merchant's ravishing daughter, magicians, spells, and much more..."

Linda wrote: "Thanks for the recommendations. I think I'm going to pick up Hitchhiker's Guide, Miss Pettigrew or Cold Comfort Farm. (since they are all on The List). In fact, I think I'll put all three on my To-..."

I would especially recommend Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. It's short and sweet. They also made a great movie with it. Read the book first though, because the movie has a different twist to it.

Some novels by Dickens have plenty of comic elements and happy endings in among the melodrama. Of the ones on the list I have read, I'd suggest David Copperfield and Our Mutual Friend.

I know I'm a bit late but I was looking for the same thing so I'd like to add some suggestions. Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell is quite a happy book and not too far off from Austen. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes isn't necessarily happy but it's very enjoyable. Also The Three Musketeers is more of an adventure book but is a nice break from the more depressing books.