+1 to Vonnegut and Robbins.

Anyone have any recommendations for books about the siege of Fallujah?


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Currently reading nutshell by ian mcewan. Like it so far

The funniest book I read last year was Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis.

Good to hear, as I've got Rum Diary on tap after I polish off a couple doorstops.

I took a tour through the universe with Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker. I'd consider it more a world-building exercise than an actual novel, as there's no real plot or characters, just disembodied traveling to far off scifi landscapes. Kind of like Beckett's Unnameable as written by Carl Sagan. Fairly enjoyable for what it is, if you don't expect any kind of story.

And a couple mysteries I finished: The Greek Coffin Mystery by Ellery Queen and Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett. Both were solid without being remarkable, I think. Definitely a twist and turn too many through GCM, and a little too cutesy smarmy, too. Red Harvest was more traditional hardboiled and worthy of a man who likes to slurp his whiskey off his mustache.

Ok well when asked for a recommendation for a humorous book, I'm pretty sure the list begins and ends with Wodehouse

But this is also a great suggestion.

Also somewhat more along the lines of what you had liked, I would suggest anything by Nicholson Baker, specifically The Fermata or Vox

For a slightly more sappy but ultimately very funny and cute book, I would recommend The Rosie Project by Graeme Simion. Its about how a guy with undiagnosed Asperger's goes about trying to solve the problem of love. There is a sequel which is ok if you like the first.

Willard and His Bowling Trophies is fantastic. Haven't read the other two. Trout Fishing in America is also good.

haha I actually just randomly stumbled upon the rosie project on audible and purchased it.

sweet ty to everyone for the recs and I am a voracious reader so feel free to keep the recs coming.

Everything by Bill Bryson is pretty funny and also informative.

Also while not funny books, I found a lot of funny moments in Joe Abercrombie's books. Helped I listened to most of them though. He does dark humor very very well.

Wodehouse is damn great, but no one beats Terry Pratchett.

A comedic novel in the vein of Salinger/Hunter S. that I haven't heard much of but really enjoyed is Vernon God Little.

Catch-22 is an obvious one.

Trout Fishing is his most famous and critically acclaimed work but for some reason it is my least favorite. It is still very good but I just prefer pretty much everything else he ever wrote to it.

My introduction was "Dreaming of Babylon" which I read in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. It was the book I wanted to write. Plus like most of his work it is very short. He has a unique style and is unlike any other author I know of. His novels are typically less than 200 pages and come at you in 1-3 page chapters. Each chapter is like a random thought that just popped into his head but they are cohesive and all work together to achieve the ultimate goal. Plus they are often hilarious.

Malcolm Pryce's Aberystwyth series is quite funny. It's detective noir, set in an independent wales reeling from a failed military expedition to Patagonia.

The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien.

I just finished the first Welsh Princes book, Here be Dragons.

It is a little slow going in the first half, but the second half is on par with Sunne in Splendour. Just started the second book, Falls The Shadow.

I've read a decent bit of Cronwall. I enjoy it, but I think you will find the writing lacking depth if you read him right after Penman. Especially if you start with the Last Kingdom and the rest of the Saxon Stories series.

By Far the best Cronwall books in my opinions are his Warlord chronicles (the Arthur Trilogy): The Winter King, Enemy of God, and Excalibur. I'm sure I raved about them somewhere in this thread, but they are among my favourite books of all time.

The Grail quest novels are also excellent, but definitely a step down from the Arthur books.

The Saxon Stories, starting with The Last Kingdom are good, but no more than that. I think I've read the first 5, he pumps them out pretty quick. I equate the Saxon Story novels to late career Grisham. Page turners and midly interesting but nothing more. I tried to start one of the newer ones directly after reading Sunne in Splendour, and had an identical reaction (ironically) as to when I tried reading one of the century trilogy books by Ken Follett directly after reading the Warlord Chronicles by Cronwall. I found the writing felt overly simplistic and utterly lacking depth. So much so that I couldn't even make it through a chapter.

Confederacy of Dunces?

Suttree has funny parts for sure too

Winning Omaha 8 by Mark Tenner and Lou Krieger. You can skip to section two immediately if you've played poker before. Lol, they waste a whole chapter on poker etiquette when there are other books for that.

Fiction, someone suggested I read Fight Club the novel, not the first time, heard it's really good.

Vernon God Little is great.

I just read A knight of the seven kingdoms by George R.R. Martin. It is a compilation of his three novellas featuring Dunk and Egg. The timeline for the novellas is 100 years before the song of ice and fire story. Great stories. I had read the first two stories before in graphic novel form and I had read the third story before in prose. They were worth revisiting. Not as good as the novels obviously, but fun stories.

I've actually read Here be Dragons but got started on the Richard series and haven't gone back. Need to do that soon.

Thanks for taking the time to write this up! Assuming I can find them I'm going to start with the warlord trilogy based on your recommendation.

just wanted to thank everyone again for their recs, I have purchased all the books recommended to me ITT, and always love to hear when someone discovers a great new funny book.

I particularly love humorous crime books and stories with multiple intersecting plot lines.
dave barry has a couple great novels in that mold and all of mark haskell smith's books are excellent quick light reads.

You're very welcome.

Thanks for writing the glowing review of Sunne in Splendour earlier in this thread. I stumbled into this thread one day and read your review which prompted me to purchase the book, and it has become possibly my favourite book of all time.

Your reminding me to read some more Richard Russo. It's been too long.

which one of his do you like best?

while not exactly humorous, a book I always try to recommend in the genre of crime is Simple Plan by Scott Smith. I think its the perfect example of the genre of crime stories that is sort of a comedy of errors, where one damn thing goes wrong after another. They made a movie out of it in the late 90s I think.

Empire Falls is great

I've only read 'Straight Man' and 'Empire Falls'. I loved them both but I think I enjoyed Straight man a little more.