TOP TEN TUESDAY | BOOKS THAT MADE ME LOL (LITERALLY)

There is not much better in this world than a good book that makes me laugh so hard I run the risk of peeing. Unfortunately the British in me means I’m not big on showing emotion, including laughter. It takes a lot to get me to laugh on the outside (less on the inside, but that’s not what we’re talking about here!). I had to comb through the archives of old reviews, scour my bookshelves and scroll back through my Goodreads read shelf, but I was able to put together a list of some uproariously funny reads.

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Life In Pieces is the first book I read this year and is all about the funny side of pandemic house arrest with small kids (lots of hiding in closets and asking “is it time to drink yet?”) and got me back into reading after a lengthy fallow period. The Martian is about an astronaut who gets stranded on Mars during a mission and has to draw on all his skills and knowledge to keep himself alive. You’d think that a dude stuck alone on an inhospitable planet with no way home would be at best a bit dull, at worst horribly depressing. But you’d be totally wrong. Mark Watney, the main character, is completely hilarious and this book had me up way past my bedtime. Plus when everything feels like it’s completely going to shit, this book will leave you with the lasting impression that it may be bad, but it could be worse. Good Omens is probably my favourite book and is also probably the funniest book I’ve ever read. You’ve probably all heard of it because of its recent adaptation to a mini-series, but, as you will often hear bookworms say – the book is better! (And read the footnotes. Trust me.) Jenny Lawson is probably one of the funniest people on the internet – and that is saying something. She has this knack for taking really difficult things and finding the humour in it (the subtitle is “A Funny Book About Horrible Things”), even if she has to dig for it. She suffers from mental health issues that are debilitating, but is lucky to have supportive family and to always be able to laugh even if it’s from a locked bathroom stall at an event that has gotten the better of her. I love her.

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Allie Brosh, like Jenny Lawson, finds humour in everyday tragedy and discomfort and makes graphics that are as relatable as they are funny. Interior Chinatown is one I just read this month because it’s on the BookTube Prize list. The humour in this is dark (sometimes pitch), but it’s there, and is one of the things that drew me in. Shirley Jackson’s duo of memoirs about her family life were written a while ago, but felt so true. She’s an expert at drawing out the humour, so by the time it really hits it’s irresistible. Bridget Jones’ Diary is one I’m sure everyone knows about by now, and is a favourite of mine. Bridget is such an unfortunate character in so many ways, but her brand of humour is the kind that I think everyone can relate to.

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I love Bill Bryson. His books are all funny, but this one was so funny I ended up reading it aloud to anyone who would listen (mostly my cats) just so I could really enjoy it. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole was probably my first exposure to tragicomic literature, and is kind of like a slightly more bleak childhood version of Bridget Jones. Durrell’s Corfu Trilogy is a series all about his time spent on Corfu with his family and all the ridiculous and hilarious exploits he got up to. Most involve animals – he was fascinated by them and would gather any he came across and try to keep them – and what happened when his menagerie mixed with the humans around him. With often catastrophically hilarious results. This Is Where I Leave You is about a funeral and a family in mourning. Which you wouldn’t expect to be funny, but it really really is. It takes some of the horrible things we all deal through in life – death, heartbreak, family – and manages to make them at once emotionally affecting and deeply funny.

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The Ladybird series of books was originally kind of like a series of small educational books for kids on specific topics (there was one on Canada that was the reason my Dad wanted to move here). They have put a spin on the theme to create a series of them for adults about everything from family roles to sick days to neighbours to hangovers. They are some of the funniest things I’ve read in years. Love, Nina is about a young woman’s experience as the nanny to the kids of a literary critic. It’s true British humour, and the hilarity is in the mundane. It’s full of one-liners and deadpan. I adored it. Weird Things Customers Say In Bookshops is exactly what it says on the tin – and is as good as you’d think. The Uncommon Reader is another one of my all time favourite books. It’s a fictional account of the Queen accidentally borrowing some library books that she feels duty-bound to read… and getting irrevocably lost in the world of literary delights. It’s brilliant and so so funny.

My descriptions weren’t great (I’m typing this at 1:30 am because it’s the only chance I’ve had this week to sit down and focus), so forgive the lack of convincing write-ups. Despite my lacklustre selling skills, these are all brilliant!

Your turn! Do you have any great hilarious books to recommend? Any with dark, tongue-in-cheek humour I might particularly enjoy? Have you read any of these?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.