D’s Comments (group member since May 01, 2008)

D’s comments from the UC San Diego Libraries Summer Reading! group.

My 2 cents: You will find some very passionate fans of graphic novels who will defend the medium, and I agree it has its merits.

From a technical, contest rules standpoint: If there is a "no graphic novel" rule because they are relatively quick and easy reads, then that opens up a large can of worms. Should there be a limit on how long a book should be? Right now, for example, every Dostoyevsky book is the same, whether it's 150 page Notes from Underground or 800 page Brothers Karamazov. Or what about difficulty level? A Thomas Pynchon novel is worth the same as a James Patterson, when there is a wide difference in time and effort to read them.

And then there are books of poetry, plays, etc. All which take varying times to read. The contest can't feasibly have an "effort level" rule built in.

If someone wants to bulk up their list by reading quick-to-read books, they will be able to. That's why most of the prizes center on quality of review, I believe.

I will put John Welter on my list. I have to say that I'm not sure how many I listed could be called "mindless pleasure reading" since I don't tend towards those books. Maybe the last one - "Created in Darkness..."

I was hoping more would respond here, since I have been looking for some good humor lately. I also love Sedaris, and am looking forward to his new book.

I looked through my many "read" books, and for as much as I think I enjoy humorous fiction, I sure read a lot of serious and/or depressing books. Oh well.

Here are some ideas:

I really liked "I Love You, Beth Cooper." Someone else reviewed it and didn't like it, but I thought it was hilarious. Juvenile at times in a Superbad way (not quite that crude) but funny.

Two of the funniest books I've read are "Ibid" by Mark Dunn and "The Tetherballs of Bougainville" by Mark Leyner. Ibid is silly but quite funny, Tetherballs might be a litmus test. I really don't think it is for everyone. Quite strange, but I loved it.

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is very funny sci-fi.

A lot of the books that I thought were funny aren't mainly humor. "Catch-22" by Heller made me laugh a lot, but is also dark. "The Sot-Weed Factor" by Barth and "Confederacy of Dunces" by Toole are very funny but also very literary. "The Great American Novel" by Roth was funny, but maybe only if you are a baseball fan. "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Eggers made me laugh and almost cry, too.

For pure humor, you can try "Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans" which are short works taken from the website McSweeneys.net. Funny stuff.