ROBUST discussion

What book causes you to embarrass yourself by laughing aloud in public?

I reread [amazonsearch]The Throwback[/amazonsearch] by Tom Sharpe every once in a while. But I can't read it during my normal reading time, while I lie in my bath in the early hours of the morning, because I wake up my family laughing out loud.

I used to share a publisher with Tom, and we lived near each other in Cambridge (that's in East Anglia in England now, not in the Boston suburb that holds that little missionary school with pretensions), and when he had a new book out, we'd ride the commuter train to London to spot which bowler-hatted solicitor (attorney) was embarrassing himself before his peers in the first class compartments by reading the latest Sharpe and being unable to suppress a loud guffaw.

What book causes you to embarrass yourself by laughing aloud in public?

Recently, one of Christopher's short stories had me laughing out loud in the parking lot at the primary school my kids attend. The people standing around at the gate waiting for it to open didn't understand when I explained.

Terry Pratchett always has me rolling on the floor, at home or in public.

I loved A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe .

I don't think it was as popular as The Bonfire of the Vanities, but his descriptions of people really made me laugh.

The Meaning Of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd. A phoney dictionary full of definitions for made up words. What I love about it is some of the words really are needed in real life sometimes e.g.

Abinger - One who washes up everything except the frying pan, the cheese grater and the saucepan which the chocolate sauce has been made in.

I think we've all met one of those.

Genuinely laugh out loud books are hard to come by, IMOH. Last LOLs for me were 'Puckoon' by that wayward genius Spike Milligan. But that was awhile ago..... J P Donleavy 'The Ginger Man' was a long time favorite but that's probably regarded as sexist these days......Philip Roth's 'Portnoy's Complaint' raised a fair snigger or two.......

The Monkey Wrench Gang

Patricia Sierra wrote: "The Monkey Wrench Gang"

I've belonged to the Monkey Wrench Gang all my life!

Andre Jute wrote: "Patricia Sierra wrote: "The Monkey Wrench Gang"

I've belonged to the Monkey Wrench Gang all my life!"

I suspect that you are the wrench.

What book causes me to embarrass myself by laughing aloud in public? Hmm. I don't embarrass easily, and rarely read in public (I like people watching too much).

But I chuckled through Anthropology; liked it enough to send a copy to my son.
The Twiller had a lot of laughs and a great omniscient narrator.
There are funny bits in Liar's Moon, too.

Kae wrote: "
But I chuckled through [book:Anthro..."

How do you turn titles into hotlinks here? Haven't been able to figure that out.

I wanted to buy Anthropology, but it looks like it's not available on the Kindle. The word-count challenge intrigues me.

Patricia Sierra wrote: How do you turn titles into hotlinks here? Haven't been able to figure that out.

Click reply, raise your eyes to just above the blue frame, see add book, type something, hit go, the title or image, correctly formatted and linked, appears at the bottom of whatever you've typed in the reply box. Copy and paste.

HA! You're not going to trap me with this one again!

So here's a link to a book I mentioned before:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/99...

If the link is hot, it's Andre's fault.
____

Hey, it worked! Thanks, Andre. I was surprised to see that some who reviewed the book on Goodreads think it was lousy.

Anything by Dave Barry or Terry Pratchett.

Bitter is the New Black...

Irene wrote: "Bitter is the New Black..."

Is that the name of a book, or an opinion?

It's the name of a book.

Ah.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the entire series after that has prompted strange looks from many a passers-by at the park, library and that little alcove in the older Wal-Mart stores in between the bathrooms.

Daniel, I get those strange looks without laughing...

Yes! Bitter Is The New Black by Jen Lancaster made me laugh out loud in public. She's a prolific writer. I hope people describe me that way, too.

Great group! Thanks for creating it.

Katherine wrote: "Yes! Bitter Is The New Black by Jen Lancaster made me laugh out loud in public.

Happy to have someone agree with me. Lots of folks think she was a good blogger and should have stuck to that--I disagree.

Welcome Katherine!

Keryl wrote: "Anything by Dave Barry or Terry Pratchett."

Yes, Dave Barry is wonderful. Someone gave me one of his books when I was in the hospital recovering from abdominal surgery. It had to try and control my laughter so as not to open my stitches--that was cruel! But the laughter did speed my recovery.

James wrote: "The Meaning Of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd. A phoney dictionary full of definitions for made up words. What I love about it is some of the words really are needed in real life sometimes e...."

That sounds like Sniglets(snig' lit: any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should). That book and More Sniglets: Any Word That Doesn't Appear in the Dictionary, but Should resided in my bathroom magazine rack for decades. Whenever I heard a guffaw from there I knew which book my guest had picked up. We used to make up sniglets all the time. A habit that would be well worth resurrecting. Now where did those books get to...

Dave Barry is always good...