What Are You Reading? – Ben Blacker’s Funny Books List

What Are You Reading? – Ben Blacker’s Funny Books List

Or books that are funny, how about that? Either way, here’s what Ben posted on my Facebook wall, and now I present it (with his permission) to you:

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This was in response to my conversation with Kevin Seccia, where Kevin had mentioned how difficult it is to find a funny book that also holds up as a sustained narrative. I’d mentioned Sam Lipsyte’s Home Land and Kingsley Amis’ Lucky Jim as two good ones, but it was difficult to think of more in the moment. A huge thank you to Ben, who’s been a friend of the show from the start (and an actual friend in actual life), and also to Kevin, who’s just great. Now go listen to their episodes!

 

5 Responses to “What Are You Reading? – Ben Blacker’s Funny Books List”

  1. Pop says:

    I think you need to add Cervantes’ “Don Quixote” to this list.

  2. Karen says:

    Barbara Pym’s Some Tame Gazelle + Jane and Prudence

  3. Leslie says:

    I’d like to recommend Tomcat in Love by Tim O’Brien and The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter.

    Tomcat in Love was the first e-book I ever read in my ipad kindle app. I checked it out from my library just to try it out, and it was the most lucky accidental discovery.

    PS – I love your podcast.

  4. Matt says:

    Leslie,

    Thank you for reading AND listening! I’m going to check out both of these books, as Tim O’Brien is someone I like quite a bit, and Jess Walter is someone I’ve been meaning to read. Love these suggestions!

    Matt

  5. BP says:

    In my opinion Don Quixote is a boring, mean, pointless book with nothing to offer a person currently alive, least of all humour, but take Pop’s word for it and fall down the same time suck that I did.

    Ditto on Rachel Papers (Money is a hard fall from this) and Lucky Jim though to a lesser extent.

    Pnin (my #3 ever).

    I thought the The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby was very witty (my #4 ever).

    Maybe Catch-22 if you want the same joke 50,000 times.