- Need your recent literary adaptations info spoon-fed into infographs? USA Today is there for you!
- So if you’re like me, you’re probably contemplating which book recommendation came from the “distinguished” shrink. I certainly have a few ideas. Here’s a hint: When you’re down and out, you need a really funny read. Miguel Ruiz? Not exactly a laugh riot. Since I am an undistinguished litblogger, I have to say that, if you’re looking to titter, you can’t go wrong — off the top of my head — with Vonnegut, Wilde, Wodehouse, Dorothy Parker, Mark Twain, Jonathan Ames, Hunter S. Thompson, Martin Amis’s Money, David Lodge, Russo’s Straight Man, Terry Pratchett, and a good chunk of Christopher Moore. But what’s your funniest book or writer?
- Daniel Green replies to Jane Ciabattari’s hubris. And he’s right. If you’re using the words “business savvy” and “digested by the websites of larger newspapers” in relation to the litblogosphere, chances are you have as much joy and purpose as lima beans on a dinner plate.
- Orthofer finds wealthy writers in China.
- A showdown between the world’s largest and the smaller dogs. By my calculations, that big dog is about 3.5 feet tall. Let us hope, for the sake of Boo Boo the Toy Chihauhua’s happy existence, that Gibson the Great Dane does not adopt a cannibalistic appetite. (via Jenny D)
- Must all women who marry later be pigeonholed into “the Carrie Bradshaw lifestyle” for these silly articles?
- The Champions is being turned into a film.
- Now here’s a strategy that should get Levi’s attention: Picador is planning to release new fiction in both hardcover and paperback form. This decision comes after hardcover sales have floundered. Is it possible that we’re at the end? Perhaps better book design and better paper might be an idea to consider.
- You know, for all their purported pro-capitalism, these neocon authors really don’t know how to mind the store. Kassia has more thoughts.
- Another reason why advertising and phone numbers in books are a bad idea. Although on the bright side, if this keeps up, this may allow some kids to confirm the veracity of Dumbledore’s sexual orientation. (via Bookshelves of Doom)
- It appears that the new Batman movie is causing problems in Hong Kong.
© 2007, Edward Champion. All rights reserved.
The funniest books for me, hand’s down, are the HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY series. Douglas Adams has always been my go-to guy in times of stress. Laugh out loud funny, but also tinged with melancholy–and more ideas per page than the next shelf of other books. I consider HITCHHIKER’S a religion.
Funniest books: Your list seems awfully solid. Additions: George Singleton’s Half-Mammals of Dixie, among others of his books; Flannery O’Connor, in a mean and devastating mode; Nathanael West, likewise; George Saunders; Charles Portis; Lorrie Moore; Stanley Elkin. Tom Drury, dryly. And a shout-out for two writers I knew when I was in Cincinnati, Brock Clarke (Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England) and Michael Griffith (Bibliophilia). And the spectacularly funny Joe Keenan, too, the only contemporary writer I know whose work makes my eyeballs hurt.
Damn, I was hoping The Champions was a documentary saga of the Ed Champion family.
Charles Portis.
A Confederacy of Dunces. Without doubt.
Jasper Fforde is also good for a chuckle.
I find Gideon Defoe’s ridiculous little “Pirate” novels hilarious, I feel no shame in saying.