A Reading List for Lovers of Laughter

For years, I entertained myself by musing on the evolutionary origins of laughter. How did it come to be, this strange visceral response of voice and breath and shaking body? Why did it last? Why is it contagious, and what of its many different moods? I like to imagine that laughter emerged, and persists, because it deepens our relationships and our communities. It is one of our most powerful means of connectivity. And also: it is a tool for creative nonviolence, with an unparalleled power to diffuse tension. The fact that it is a physical act underscores how important community and nonviolence are to our fundamental being.

There is also the idea that laughter is worth it for its own sake, regardless of what it does and doesn't lead to. Regardless, here is a collection of reading for those who feel they'd like laughter to take up more space in their lives and their bodies. The humor of these books carry a lot of different textures: mirthful or witty or dark or subtle or sweet or cerebral or whimsical. But I don't doubt that you have a mood to meet them. Laughter, after all, is our birthright.

 

• The Sexes - Dorothy Parker
• The Portable Dorothy Parker - Dorothy Parker
• The Collected Stories - Grace Paley
• Samuel Johnson is Indignant - Lydia Davis
• Love and Rockets #6: Duck Feet - Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez
• Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
• Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
• The Prisoner of Second Avenue - Neil Simon
• The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Tom Stoppard
• The Heidi Chronicles - Wendy Wasserstein
• Uncommon Women and Others - Wendy Wasserstein
• A Midsummer Night's Dream - William Shakespeare
• As You Like It - William Shakespeare
• The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
• The Golden Calf - Ilya Ilf & Evgeny Petrov
• Laughter in the Dark - Vladmir Nabokov
• The Scott Pilgrim books - Bryan Lee O'Malley
• Embroideries - Marjane Satrapi
• The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For - Alison Bechdel
• Civilwarland in Bad Decline - George Saunders
• The Braindead Megaphone: Essays - George Saunders
• Consider the Lobster and Other Essays - David Foster Wallace
• The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven - Sherman Alexie
• Self-Help: Stories - Lorrie Moore
• Like Life - Lorrie Moore
• Matilda - Roald Dahl
• Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great - Judy Blume
• Ramona and Her Mother - Beverly Cleary
• It's a Magical World - Bill Watterson
• The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book - Bill Watterson
• The Essential Calvin and Hobbes - Bill Watterson
• The Princess Bride - William Goldman
• Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
• The Innocents Abroad - Mark Twain
• A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson
• The Insanity Defense - Woody Allen
• The Most of P.G. Wodehouse - P.G. Wodehouse
• Moby-Dick; or, The Whale - Herman Melville
• Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street - Herman Melville
• The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
• Damascus Nights - Rafik Schami
• Return to the City of White Donkeys - James Tate
• Upgraded to Serious - Heather McHugh

Comments

[Becky]

A great list, Anna. I'd like to add A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It is gloriously witty and juvenile at the same time.

[Anna Clark]

Yeah! I've never read that and I keep being reminded by people like you that I need to GET ON IT. Thanks for sharing!

[Anna Clark]

Other suggestions for this reading list came in through Twitter, and I want to make sure to record them here!

"Scoop" - Evelyn Waugh
"Under the Net" - Iris Murdoch
... and Flann O'Brien's work. Of course!

[Matt Erickson]

The Way it Spozed to Be by James Herndon. Herndon was a teacher 50 years ago and set a record for honesty that still hasn't been broken.

Also a vote for David Sedaris, I still crack up thinking about his story of using the bathroom at a dinner party and encountering a giant turd laying in the toilet that he did not know how to get rid of.