Funniest American BooksFollow

The only three authors to ever make me laugh more than a handful of times per book are British (Wodehouse, Pratchett, Adams). While I may affect disdain for American culture from time to time as a bit of a laugh, I'm sure you have some funny authors buried somewhere. Tell me who they are and I won't call the police.

Yes, that was the obligatory bad joke.

The Stephanie Plum books, by Janet Evanovitch. It's no Pratchett, or Adams, but each book has made me laugh out loud more than once, and whenever I've done that on public transport, it's the Plum books that every time people lean over and say confidingly "I know! Aren't they funny?" Or if they're further back in the carriage, just catch my eye and give me a little nod. My biggest record was laughing out loud over a Plum book and have 5 people throughout the carriage give me a little nod and smile.

If there are funny American books, I haven't found many of them yet. I blame my mother, who raised me on imported British sitcoms. I find a lot of supposedly funny American things to be not funny at all, but I devour British satire.

But there are a few gems. Try Erma Bombeck. Almost all of her stuffy is very witty, and The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank is probably the first truly funny book I ever read in my life (that wasn't British.)

Edited, Jan 17th 2009 2:23am by catwho