My book club does a small gift exchange every holiday season and this year I’m gifting “gag” books. Here’s some examples of books I’ve already picked out for various members:
Unhinged by Vera Valentine: a romance novella where a woman falls for and gets it on with her sentient door
Fart Proudly by Benjamin Franklin: a collection of satirical writings about flatulence by a founding father
An Irreverent Curiosity by David Farley: a nonfiction account of a journalist traveling to Italy to search for a missing relic (the foreskin of Jesus Christ)
I’m not specifically looking for any genres or themes, just books that make you do a double take! And hopefully are actually fun to read
by sweettutu64
9 Comments
I read *The Stranger* by Max Frei years ago and I would still confidently call that the weirdest book I’ve ever read. It took me a bit of the book to understand what the heck I was reading, but after that I thought it was actually very entertaining!
See also: Paul Jennings!
If you want to do more books like Unhinged, Chuck Tingle (though not Camp Damascus, that’s a serious book)
How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men’s Feelings: Non-threatening Leadership Strategies for Women by Sarah Cooper (if anyone in your book club is a woman in corporate America, she will laugh until she cries reading it)
Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry by Leanne Shapton (the life of a relationship told in the form of an auction catalog)
Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen (what is says on the tin, an interesting and entertaining look at lows in medical history like leeches)
Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser (sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, a fascinating exercise in brevity)
the young visiters by daisy Ashford. the author was an 11 year old Victorian child. it’s really funny.
Our Journey Together by Donald Trump
The Devil’s Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce
ETA: The Extraordinary Book of Useless Information, by Don Voorhees, or The Incredible Book of Useless Information, same author
My favorite fiction work along these lines has to be *Ulrich Haarbürste’s Novel of Roy Orbison in Clingfilm*, a series of short stories culminating in a short novel, all of which feature Ulrich Haarbürste, his pet terrapin Jetta, rock legend Roy Orbison, and the dire predicaments they face–which inevitably result in Orbison’s being wrapped in clingfilm.
For nonfiction, I recommend *Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words* by Randall Munroe, a breakdown of numerous complex topics (with accompanying cartoon diagrams), explained using only the 1000 most common English words.
I received a gag book at my book club gift exchange last year. It’s called ‘Brenda’s Beaver Needs a Barber’ and is disguised as a children’s book. It is NOT for children lol.
Pretty much any “tingler” by Chuck Tingle.
“Fuhgeddaaboutit: How to Badda Bing, Badda Boom and Find Your Inner Mobster” by John Macks