10 Comic Novels You Should Read Right Now

This round of Required Reading, Powell’s Books employees talk about their favorite funny novels. Check out the full list, including 15 more must-read titles, on our blog.

1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

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This is the book that reveals the answer to life, the universe, and everything; teaches the importance of knowing where your towel is; tells why it is vitally important to get a receipt when you visit the lavatory on the planet Bethselamin; and disproves the existence of God by proving he exists (with the help of a fish). It is filled with sentences like, "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't." It is the perfect book if you want to startle everyone around you by constantly breaking out in uncontrollable laughter.

–Doug B.

2. Handling Sin by Michael Malone

Our hero, Raleigh Hayes, is a respectable insurance salesman whose fortune cookie just predicted he'll soon go completely to pieces. It might be right. His father just dodged the nurses and escaped in a Cadillac, with a teenage girl in tow. A wild road-trip adventure ensues as our hero, with an increasing carload of wacky, loveable characters, goes crashing through the South in pursuit.

–Benjamin H.

3. Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh

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The great thing about Evelyn Waugh is that the humor of his novels transcends their era. You don't have to know anything about English society of the 1920s to be entertained by Vile Bodies because Waugh's style relies on fundamentally silly characters, wry dialogue, piercing intelligence, and manic energy more than on contemporary culture, events, and figures. Witty, irreverent, and hysterical — Vile Bodies is Waugh at the height of his satirical talents.

–Gary L.

4. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

According to Kurt Vonnegut, "The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable." In one hilarious, heart-wrenching, absurdist, wildly imaginative novel after another he did just that for countless readers, making life a little more bearable — not to mention a lot more fun! Breakfast of Champions may be my favorite simply because it was my introduction to Vonnegut's weird way with a story. But in his off-kilter, savagely funny approach he digs down and reveals something much deeper and more human. I come back to it every few years — and love it every time.

–Tad

5. Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt

What if the answer to all of life's problems was as simple as... anonymous sex in bathrooms? DeWitt imagines a wild and satirical business world in which chronic sexual harassment, productivity, and time management issues are all solved by the dreams of a door-to-door salesman with an obsession with disembodied legs. You'll never look at spandex the same way again.

–Jordan G.

6. Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis

By the time they made the movie musical, the book had gone out of print. Which was a shame. The original novel, a true comic classic, really was the best of the lot. Not only are the comic descriptions hilarious, but when they made the many adaptations, they cut out all the best bits, which were too risqué for a '50s audience. Today, you won't have to hide it from your mother. But it's as funny as ever.

–Farley

7. Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames

This is one of the funniest novels I have ever read. The protagonist wins a lawsuit after breaking both elbows when he slipped on ice, and hires a butler named Jeeves. The novel starts with him deciding he needs to clean up and strike out on his own after living for a time with his aunt and uncle. The events that ensue are hilarious. This book does involve some sex and drugs, so if you're looking for a "clean" funny novel, this one might not be the best.

–Genevieve

8. Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry by B. S. Johnson

The experimental British novelist actually manages to make accounting and mass murder absolutely hilarious in this story of a young man who decides to apply the principles of double-entry bookkeeping to his private life. Each chapter actually ends with the reproduction of an accounting ledger notating the credits and debits of the protagonists' professional and private lives. Wild subjectivity ensues.

–Jason C.

9. The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore

William Shakespeare may have performed for royalty, but he wrote for the cheap seats. In The Serpent of Venice (the sequel to Fool), Christopher Moore once again follows in the Bard's bawdy footsteps. The Serpent of Venice finds Pocket (a lewd and vengeful fellow) caught up in someone else's plot in Othello's vengeful Venice. He loves, he lusts, and he is loquacious! He is joined by Drool, the simple giant (who is a bit much for the ladies), Jeff the monkey, and a witty stick named Jones. Like all Shakespeare, there is murder most foul and treachery balanced with a good bit of healthy shagging and sea monsters. Like all Christopher Moore, there is a good bit of cussing and sea-monster shagging.

–Desiree

10. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

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No one is safe in Stella Gibbon's archly comic gem, as fashionable London fops and wild and wooly country cousins collide and are satirized in equal measure when modern, bright, and charming Flora goes to stay with her farm-dwelling relatives after the death of her parents, and determines to drag the backwards crew into the 20th century. Put Jane Austen's Emma in the guise of one of Waugh's Bright Young Things and send her traipsing blithely into the realm of the Brontës (complete with a madwoman upstairs), and you have some idea of the hijinks that ensue in this send-up of the English pastoral novel, still bracingly hilarious 80-plus years after it was first published.

–Patrick D.