thedailychannel.com — recommended books

Books that made me laugh

Who Farted Now?

This picture-only sequel to the classic 'Who Farted' continues to amaze and perplex. Was it Ron? Was it Nancy? Was it Yasser? For some odd reason the premise of this slight volume never loses its charm. My advice would be to visit Amazon.com and buy this book while it's still in stock.

The Bear Went over the Mountain
William Kotzwinkle

William Kotzwinkle, a zany thinker and a wonderful writer, has crafted a hilarious tale of loss and betrayal in the modern literary world.

A professor of English literature takes a leave of absence from his college in rural Maine, and writes a novel, his best shot. He hides it under a tree while he goes to town on some errand. A hungry bear happens by, and is happy to find this serendipitous morsel. However, before eating the book, he reads the first page. And he's hooked! He loves the book! What follows is hilarious and bittersweet. Not really in control of his own animal instincts, he falls immorally into passing himself off as the author, finds an agent, sells the book, and rides a wave of popular acclaim to cult status. Of course, no one notices that he's a bear.

This wonderful fable (or is it a fable?) is filled with one side-splitting scene after another, in sentences so perfect and crystal clear that you barely realize that you're reading.

But as you'll see when you visit Amazon to buy this book (it makes a wonderful funny gift for someone who needs some laughs), you'll see that many people liked it for a wide variety of reasons.

Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot
Al Franken

In one of the essays in this book, comedy writer Al Franken discovers the political action tactics used by the Republican National Committee, and uses them against conservative figurehead Rush Limbaugh. This might not be fair, but it's satisfying. Particularly satisfying is a canned list of terms, including "fatty fatty two-by-four" which could be used to vilify Rush.

But Al is serious politically, serious enough to be invited to one of the Clinton get-togethers in South Carolina. Was it South Carolina? Anyway, for me a classic tale was the touch football game with Clinton. "Mr. President, I have a play."

These are all true stories of course, but from time to time you get the nagging feeling that he might be making some of it up. When it comes to political discourse, it's becoming the national pastime. But that's no reason not to head over to Amazon.com and buy this book.

Classical Music for Dummies

by David Pogue, Scott Speck
Paperback - 384 pages Book & Cd edition (September 1997)

What could be funnier than the concept of teaching classical music to dummies! I mean, isn't classical music for people who think? And isn't this something that dummies find difficult?

C'mon, swallow your pride on your way over to Amazon.com and put this funny book, which comes with a music CD, in the top-selling 5,000 books!

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Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, H-O (Vol 2)

By J.E. Lighter (editor)
This has got to be the funniest dictionary you will ever read. And it will significantly increase your vocabulary of swear words at the same time!

Hardcover - 984 pages Vol 2 (October 1997)
Water the Dog on over to Amazon.com and cache this studley tome.

If you're more interested in the 'F' words in American slang, then you'd better slank your slinky over to Amazon.com and nip this studley tome's older frere.