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Your favorite absurd books?

Posted on 2/1/20 at 10:15 am
Posted by thedrumdoctor
Gonzales,La
Member since Sep 2016
871 posts
Posted on 2/1/20 at 10:15 am
I'm currently reading Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut, and I'm just in love with far-out, off the wall absurd ideas. Which absurd books would you reccomend?
Posted by Philzilla2k
Member since Oct 2017
11055 posts
Posted on 2/1/20 at 10:22 am to
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Posted by Ace Midnight
Between sanity and madness
Member since Dec 2006
89483 posts
Posted on 2/1/20 at 11:31 am to
I would say that Catch-22 and Hitchhiker's Guide fall into this broad category. Still the best comedy novels of all time, IMHO.
Posted by Douglas Quaid
Mars
Member since Mar 2010
4097 posts
Posted on 2/1/20 at 11:38 am to
quote:

Sirens of Titan


My favorite Vonnegut.
Posted by thedrumdoctor
Gonzales,La
Member since Sep 2016
871 posts
Posted on 2/1/20 at 11:53 am to
quote:

Hitchhiker's Guide

I’ve read that about a decade ago and really enjoyed it. I’ll probably re-read it again soon.

quote:

quote: Sirens of Titan My favorite Vonnegut.

My first Vonnegut novel. I am looking forward to reading Cat’s Cradle soon.
This post was edited on 2/1/20 at 11:55 am
Posted by auyushu
Surprise, AZ
Member since Jan 2011
8585 posts
Posted on 2/1/20 at 1:25 pm to
quote:

would say that Catch-22 and Hitchhiker's Guide fall into this broad category. Still the best comedy novels of all time, IMH


These two and Terry Prachetts discworld novels are definitely the ones I would suggest for this catagory.


Dave Berry's Big Trouble and Carl hiassen's first 4 or 5 novels are also quite good in the absurdist humor genre.
Posted by MSTiger33
Member since Oct 2007
20362 posts
Posted on 2/1/20 at 2:58 pm to
Space Team and Critical Failures audiobooks
Posted by AUveritas
Member since Aug 2013
2918 posts
Posted on 2/1/20 at 8:21 pm to
The Stench of Honolulu by Jack Handey
Posted by Kafka
I am the moral conscience of TD
Member since Jul 2007
141661 posts
Posted on 2/1/20 at 10:59 pm to
Books like Sirens of Titan and Catch-22, the ideas may be absurd but the writing itself is fairly conventional. I thought you meant something like this:

quote:

The creek was made narrow by little green trees that grew too close together. The creek was like 12,845 telephone booths in a row with high Victorian ceilings and all the doors taken off and all the backs of the booths knocked out.

Sometimes when I went fishing in there, I felt just like a telephone repairman, even though I did not look like one. I was only a kid covered with fishing tackle, but in some strange way by going in there and catching a few trout, I kept the telephone in service. I was an asset to society.

I waded about seventy-three telephone booths in. I caught two trout in a little hole that was like a wagon wheel. It was one of my favorite holes, and always good for a trout or two. I always like to think of that hole as a kind of pencil sharpener. I put my reflexes in and they came back out with a good point on them.

There was a bowl of goldfish next to the bed, next to the gun. How religious and intimate the goldfish and the gun looked together.

They had a good world going for them. He had such a soft voice and manner that he worked as a private nurse for rich mental patients. He made good money when he worked, but sometimes he was sick himself. He was kind of run-down. She was still working for the telephone company, but she wasn't doing that night work anymore.
Posted by Tigris
Mexican Home
Member since Jul 2005
12349 posts
Posted on 2/2/20 at 6:10 am to
quote:

The Illuminatus! Trilogy


The weirdest thing I've ever read, and a whole lot of fun. My pick as well.

Terry Pratchett has been mentioned and is very good, Chris Moore is similar in some ways and almost as good.

Tom Robbins needs a mention - excellent writer with some weird ideas. Still Life With Woodpecker and Jitterbug Perfume are both excellent and there are other good ones.

Posted by Macavity92
Member since Dec 2004
5981 posts
Posted on 2/3/20 at 8:12 am to
1Q84 or The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Murakami.
Posted by Loubacca
sittin on the dock of the bay
Member since Feb 2005
4019 posts
Posted on 2/3/20 at 12:02 pm to
I enjoy Christopher Buckley.
Posted by Rockbrc
Attic
Member since Nov 2015
7905 posts
Posted on 2/3/20 at 11:17 pm to
The Hawkline Monster- brautigan
Posted by Ace Midnight
Between sanity and madness
Member since Dec 2006
89483 posts
Posted on 2/4/20 at 10:16 am to
quote:

I’ve read that about a decade ago and really enjoyed it. I’ll probably re-read it again soon.


If you haven't read the Dirk Gentley books, I can recommend them if you are a fan of Adams. He didn't write a ton, but what he did sticks with you.
Posted by White Roach
Member since Apr 2009
9450 posts
Posted on 2/4/20 at 6:54 pm to
Little Big Man and the sequel, which I think is called Return of Little Big Man but might be something different.
Posted by Fedorkuzmich
Member since May 2019
6 posts
Posted on 2/5/20 at 1:31 pm to

Edward Whittemore
Sinai Tapestry (The Jerusalem Quartet Book 1)
Jerusalem Poker ( The Jerusalem Quartet Book 2)

On the last day of December 1921, three enigmatic men -- Cairo Martyr, a blue-eyed African who controls the Middle East's supply of aphrodisiac mummy dust; O'Sullivan Beare, a former Irish patriot and gunrunner who has made a fortune selling spurrious, phallic-shaped Christian artifacts; and Mark Szondi, a dedicated Zionist who wagers only fried fish futures -- sit down to a fateful game of poker in the back room of a Jerusalem antiquities shop owned by a 3000-year-old knight errant. The Great Jerusalem Poker Game as it came to be called, would last twelve years and had as its stake nothing less than control of Jerusalem itself...
Posted by OldTigahFot
Drinkin' with the rocket scientists
Member since Jan 2012
10500 posts
Posted on 2/7/20 at 8:32 pm to
Candide - Voltaire

It is disgustingly crude in some parts but the sharp satire will keep you laughing.

Posted by HailHailtoMichigan!
Mission Viejo, CA
Member since Mar 2012
69251 posts
Posted on 2/7/20 at 10:10 pm to
A clockwork orange.

the rape of the lock

Posted by Harry Morgan
Member since Sep 2019
9193 posts
Posted on 2/23/20 at 3:02 pm to
Welcome to the Monkey House by Vonnegut. Also, Our Gang by Phillip Roth.
This post was edited on 2/23/20 at 3:04 pm
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