I prefer comedy over other genres most of the time when it comes to television and movies, so I figured the same would be true for books. I’ve read or attempted to read several well know and well regarded comedy books; The Magic Christian, A Confederacy of Dunces, Catch 22, Good Omens, and a few of the Terry Pratchett Disc World books. I feel like I just don’t get it or I’m missing something. Most of the characters just seem absurd and unbelievable. I don’t even find most of the characters’ ridiculous dialogue and logic to be very entertaining. Of the books I’ve read (or listened to) I’ve enjoyed the Terry Pratchett ones the best, but even those haven’t left me terribly eager to churn through the rest of his novels. For books like The Magic Christian and Confederacy of Dunces I got bored by the lack of an actual plot and couldn’t find the main characters or their motivations believable. I’ve certainly caught myself laughing (audibly or to myself) much more during moments of comic relief in books that aren’t considered to be particularly comical. I want to like this genre, but have yet to find a book that I really enjoy. Maybe I just leave ‘comedy’ to television and movies, which I am fine with, but I thought maybe some of you could enlighten me to what I might be missing.
by Bwbowe