Escape it all with a funny library book

The cost of living keeps going up. Gas prices are astronomical. There is a war of bullets abroad and a war of words going on at home. And, right now, the Angels aren’t doing so well.

So what can we do about it? Not much at any given moment. But we can sometimes play ostrich and get away from it all ? even if only briefly. A wonderful teacher, noted for the high degree of hilarity as well as knowledge in his classroom, once said that when someone is laughing, they can think of nothing else but the laughter. It’s true. Even if only for a fleeting moment, time stops and nothing is unhappy or frightening.

This leads to what the library can offer in upsetting times. A really, really funny book. If that sounds frivolous, so be it. Not all literature has to be weighty to be worthwhile. Not all books have to grapple with the great issues of mankind to justify their existence on the shelf.

Of course, there are different types of funny books. There are the gently humorous, the outrageously envelope-pushing, the laugh-out-loud-drop-dead giggle inducing, and the kind you annoy your friends with by reading them passages that are so good they have to be shared.

However, humor is an ephemeral unclassifiable thing. One man’s hysterical is another man’s ho-hum. What tickles you can seem inexplicable to your best friend. And so it is with some trepidation that anyone recommends a humorous book.

But one of the beauties of a book is that if it doesn’t captivate you, you can close the cover and return it to the library. With that in mind, here are some highly recommended books and authors that are extremely useful for getting away from it all with a good laugh.

Perhaps the trendiest new writer in that vein is David Sedaris. His “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and “Naked” are collections of autobiographical sketches of family dysfunction and wild adventures that have left readers laughing so hard they have to put the book down and clear tears from their eyes.

Also in the nonfiction vein of just plain funny are any of Bill Bryson’s travel books. The wondrously funny “A Walk in the Woods” has readers re-reading passages just so they can laugh all over again.

Looking at one’s life and writing it funny is a rare gift. But, perhaps, even harder is to create a fictional world that produces the same result. Hugh Laurie is the British actor winning awards over here as Dr. House. For BBC fans, of course, he was well known before that as the clueless Prince of Wales in “Black Adder” and the equally clueless, but endearing, Bertie Wooster in the P. G. Wodehouse-based series, “Jeeves and Wooster.”

Which leads, naturally to recommending Wodehouse as a truly funny read, whichever of his books you pick up. But, did you know that the multitalented Laurie is also an author of modern-day Wodehousian proportions? Take a look at “The Gun Seller,” Laurie’s James Bond spoof and you will probably be anxiously awaiting the release of his new one, “Paper Soldier,” this August.

The list of humorous writers is a lot longer than you might think. If you are looking for other funny reads, browse through these authors and you will surely find something to tickle your proverbial fancy ? Carl Hiaasen, Dave Barry, Sue Townsend, Jasper Fforde, Roddy Doyle, Emma McLaughlin, Douglas Adams, Christopher Buckley, Donald Westlake, Elmore Leonard, Christopher Moore and Augusten Burroughs.

And if none of these authors makes you smile, remember that you can always ask a librarian. Within a few minutes, you can leave the library with hours of laughter under your arm.