What’s Funny?

I’m an enthusiastic reader and have been my entire life. In fact, I first learned the word ‘avid’ when it was used by an elementary school teacher to describe my reading habit - a memory that has stayed with me all these years. My love of books has never waned, but the choice of materials has varied greatly. The phases have included romance, fantasy, mystery, drama, thriller, and so on. In recent years I’ve been reading mostly historical fiction and metaphysical topics. As I changed, so too did the words that appealed to me.

The past two months have provided a little extra time for reading, and I devoured the books that I had borrowed from the library as well as many ebooks on the Kindle. One evening I was scrolling through my options - and there were many - but wasn’t drawn to anything. That was rather disconcerting. What could I possibly want that wasn’t right there at my fingertips? It finally dawned on me that it wasn’t a particular title that I sought, but a genre. I wanted humor. In fact, I realized, I needed humor. I didn’t wish to escape into the past. I wanted to be present, and I wanted to laugh.

But what to read? I thought there might be inspiration in books that had made me laugh in the past, such as Tina Fey’s Bossypants and, well, that’s when my mind went blank. My humor reservoir was severely lacking. Then I remembered the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. There was a time when I read those books as I commuted downtown via the Metro. They made me laugh out loud. Yes, I was that person - the one you looked at in a questioning way while wondering if you should perhaps relocate to another seat or even another train car. That was the type of humor I wanted once again, and so I went searching for something that looked funny and was also available for download. Instant gratification was definitely the name of this game.

What I found was I Need a Lifeguard Everywhere but the Pool and then Have a Nice Guilt Trip, both by the mother/daughter team of Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella. They aren’t novels. These books are comprised of extremely short chapters that provide a glimpse into everyday life events, shared in the most humorous of ways and language. They made me laugh out loud. They were exactly what I needed. And the only funny looks I got were from the cats.