Have you ever cried (with laughter?)?

[rmontoro]

Hello all,

 

I was rereading one of Kinsella's novels and I found myself laughing out loud! Do you recall having done the same yourselves? What about crying sad tears? Can any of you think of any particular Chick Lit book that has generated such strong emotional responses??

For me it's all about reading for pleasure but perhaps crying sad tears is part of the attraction: crying releases tension after all, doesn't it?

[Genevieve]

well, Les Miserables,it is not the chick lit oui, but it broke my heart and I put my head down and wept.

As for laughing out loud, really I am telling you the truth that in parts of the dreadful Great Expectations certain phrases and such made me shout with laughter at the irony. why, I dont' know but I was laughing hard.

[whitegold]

I laughed out loud when I read I Am American by Stephen Colbert and books by Chuck Palahniuk. I cried during a couple of Harry Potter books and My Sister's Keeper lol.

[Rawr]

I really laugh a lot whilst reading Misery by Stephen King, the main character cracks so many jokes and sentences whilst in his predicament

[Talisman]

I cried for about 10 minutes when my own book was published and I held the very first copy after it arrived in the post.

 

Apart from that the only book I remember that made me cry was A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

when the heroine was executed.

 

Edited May 24, 2009 by Talisman

[Maggie Dana]

... the only book I remember that made me cry was A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini when the heroine was executed.

 

Reading this just now made me sad ... all for a fictional character in a book I've not even read.

[Mia]

I've cried with laughter at Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole books, and various Terry Pratchett books.

[Ceinwenn]

But you guys are missing the point of the post - the post title is have you ever cried (with laughter)..............I haven't read a book that was funny enough to make me cry, but I have read a few that really made me chuckle. Bill Bryson is brilliant for that & the 1st 2 Dexter novels had some really funny moments & there have been others, but as I said, none that have made me cry with laughter.

[jewell]

I've cried and blubbered over many stories. Cried with laughter, laughed out loud and i've had everybody staring at me and not realised until i stopped laughing. I've been scared wittless. I think i have quite a vivid imagination. So whatever emotion the character is feeling, or whatever atmosphere is trying to be conveyed, i tend to get carried along with it.

Edited May 23, 2009 by jewell

[Maggie Dana]

But you guys are missing the point of the post - the post title is have you ever cried (with laughter)..............I haven't read a book that was funny enough to make me cry, but I have read a few that really made me chuckle. Bill Bryson is brilliant for that & the 1st 2 Dexter novels had some really funny moments & there have been others, but as I said, none that have made me cry with laughter.

 

Bryson makes me howl and can no longer trust myself to read him in the company of strangers.

 

It's a rare piece of fiction that makes me laugh out loud, never mind cry with laughter, and that's because humourous fiction is far harder for an author to pull off than is humourous non-fiction. That said, I had quite a few chuckles recently while reading Linda Gillard's STAR GAZING. They were all the more precious, given the serious premise of the novel, i.e., a blind protagonist.

[Talisman]

Sorry, you are right, I did miss the point. The book that made me laugh recently was The Day The Ravens Died by Timothy Pilgrim. I know the author (TP is not his real name) as we share the same publisher and he loves to poke fun at anything PC (politically correct). The main character is just so much like him that it made me howl with laughter.

[bethany725]

Two of the funniest stories I've read:

 

The Santaland Diaries - David Sedaris

The Ivy Chronicles - Karen Quinn

 

I also laugh at a lot of things in Marian Keyes' books.. She's witty and quick.

 

Talisman, you may want to throw some spoilers around the part you're giving away from "A Thousand Splendid Suns".. If I hadn't already read that one, there'd almost be no need to now.

[Talisman]

Sorry - don't know how to do spoilers !

[Wanderlust]

Christopher Moore always makes me laugh till I cry. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal and Fool: A Novel are all-time laugh out loud favorites.

[Michelle]

Sorry - don't know how to do spoilers !

 

That is, of course, in the FAQ. I can't go back and add them myself, as I don't want the book spoilt myself.. maybe if you can't manage, and mod can who's read the book.

[Talisman]

That's better - thanks Michelle !

[cuddly]

When I was reading "About a boy" by Nick Hornby at school I really laughed hard. I almost cried. It's the same with other books by Nick Hornby. I cried when I read "Message in a Bottle" by Nicholas Sparks because .. yeh .. it was just .. sooo sad.

[Weave]

The Adrian Mole books have had me in tears of laughter, I still laugh at the same parts despite reading them goodness knows how many times.

[BookJumper]

Off the top of my head, books that have had me in the most painful stitches include Douglas Adams Increasingly Inaccurately Named Trilogy of Five "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy", Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's "Good Omens" and (honourable non-fiction mention) Danny Wallace's "Join Me! The True Story of a Man Who Started a Cult by Accident".

 

Off the top of the same head, books that have made me sob with audible grief include (as Genevieve beat me in mentioning) Victor Hugo's "Les Miserabl

[Ophelia]

Tom Sharpe's novels always make me laugh, especially 'The Throwback'. I chortled all the way through that, drawing worried glances from my fellow travellers on the train as a result!