Can you recommend books with meme culture humor?

No, I am serious about this. I wish to get back into the learning of reading, but as a beginner I am repelled by the intense use of vocabulary, literary devices of classical literature books or intense and difficult-to-follow storyline of modern day fiction. I want to read a book that is clearly made with people like me in mind.

I’m not saying I want 10 second short paragraphs or extremely racist or bigoted comments to fuel my interest in reading the book. Though I rarely use social media, I do quite often look at memes, and they make me feel at home with how they are relatable and make use of clever wordings and phrases to express that one particular feeling. Same thing is seen in comments of meme forums where people come up with things to add to the humor of the original post or make it even better. I feel like this kind of expression could very well be possible to implement in a book in a textual medium while retaining the same amount of engagement and creativity.

I know my request may seem unnecessary, that I should quit bickering and just pick up a book and start reading it, and in reality I could by lending one from my family, however I wish to give this approach a chance as I am sure this situation must be faced by other people and someone could have a written a book to directly address these kind of people. I need a stepping stone to start my habit of reading books and I feel like starting from something I am already familiar with would greatly assist me.

I am not interested in any particular genre as of now apart from what I have expressed in the post so far. I could even go as far as to read an encyclopedia or an academic paper if the humor is engaging enough.

I feel that this topic of discussion is general, subjective and of help to others on the internet, which is why I decided to post it here instead of the dedicated books community.

TheBurlapBandit,

You might like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

richieadler,

I don’t think so. They expressed dislike of intense use of vocabulary.

pivotpill,

Would absolutely recommend Gideon the Ninth and the rest of the Locked Tomb series. Great read.

Fizz,
@Fizz@lemmy.nz avatar

Terry Pratchett disc world books are very funny and full of easy to understand jokes.

DrQuint,

But also full of slightly harder to understand linguistic jokes that may frustrate OP.

quinkin,

I found with my kids they just didn’t get the reference and enjoyed what they understood. No frustration, just revelations when they read them again when older.

rufus,

Go to a book store. In my experience it is way easier to find book there than with the whole catalog of amazon.

Have a look at the shelves with the gift ideas. Most books there are somewhat funny and are more a casual read.

If you want something funny, have a look at something from your favorite comedian or poetry slammer. They often write similar format like they do on stage. Short, condensed and on point.

Pick up a few books, read the better bart of the first page, run through the pages and read another one in the middle. See if you like the style or try with the next one.

Orbituary,
@Orbituary@lemmy.world avatar

Repulsed by vocabulary, but writes a wall of text.

I’ve never read anything so fucking inane.

roguetrick,

I'm not feeling so vitriolic, but my sentiment is the same. This is almost a parody.

jonathanvmv8f,

I swear it wasn’t intentional 😓

Lanthanae,
@Lanthanae@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Don’t sweat it. Some people just like to hate on things. You’re allowed to ask question on an Internet forum dedicated to asking questions.

shapesandstuff,

With a limited vocabulary they needed more time to clarify their intent ig.

owenfromcanada,
@owenfromcanada@lemmy.world avatar

You might consider books written with meme-like humor. Two that come to mind are The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (by Douglas Adams) and The Princess Bride (by William Goldman). Both of those books are relatively short novels, so they should go down easy.

Usernameblankface,
@Usernameblankface@lemmy.world avatar

I’ll second the recommendation for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (by Douglas Adams).

It is very funny, with a zany sense of humor that is right at home in meme land. Many of the funny things I have read in memes and comments under memes are just quotes from that book.

Ransom,

Some of the few books that had me laughing out loud.

FrullaPapaya,

I auggest also any book from Terry Pratchett, if OP is into fantasy

exponential_wizard,

It’s only technically a book, but I’m still going to recommend Homestuck. It’s one of the most “made for the internet” stories out there when that’s what you’re looking for.

bambosh.dev/unofficial-homestuck-collection/ is recommended since flash died.

CarolineJohnson,
@CarolineJohnson@sh.itjust.works avatar

Try books by Dril. Yes, the Twitter personality. I hear his newest book, The Get Rich and Become God Method, is his finest work so far.

It’s part of a series called the DRIL Collection, though, so it may have quite a few of his tweets. The other books in the series are just his tweets collected in a book.

I also see he has a book called How to Cheat at Casino Games by Being a Bitch, and the sample pages are quite hilarious, so that could be up your alley as well.

…only problem is they’re not available digitally, at least not on any storefront I can find.

Trebuchet,

Think you can find digital copies at wint.co

CarolineJohnson,
@CarolineJohnson@sh.itjust.works avatar

But only of two of them: TGRaBGM and the 10 year anniversary tweet compilation. And if you go on the Gumroad page there’s an additional massive tweet compilation with extras for huge fans and data hoarders.

So no Casino Games.

jjjalljs,

I don’t know where you live but the Brooklyn public library has a free service where you can ask something like this, and a human librarian will try to find books for you: www.bklynlibrary.org/bookmatch

PrincessLeiasCat,

Oh shit that’s awesome.

Starb3an,

I really enjoy He Who Fights with Monsters it’s a lit-rpg with the main character being Australian with lots of off the wall references, mostly to 80’s TV shows.

jballs,

Check out Off to be the Wizard by Scott Meyer. It’s got a lot of nerdy humor to it. I wouldn’t necessarily call it “meme humor” but it might have the feel that you’re looking for.

jonathanvmv8f,

Can you elaborate on this ‘nerdy humor’? If it is what I believe it to be, I could also enjoy that. I love memes and jokes revolving around complex maths and scientific phenomena that you need to have properly studied in order to understand the humor.

jballs,

A lot of the humor is around computer programming and things that typical nerdy guys find funny. Trying not to spoil it too much, but an example is >!the main character creates a “levitating spell” that is a loop that runs 10 times a second that resets an object’s vertical position, with funny results.!< You don’t need to understand complex math or anything to still think it’s funny, but it helps. There’s also things like jokes about Star Wars, The Simpsons, and other popular culture. It’s an easy read, so worth checking out and dumping if you don’t like it.

sparklepower,

I’m not sure if this is what you’re looking for - hyperboleandahalfbook.blogspot.com

I also recommend Calvin and Hobbes.

AlligatorBlizzard,

I’m really enjoying Hank Green’s Carl novels, although I’d say they’re somewhat less meme culture and more social media in general.

Ransom,

Real Ultimate Power: The Official Ninja Handbook. Other people have heard of this right?

everett,

I haven’t read the book, but their very informative website is where I learned that the purpose of a ninja is to flip out and kill everyone.

atlasraven31,

We are Legion by Dennis Taylor is immersed in nerdy humor.

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