Malala Yousafzai – Activist
I’ve loved going to the theater ever since I saw my first musical (Matilda in London, when I was 15) – and I love reading about it too. In Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad, a British-Palestinian actor travels to the West Bank to visit family and gets drawn into a local production of Hamlet. I was moved by the rehearsal scenes: arguments over translations, personal relationships, and the question of whether a performance is even possible under Israeli occupation. To me, Hammad showed that theater can carry weight that other art forms can’t.
David Miliband – CEO of the International Rescue Committee
Free: Coming of Age at the End of History, a book about growing up in Albania – the last Stalinist country in Europe – doesn’t sound like a fun read. But Lea Ypi’s 2021 book is both hilarious and serious. It’s shocking in its description of the lies and reach of Enver Hoxha’s regime, and touching in its humanity. It’s specific in focus but universal in its message. I often say about refugees and their contributions to their adopted homes that those who have known the cost of oppression don’t need lessons on the value of freedom. Ypi’s personal story – from being a “Young Pioneer” in Albania’s Communist party to a student in Italy and a professor in the UK – is heartwarming but also full of warnings. She has turned her experience into fuel for her political philosophy, and that makes Free more than just a memoir or history. It also engages with today’s challenges.
Katherine Rundell – Author
I think we’re often right to be skeptical of reviews that say a book is “laugh-out-loud funny,” because when we read them, they’re usually at best smile-out-loud, or cleverly sarcastic, or flippant, or wry. But Luke Kennard’s Black Bag made me laugh out loud dozens of times. It’s brilliant – a triumph of a book. It’s about a young unemployed actor who takes a job working for a psychology professor. The professor hires him to wear a black bag during lectures to see how students’ attitudes toward strangeness change. It’s based on a real experiment from 1967. I loved its inventive originality and ambition. It’s definitely worth your time.
Jack Thorne – Screenwriter
I was a pretty weird kid. Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising found that weirdness and twisted it. It’s a book I’m holding off on sharing with my 10-year-old because I want him to read it at the perfect age – I think that’s 11. It’s about the battle between the Dark and the Light, weaving myth and history into a glorious mix that uses language as a weapon. It’s complicated, mythic, and entirely dangerous. It often slows down when other fantasies speed up, and it’s all the better for it.
Margaret Busby – Publisher and President of English PEN
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution by CLR James is an inspiring example of how the personal and political connect. First published in 1938, it records the individual and collective resistance that led to the only successful slave revolt in history. It’s still relevant as a defiant call to resist oppression. James was a friend of my father’s from their school days in Trinidad, so when I realized in the 1970s that this masterpiece of historical writing was out of print in the UK, it was a privilege to reissue it at Allison & Busby.
Philippa Perry – Psychotherapist
In a letter to her niece Anna, Jane Austen wrote: “Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on.” She meant you don’t need big plots – just close observation, small interactions, and the way people behave with each other day to day. I think EF Benson may have taken this advice to heart when he wrote…His Mapp and Lucia series. Read it and laugh at how ridiculous we all are. Not much really happens, and that’s the point (unless getting swept out to sea on an upside-down kitchen table counts as something happening). It’s all about social games, tiny insults, big egos, and people who take themselves way too seriously. Read it, and then figure out which character is most like you. I think there’s a bit of me in all of them.
View image in fullscreen
Sajid Javid
Politician
I first read Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre when I was 14. It’s never left me. It tells the story of partition, a time my father had already brought to life by sharing his own experience. The book is written with the pace, color, and dramatic flair of a novel. I’ve gone back to it many times over the years, and I always feel the emotional power it brings to an important part of history. It’s one of those rare books where you keep an extra copy to hand to your kids and friends.
View image in fullscreen
Tony Robinson
Actor and author
I’m currently hooked on a small but beautiful book called The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English. It’s written by Hana Videen, and the Old English she talks about isn’t the language of Shakespeare—whose sentence structure might be unfamiliar but whose words we can understand. This is the language of our ancestors from the ninth century CE. Back then, Alfred the Great, worried about the decline of learning after Viking raids, translated the best Latin works of his time into everyday English. The words in this book are a joy. Dream-craeft means music, heafod-swima means intoxication, and a wil-cuma is someone whose arrival is a pleasure. Dipping into this wordhord makes me feel happy.
View image in fullscreen
Photograph: PR
Sarah Moss
Author
As I get older, I find myself more insistent on spending time with books (and people) that are kind as well as smart. Shirley Jackson is best known for very dark fiction, but her two memoirs, Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons, are wildly funny and sharp. It’s hard to write loving domestic comedy even in the best circumstances—sarcasm is so tempting—and Jackson’s circumstances weren’t the best: she was a novelist raising four children in 1950s America, with a professor husband who was insecure about her success and unprofessionally interested in the female students at his college. The memoirs manage to acknowledge the unfairness and dullness of her situation without downplaying it, while still making room for laughter and joy. I first read them on a train and giggled so much that the people at my table wrote down the title.
View image in fullscreen
Ocean Vuong
Poet and author
I was lucky enough to discover Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans back in community college, early in my life and long before I wrote anything worth reading. This book is still one of the most innovative, strange, and unclear mixes of text and images I’ve ever come across. Written during the Great Depression but published in obscurity during World War II, it creates a new way to write about suffering—one where the writer is not just a subjective part of that reality, but maybe even responsible for the horrors it shows. It breaks down any easy, comforting answers we might expect from nonfiction. But maybe most importantly, it’s a book that gives you full permission to dare, take risks, and push boundaries in your own work and thinking.
View image in fullscreen
Elif Shafak
Author
“Nothing is harder to do than nothing.” That’s the basic idea and the opening line of a deeply thoughtful and thought-provoking book called How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell. It’s a fascinating look at how and why we need to resist the constant demands of our hyper-information society. It reminds us that our value as human beings doesn’t depend on how productive we are or how much we consume on any given day. It recognizes that solitude, company…Conversation, friendship, introspection, contemplation—these timeless and universal qualities are fundamental rights. This book invites readers to become better observers and listeners, encouraging us to slow down. It asks us to pay more attention to the seemingly small, “insignificant things,” and to reconnect with each other, with nature, and with ourselves. In a world full of noise, rigidity, division, and tribalism, this book shows that you can be gentle, calm, and nuanced while still being political—focusing on the local, the humble, and what makes us human.
Susie Dent
Lexicographer
I read Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier (titled The Lost Estate in English) when I was a teenager, and I’m not sure anything has matched it since. It’s a story of first love and a young man’s obsessive search for a lost estate and the elusive girl he once met there. It all takes place in that fleeting, half-lit space between childhood and adolescence, when we’re still unaware of what growing up will cost us. It was perfect for a 17-year-old full of daydreams, but even now, I fall under its spell as soon as I pick it up.
Ruth Ozeki
Zen Buddhist priest and author
A book I can get lost in, again and again, is Borges: Collected Fictions. It includes some of my favorite short stories—The Aleph, The Library of Babel, The Garden of Forking Paths—as well as shorter works like Borges and I and the strange afterword to The Maker, which defy categorization. Whenever I reread these pieces, I see how deeply they’ve influenced my work. I doubt Borges would recognize the impact he’s had on me. I’m grateful to him, and I can only hope he wouldn’t be offended.
John Lanchester
Author
Ursula K. Le Guin is a perfect example of what’s still too often dismissed as “genre” fiction. For me, it’s a close call between the first Earthsea novel—the original and best book about a school for wizards—and The Left Hand of Darkness, but I’ll choose the latter for its thematic depth. I love how Le Guin’s work works on multiple levels: you can read it purely for entertainment, but it’s also a serious novel about gender, sexuality, and dealing with difference. It’s hard to believe it came out in 1969—that’s how long it’s taken us to catch up with Le Guin.
Karen Hao
Journalist
I was in a dark place after working on my book Empire of AI, and Rebecca Solnit’s short, beautiful book Hope in the Dark gave me new life. It’s a powerful reflection on the history of resistance movements and why it’s never time to give up, no matter the obstacles in front of us. It was the antidote I needed, and I now carry it with me wherever I go—a reminder that yesterday, today, and tomorrow was, is, and will be a good day to act.
Val McDermid
Author
I often recommend Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island to people aged nine to ninety. It’s been adapted in so many formats that there’s always an entry point for readers. I first encountered it when I was nine, in the form of a Classic Comic—what we’d now call a graphic novel. I was captivated by so many things: the adventure, the settings (on the ship and the island), and the vivid characters (who doesn’t know Long John Silver and his parrot?). I soon found the book and was hooked. I reread it every year, and the magic still works.
Simon Jenkins
Columnist and author
The American scholar Daniel Boorstin’s The Discoverers will always be my bible. It’s subtitled A History of Man’s Search to Know His World and Himself, but it’s really a lively history of geography. Ever since Ptolemy and the ancient Greeks, geography was the queen of the sciences.It suffered persecution by the medieval church, which saw it as anti-biblical heresy, and has been overlooked by academic snobs ever since. The book presents geography as the key science for understanding history, politics, economics, and the environment. Boorstin insists that we should rely on the evidence of the world around us, rather than our prejudices and opinions, as the foundation of all reason.
Matt Haig, Author
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino is a short, easy read, but it’s deep. The premise is simple, if strange. Kublai Khan listens to Marco Polo describe cities the young explorer has visited. These cities are imaginary and fantastical, and all turn out to be dreamlike versions of Venice. The book is essentially a series of meditations. It’s calming. The pleasure of it—and it really is my most enjoyable reading experience—comes from the joy of imagination. You can open it to any page and find a different city, a different imagined memory, a different impossible reality. It’s the purest form of reading pleasure and works well for a mind like mine, which has ADHD. No plot to follow, no information to remember, no real before or after. Just the joy of traveling into a fantasy Venice. A holiday for the mind.
Sarah Hall, Author
When my dad was dying, I read to him from In the Orchard, the Swallows by Peter Hobbs. The story is about a young man imprisoned for love, brutalized, set free, and nursed back to health by strangers. It’s a short, luminous, extraordinary novel, filled with a genuine understanding of what it means to suffer—a knowledge that life is sometimes stripped to the bone, but endurance and hope still carry us forward. Dad and I both had Covid; the hospital managed to let me be with him, but we were isolated. Having this book in my hands felt like having a friend with me during the most heartbreaking time. Even though he was fading, my dad loved the story, which is truly beautiful and full of a positive view of mortality. To this day, seeing the title on my bookshelf feels comforting.
Marcus du Sautoy, Mathematician
Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges. I’m not usually a fan of short stories, but I love how Borges can so brilliantly create a whole universe in just 10 pages. He was fascinated by emerging ideas of infinity and multidimensional space, but instead of formulas, he uses narrative and storytelling to explore these ideas. The Library of Babel is my favorite—it’s about a library that contains every book it’s possible to write. The librarian realizes the library holds nothing because no one has made any choices. A writer’s creativity comes down to choosing which stories to share with readers, and for me, Borges’s choices are ones I return to again and again.
Hay festival runs until 31 May. See hayfestival.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about the concept of I laughed out loud dozens of times authors pick books to help you fall in love with reading again
BeginnerLevel Questions
Q What exactly is this I laughed out loud dozens of times list
A Its a curated collection of funny engaging books recommended by popular authors The goal is to help people who have lost their reading mojo find a book thats so entertaining they cant put it down
Q Why focus on laughing out loud
A Humor is a powerful hook If a book makes you laugh youre more likely to keep turning pages even if you havent read for a while It removes the pressure and makes reading feel like fun not homework
Q I havent read a book in years Is this list for me
A Absolutely This list is specifically designed for people in your exact situation The books are chosen to be light fastpaced and hilariousperfect for breaking a reading slump
Q Are these just joke books or standup comedy transcripts
A No they are usually novels memoirs or essay collections Think of books by authors like David Sedaris Jenny Lawson or funny fiction by writers like Marian Keyes or Nick Hornby
Q How is this different from a regular best books list
A A regular list might focus on literary merit or critical acclaim This list prioritizes pure enjoyment and laughter Its about the reading experience not the awards
Intermediate Advanced Questions
Q What are some specific examples of books that might be on this list
A Common examples include Bossypants by Tina Fey Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams or Whered You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple The tone varies but the comedy is consistent
Q What if I dont find the same things funny as the authors
A Thats totally fine The list is a starting point not a rulebook If one book doesnt click try another The key is that the
