It’s the second day of the week! It’s also time for a Top 5 Tuesday update. Top 5 Tuesdays and their topics are brought to you by Shanah @ the Bionic Bookworm. Do check out her blog, she’s got an awesome one. For the list of topics in April, click on this page.

This week’s topic: Top 5 Books That Made Me Laugh

It’s also been 30 days since the Philippine government mandated an enhanced community quarantine (romanticized lockdown) in the northern island of Luzon (where I am staying) to assuage the exponential increase of COVID-19 cases. I guess it is working because although the number of cases are increasing everyday, the number has not reached 1,000 confirmed cases a day.

Anyway, in this time of uncertainty (huge one at that), it is but timely to fine reads that will make us laugh and entertain us. Thanks Shanah for the respite. Without more ado, here are the Top 5 Books That Made Me Laugh. These books are not necessarily the funniest I’ve read but certainly they’re the most memorable for a variety of reasons.

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Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Kicking off the list with this riot of a book. They’re crazy, they’re Asians, but most importantly, they’re rich. Kwan’s brand of unfiltered tell-alls made this book such a massive box office hit. The novel is filled with funny scenes, kinky gossips and witty comebacks that even though it didn’t work much as a “literary” piece, it made its way to every readers’ heart with its parody and satire of the glitz and glam of the high society.

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Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

One of the most renowned literary titles, Don Quixote certainly doesn’t fail in making readers laugh with the eponymous character’s actions and delusions. The book, a picaresque, was meant to convey the author’s views of the follies of his time. Like Crazy Rich Asians, it was a satire. It did make me laugh on two grounds. The first one is the absurdity and delusions of Don Quixote de la Mancha. The second one is at the helplessness I felt while trying to understand the story. It was a tedious read but everything started to make sense after researching more on the book. But it really was a torture, both in a bad and good sense.

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The Hundred-year-old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

Swedish writer Jonas Jonasson’s The Hundred-year-old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared initiated me into the Swedish brand of humor. It had hyperboles but it never run out of humor and wit. Most events after the “hundred-year-old man” climbed out of the window and disappeared were, like Don Quixote’s adventures, very absurd. But what made the story  soar is the hundred-year-old man’s backstory. It was a funny book that had parts which can break the reader’s heart as well.

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The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

Okay, I read this while I was still in college. I simply picked it up in a used-books store even though I barely had any iota on what it was about. Thankfully I did because it is one of my most memorable reads. I knew it was satirical but Tom Wolfe had a great way of drawing in laughter. One can barely be burdened by the book’s length because of the social criticism that hits to the core. I loved it back then and I still love it. Come to think of it, it’s been a decade since I last read any of Wolfe’s book.

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Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

From the same author who gave the world A Series of Unfortunate Events (he wrote under the pseudonym Lemony Snickett) came yet another young adult-ish book but with lesser fantasy. At first, Why We Broke Up was funny as everyone can relate to a heartbreak. I smiled and laughed at the absurdity of Min’s post-breakup ruminations. Like Crazy Rich Asians, it had high entertainment value but low literary value. I soon realized how whiny and senseless Min’s story was. It did make me laugh though.