Three Books for the Contemplative Comic

The list, care of NPR.

From the piece...

Then, somehow, the supply seemed to dry up. Even Gary Larson retired. And as the world seemed to get darker and more serious — a side effect of growing up, I suppose — my reading tastes also veered to the dark side for many years. My bedside reading stack seemed to have nothing but crime novels, thrillers and grim works of related nonfiction.

Happily, over the past few years, I've rediscovered the kind of writing that's brought back the silly grins and the more-often-than-not embarrassing chortles, evolutions of the same satirical wit that I enjoyed years ago, books that explore their chosen subject matter — some serious, others less so — with a breezy, yet razor-sharp, touch.