Sometimes current events can feel overwhelming. Taking time out of the day to enjoy a funny story can lighten our mood and provide a much-needed distraction.
These humorous eBooks are always available through Hoopla.
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Don’t Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Neil Gaiman
Douglas Adams’s ‘six part trilogy’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is an international sensation with a cult of followers. One of those followers, a young Neil Gaiman, was given complete access to Adams – his creative process, gossip, outtakes, insecurities and triumphs. The result is this celebration of all things Hitchhiker.
I Could Chew on This: And Other Poems by Dogs by Francesco Marciuliano
Through poetry, dogs express their creativity and hidden motives. Musings like “I Dropped a Ball,” and “I Lose My Mind When You Leave the House,” are accompanied by portraits of their doggie laureates.
I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats by Francesco Marciuliano
With these tongue-in-cheek works, felines present insightful and curious poems like “Kneel Before Me,” and “Who Is That on Your Lap?” Whimsical photos of the feline authors capture their artistic temperaments.
It’s Okay to Laugh (Crying is Cool Too) by Nora McInerney Purmort
When she was 27, the author’s boyfriend, Aaron, was diagnosed with brain cancer. Nora and Aaron packed fifty years of marriage into the three they got, spending their time on what really matters – Buffy the Vampire Slayer, each other, and Beyoncé. Through her story, Nora gives readers permission to struggle and permission to laugh.
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
After nearly two decades spent on British soil, American author Bill Bryson decided to return to the United States. Before departing, he set out on a grand farewell tour of the unparalleled floating nation that has produced zebra crossings, Shakespeare, Tiggie Winkie’s Farm, and places with names like Farleigh Wallop and Titsey.
Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang and Nate Pederson
Ranging from the merely weird to the downright dangerous, dozens of outlandish, morbidly hilarious ‘treatments’ were once conceived by doctors and scientists, spiritualists and (literal) snake oil salesmen. Born of cluelessness, trial and error and straight-up scams, this era saw morphine prescribed for crying infants and strychnine dosed like Viagra.
Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come by Jessica Pan
What would happen if a shy introvert lived liked a gregarious extrovert for one year? With the help of various extrovert memoirs, the author sets herself a series of challenges – talk to strangers, host a dinner party, travel alone, and much, much worse – to discover just that.
What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
The creator of the popular webcomic xkcd provides answers to his fans’ strangest questions. His responses gleefully and accurately explain everything from the relativistic effects of a baseball pitched at near the speed of light to the many horrible ways you could die while building a periodic table out of all the actual elements.
Why Grizzly Bears Should Wear Underpants by Matthew Inman
Along with lambasting culture crazes – “This Is How I Feel about Buying Apps” and “6 Things You Really Don’t Need to Take a Photo of” – the creator of Oatmeal comics serves up themes such as foodstuffs, holidays, email and news-of-the-day, as well as snarky yet informative pieces on grammar and usage.
The Worrier’s Guide to Life by Gemma Correll
For all of the fellow agonizers, fretters and ‘nervous wrecks’, the author dispenses dubious advice and unreliable information on life as she sees it, covering “Reward Stickers for Grown-Ups,” “The Dystopian Zodiac” and “A Map of the Introvert’s Heart” through comic drawings.