NPR Books Summer Reads is....Funny Books

I do love the NPR Summer Reads program because they always think like a reader. In the past they have done Horror, Graphic Novels, Thrillers, Romance and more. [Click here for the full archive of all of their Summer Reader Poll posts]. Even in the ones that sounded very genre specific, they went out of their way to ask readers how they read in those areas, meaning the results were different than what publishers and librarians usually would say.

And this year is awesome because it is all about Funny Books. Funny Books is something we get asked for at the library all of the time, but since it is not a genre categorization, it is often hard for us to find titles. We usually rely on working together within our libraries and across libraries making and sharing lists.

But now, NPR is going to use their crowdsourcing power all summer to have experts come in to talk about the best funny books and to create a reader generated top 100! 

So hold on to your funny bones. This is going to be a lot of fun and will turn into a wonderful resource. Speaking of, don't forget to check the link for the archive of past Summer Reader Polls to use those as a resource right now, while you wait for the Funny Books info to come out.

Here is the link for all of the details for Summer 2019 and to the poll so you can vote too.

I also reposted the text from the site [with links] below:

LOL — This Year's Summer Reader Poll Is All About Funny Books

If you could use a laugh right about now — and I think we all could — the NPR Books Summer Reader Poll is here for you! This year, we want to hear all about your favorite funny books and stories, and we don't just mean comedy writing. If it makes you laugh (or giggle, or even snicker quietly), we want to hear about it!

Our expert panel of extremely funny people — Alexandra Petri, Samantha Irby, Aparna Nancherla and Guy Branum; more on them soon! — will use your picks to curate a final list of 100 reads guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

But first, a few guidelines.

What can you nominate?

Series books: We're considering series books as a single entry, so something like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would count as one entry.

Short story collections: If there's a collection with lots of great stories — me, I love The Oxford Book of Parodies— that's one single entry.

Single short stories or novellas: On the other hand, if there's a story that stands on its own, like Damon Runyon's glorious "A Piece of Pie," you can nominate that as a single entry. (What, no stuffing?)

Limit yourself to 5 choices

You only get five picks, but don't hesitate to nominate something you know other people already voted for — we count everything up, and our expert panelists pay attention to what's popular. (We're expecting a lot of votes for David Sedaris, and that's just fine.)

Don't limit yourself otherwise

You can absolutely vote for anything on the comedy shelf at your local bookstore — and anything anywhere else, too, as long as it made you laugh. Just don't be too sad if your favorite doesn't make the final 100.

Click here to vote!