Fans pick 49 books like The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire

By Dan Howell, Phil Lester,

Here are 49 books that The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire fans have personally recommended if you like The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Geoffrey Morrison Author Of Budget Travel For Dummies

From my list on inspire travel road trips to international fun.

Why am I passionate about this?

For the last decade, I’ve spent the majority of each year traveling. I’ve been to 60 countries across 6 continents and every US state. My love of travel was inspired and encouraged by my parents from a very early age. I’ve also been inspired by a wide variety of other sources, like movies, TV, photography, and, of course, books. Often, I’ll plan an adventure around a cool location I saw or read about and then just go. I’ll just show up and see what happens. All it takes is that little initial nudge, like what I found in these books.

Geoffrey's book list on inspire travel road trips to international fun

Geoffrey Morrison Why did Geoffrey love this book?

No book has had a bigger influence on me as a person or a writer than this one. I suppose a lot of hoopy froods could say the same. It’s an adventure on a galactic scale, and yet, at its core, it’s just about a guy who wants to go home and have a cup of tea.

It’s a brilliantly funny satire and full of jokes and moments I’ll never forget. All four books in the series are amazing, and I’ve re-read them countless times. The fifth and final book is a downer worth skipping. 

By Douglas Adams,

Why should I read it?

38 authors picked The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This box set contains all five parts of the' trilogy of five' so you can listen to the complete tales of Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Bebblebrox and Marvin the Paranoid Android! Travel through space, time and parallel universes with the only guide you'll ever need, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Read by Stephen Fry, actor, director, author and popular audiobook reader, and Martin Freeman, who played Arthur Dent in film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He is well known as Tim in The Office.

The set also includes a bonus DVD Life, the Universe and…


Book cover of Finding Audrey

Theresa Julian Author Of Calling Dibs, Jinx, Shotgun and Other Things No One Knows the Rules To: Funny Try-Not-to-Laugh Challenges for the Whole Family!

From my list on that make me LOL.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love to laugh! Laughter is a universal sort of magic that helps us connect with others, build rapport and trust, reduce stress, and overlook differences. It’s hard to be mad at someone you’re laughing with. How do I know so much about humor? Because I wrote the book on it. Literally. My debut book, The Joke Machine, teaches middle graders how to create a funny line. I wrote it after researching humor for years, analyzing jokes, and trying to figure out why each one made me laugh. I found patterns and my joke-making philosophy was born! Since then, I’ve been reading funny books, writing funny books, and best of all, laughing at funny lines.

Theresa's book list on that make me LOL

Theresa Julian Why did Theresa love this book?

“Bittersweet” is the best word I can use to describe Finding Audrey. The story is about a fourteen-year-old girl whose life is disrupted by an anxiety disorder. What I like so much about this book is that it’s not depressing. The story brings to light a serious problem with a lot of levity and charm. I can really empathize with Audrey during her trip back to sanity after being bullied out of school. I laughed a lot, teared up a little, and smiled as Audrey is set on a new path, thanks in part to a pretty sweet romantic connection. The romance was totally unexpected and unfolds very naturally. The author’s light tone on this serious subject reminds me of the sage advice from the wise and wonderful Mary Poppins: a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down. 

By Sophie Kinsella,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Finding Audrey as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

A New York Times Bestseller & A ZOELLA Book Club Pick!

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Shopaholic series comes a terrific blend of comedy, romance, and psychological recovery in a contemporary YA novel sure to inspire and entertain.
 
An anxiety disorder disrupts fourteen-year-old Audrey’s daily life. She has been making slow but steady progress with Dr. Sarah, but when Audrey meets Linus, her brother’s gaming teammate, she is energized. She connects with him. Audrey can talk through her fears with Linus in a way she’s never been able to do with anyone before. As their…


Book cover of Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

Jane De Suza Author Of When Impossible Happens

From my list on books to make you laugh when you’re trying to look serious.

Why am I passionate about this?

Out of all the flattering reviews of my books, my favourite is of a reader choking on her lunch. My book was about death. The reader, who survived, said it made her laugh so hard. I write about tough times by bringing out the it’s okay to smile now bits. The Midnight Years is about teen mental health, Happily Never After is about loneliness, and Flyaway Boy is about stereotyping. Making people laugh through tears is a tough task. Here are some books that cracked it.

Jane's book list on books to make you laugh when you’re trying to look serious

Jane De Suza Why did Jane love this book?

I passively disliked gerkhins until I met this pink, clueless one who’s writing and drawing a book on mental challenges, among other things. 

Yes, there are drawings and multicolored pages in an autobiographical book about depression so deep that it keeps the author in bed. Gaspingly funny and told with searing honesty, the book is about dogs, a partner, and a house that needs caring for–caring that she isn’t in the mood to do–and a to-do list that stays undone while she whiles away her time doing nothing. 

By Allie Brosh,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Hyperbole and a Half as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

#1 New York Times Bestseller

“Funny and smart as hell” (Bill Gates), Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half showcases her unique voice, leaping wit, and her ability to capture complex emotions with deceptively simple illustrations.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:
Every time Allie Brosh posts something new on her hugely popular blog Hyperbole and a Half the internet rejoices.

This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features more than fifty percent new content, with ten never-before-seen essays and one wholly revised and expanded piece as well as classics from the website like, “The God of Cake,” “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving,” and…


Book cover of An Abundance of Katherines

Theresa Julian Author Of Calling Dibs, Jinx, Shotgun and Other Things No One Knows the Rules To: Funny Try-Not-to-Laugh Challenges for the Whole Family!

From my list on that make me LOL.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love to laugh! Laughter is a universal sort of magic that helps us connect with others, build rapport and trust, reduce stress, and overlook differences. It’s hard to be mad at someone you’re laughing with. How do I know so much about humor? Because I wrote the book on it. Literally. My debut book, The Joke Machine, teaches middle graders how to create a funny line. I wrote it after researching humor for years, analyzing jokes, and trying to figure out why each one made me laugh. I found patterns and my joke-making philosophy was born! Since then, I’ve been reading funny books, writing funny books, and best of all, laughing at funny lines.

Theresa's book list on that make me LOL

Theresa Julian Why did Theresa love this book?

I was hooked after the first sentence. The story starts with Colin, the main character, having just been dumped for the 19th time by a girl named Katherine, because he only dates girls with that name. To me, the premise is so funny, and so are Colin’s explanations of each relationship. As Colin embarks on a road trip with his best friend, he hilariously recounts his time with each Katherine, referring to them by their numbers such as Katherine V, Katherine X, and the most current, Katherine XIX, who he hopes will be different. But come on Colin, haven’t the first 18 Katherines taught you anything? I love that Colin is such an oddly adorable insecure teen. I loved following him through this story as he learns a little more about life and a lot more about love.

By John Green,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked An Abundance of Katherines as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

"Will slip equally well into a pocket as a Christmas stocking." - The Wall Street Journal, "What to Give," holiday gift guide.

Introducing Penguin Minis! #1 bestselling author John Green like you've never read him before. * Featured in the New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC's "The World," Real Simple, BuzzFeed, Bustle, and more!

The award winning An Abundance of Katherines is now available as a Penguin Mini edition. Complete and unabridged, the book's revolutionary landscape design and ultra-thin paper makes it easy to hold in one hand without sacrificing readability. Perfectly-sized to slip into a pocket or bag,…


Book cover of Happy Hour

Sarah Priscus Author Of Groupies

From my list on complex, chaotic female friendships.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm fascinated by stories about complicated friendships because they speak to our eternal need to be part of something. Everyone wants to have friends, especially when we’re young, but what if those friendships aren’t good for us? What happens when self-interest motivates our social choices? It seems there’s often a fragile boundary between love and hate. This volatile intensity becomes addictive. I'm a Canadian writer with a BA in English from the University of Ottawa. When writing fiction, I love exploring the toxic threads of jealousy, ambition, and obsession that both bind us together and tear us apart.

Sarah's book list on complex, chaotic female friendships

Sarah Priscus Why did Sarah love this book?

This is a gorgeously written book about two best friends doing nothing in particular. Isa and Gala arrive in New York City intertwined and allied.

They whirl through all the requisite stops of the party girl layabout lifestyle. I was fascinated by the friendship’s closeness; Isa and Gala know each other’s quirks and fears in staggering intimacy. They function as a unit, as a “we.” Isa’s aimlessly wandering through life, but she isn’t in it alone, and that’s comforting to me.

Together, Isa and Gala turn aimlessness into freedom. It’s a detail-packed, slow-burning portrait of how we build identity together, intertwining ourselves and pushing each other forward.

By Marlowe Granados,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Happy Hour as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

With the verve and bite of Ottessa Moshfegh and the barbed charm of Nancy Mitford, Marlowe Granados's stunning debut brilliantly captures a summer of striving in New York City

Refreshing and wry in equal measure, Happy Hour is an intoxicating novel of youth well spent. Isa Epley is all of twenty-one years old, and already wise enough to understand that the purpose of life is the pursuit of pleasure. She arrives in New York City for a summer of adventure with her best friend, one newly blond Gala Novak. They have little money, but that's hardly going to stop them…


Book cover of The Girl Who Knew Too Much

Susan Vaughan Author Of Primal Obsession

From my list on historical mystery with women sleuths and romance.

Why am I passionate about this?

Reading historical mysteries with a touch of romance is a delicious chocolate dessert after a day of work. I’m the author of 16 romantic suspense novels. Why not double the excitement with both romance and mystery/suspense. I began reading mysteries because my mother read them. Once I’d read all the Nancy Drews, I moved on to Erle Stanley Gardner and Agatha Christie. I wrote a few mystery manuscripts that remain in a box in the attic, but then all-grown-up me discovered romantic suspense novels and found my niche. I love throwing the hero and heroine together under extraordinary circumstances and pitting them against a clever villain.

Susan's book list on historical mystery with women sleuths and romance

Susan Vaughan Why did Susan love this book?

Amanda Quick writes a variety of fiction, all of which include romance—romantic suspense, historical romance, and historical mysteries.

This is the start (you guessed it, right?) of a series set in 1930s California at an exclusive resort enjoyed by Hollywood stars. The heroine sleuth, a rookie reporter, hopes to get a scoop on a new leading man from an actress, but instead finds her dead in a swimming pool.

With the handsome owner of the hotel, she investigates, and finds that this glamorous paradise hides dark and dangerous secrets.

By Amanda Quick,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Girl Who Knew Too Much as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Amanda Quick, the bestselling author of 'Til Death Do Us Part, transports readers to 1930s California, where glamour and seduction spawn a multitude of sins ...When Hollywood moguls and stars want privacy, they head to an idyllic small town on the coast, where the exclusive Burning Cove Hotel caters to their every need. It's where reporter Irene Glasson finds herself staring down at a beautiful actress at the bottom of a pool ...The dead woman had a red-hot secret about up-and-coming leading man Nick Tremayne, a scoop that Irene couldn't resist - especially since she's just a rookie at a…


Book cover of What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories

Amanda L. Van Lanen Author Of The Washington Apple: Orchards and the Development of Industrial Agriculture

From my list on food for thought- books that will change the way you think about food and agriculture.

Why am I passionate about this?

I come from a family of eaters. Food was often at the center of family stories and celebrations. I first became fascinated with apples while I was working on my Ph.D. in history, and my interest has since expanded to include all things related to food history. I’ve taught classes on food history, and a few years ago, I started collecting cookbooks. I blog about my cookbook collection and other historical food oddities on my website.

Amanda's book list on food for thought- books that will change the way you think about food and agriculture

Amanda L. Van Lanen Why did Amanda love this book?

This book is delightful. Shapiro is one of my favorite food historians. I recommend all her books, but if you’ve never read her before, start here.

It’s full of surprising and unexpected stories. Eleanor Roosevelt extracts culinary revenge, Eva Braun drinks champagne while worrying about her weight, and Helen Gurley Brown binges on sugar-free gelatin. These stories left me thinking about my own relationship with food and what that says about the society we live in. 

By Laura Shapiro,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked What She Ate as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'If you find the subject of food to be both vexing and transfixing, you'll love What She Ate' Elle

Did you know that Eleanor Roosevelt dished up Eggs Mexican (a concoction of rice, fried eggs, and bananas) in the White House?

Or that Helen Gurley Brown's commitment to 'having it all' meant dining on supersized portions of diet gelatine?

In the irresistible What She Ate, Laura Shapiro examines the plates, recipe books and shopping trolleys of six extraordinary women, from Dorothy Wordsworth to Eva Braun.
Delving into diaries, newspaper articles, cook books and more, Shapiro casts a different light on…


Book cover of Love in Infant Monkeys: Stories

Jess Bowers Author Of Horse Show

From my list on animal lovers who are also history geeks.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a fiction writer and animal studies scholar, I’m always looking for strange historical anecdotes about human/animal relationships and literary works that help me view humanity’s complex historical relationship with our fellow creatures through fresh eyes. As these books show, whenever humans write about animals, we also write about personhood, bodily autonomy, coexistence, partnership, symbiosis, spectacle, sentience, and exploitation—themes perpetually relevant to what it means to be human!

Jess' book list on animal lovers who are also history geeks

Jess Bowers Why did Jess love this book?

For me, this book is a master class on using animals to write about humans without losing sight that animals aren’t human at all. It’s also laugh-out-loud hilarious because each story here is based on a real celebrity’s fateful encounter with an animal—and Millet uses a delightfully broad and irreverent definition of “celebrity.”

In this book, Noam Chomsky tries to sell a used gerbil habitat, Sharon Stone’s journalist husband is bitten and infected by a komodo dragon, and Madonna, in her British accent phase, shoots a pheasant badly. Millet’s precise prose satirically skewers our relationship with celebrities and creatures, inviting us to reconsider both.

By Lydia Millet,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Love in Infant Monkeys as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Animals and celebrities share unusual relationships in these hilarious satirical stories by an award-winning contemporary writer.

  Lions, Komodo dragons, dogs, monkeys, and pheasants―all have shared spotlights and tabloid headlines with celebrities such as Sharon Stone, Thomas Edison, and David Hasselhoff. Millet hilariously tweaks these unholy communions to run a stake through the heart of our fascination with famous people and pop culture in a wildly inventive collection of stories that “evoke the spectrum of human feeling and also its limits” (Publishers Weekly, Starred Review).

  While in so much fiction animals exist as symbols of good and evil or as author…


Book cover of Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die?

Loren Rhoads Author Of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die

From my list on about cemeteries.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up down the road from the little graveyard where my grandfather was buried. By accident, I discovered the glorious Victorian-era Highgate Cemetery in 1991. A friend sent me to explore Paris’s Pere Lachaise Cemetery – and I was hooked. I’ve gone from stopping by cemeteries when I travel to building vacations around cemeteries I want to see. I’ve gone out of my way to visit cemeteries in the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Japan, Spain, Singapore, and across the United States. At the moment, I’m editing Death’s Garden Revisited, in which 40 contributors answer the question: “Why is it important to visit cemeteries?”

Loren's book list on about cemeteries

Loren Rhoads Why did Loren love this book?

Any collection of famous people’s gravesites is going to be idiosyncratic. Ask 10 people whose graves they would like to visit, and you will get 100 different answers. That said, this is the most entertaining and reasonably comprehensive encyclopedia of the graves of the famous that you will find outside of Find-a-Grave. I’ve gotten hours of fun from it.

Since it contains very few grave monument photographs, Where Are They Buried? includes a whole lot of people whose ashes have been scattered. I would have loved to leave a rose at the grave of John Lennon, but the Strawberry Fields mosaic in Central Park will have to do.

By Tod Benoit,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die? as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Where Are They Buried? has directed legions of fervent fans and multitudes of the morbidly curious to the graves, monuments, memorials, and tombstones of the nearly 500 celebrities and antiheroes included in the book.

The most complete and well-organized guide on the subject by far, every entry features an entertaining capsule biography full of little-known facts, a detailed description of the death, and step-by-step directions to the grave, including not only the name of the cemetery but the exact location of the gravesite and how to reach it. The book also provides a handy index of grave locations organized by…


Book cover of Those Who Write for Immortality: Romantic Reputations and the Dream of Lasting Fame

Benjamin Hoffmann Author Of The Paradoxes of Posterity

From my list on why people write books.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in Bordeaux, a city that became prominent during the eighteenth century. My hometown inspired my love of eighteenth-century French studies, which led me to the Sorbonne, then to Yale University where I earned a PhD. Today, I am an Associate Professor at The Ohio State University. I am the author of eight novels and monographs published in France and the US, including American Pandemonium, Posthumous America, and Sentinel Island. My work explores numerous genres to question a number of recurring themes: exile and the representation of otherness; nostalgia and the experience of bereavement; the social impact of new technologies; America’s history and its troubled present.

Benjamin's book list on why people write books

Benjamin Hoffmann Why did Benjamin love this book?

Those Who Write for Immortality is, simply put, a remarkable book. It’s an in-depth study of British writers whose work was written with the goal of surviving what Horace called “the teeth of time.” It confronts the literary careers of authors who managed to be remembered after their deaths to the failed attempts of gifted, but ultimately unsuccessful rivals. This study illuminates both the romantic period and the quest for literary fame in our own time. A must-read for anyone interested in Austen, Keats, Blake, and Lord Biron, it is also indispensable for readers willing to explore the theoretical issues associated with the goal of writing for those who are yet to be born, people whose values and aesthetic preferences might very well become completely different from our own.

By H.J. Jackson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Those Who Write for Immortality as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A provocative inquiry into lasting literary fame, the gifted writers who have achieved it, and the gifted writers who have not

Great writers of the past whose works we still read and love will be read forever. They will survive the test of time. We remember authors of true genius because their writings are simply the best. Or . . . might there be other reasons that account for an author's literary fate?

This original book takes a fresh look at our beliefs about literary fame by examining how it actually comes about. H. J. Jackson wrestles with entrenched notions…


Book cover of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Book cover of Finding Audrey
Book cover of Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

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