Books like A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again

A hyper-articulate, deeply neurotic plunge into the surreal and exhausting landscape of American leisure. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again.

anxious
absurd
intellectually dizzying
darkly comic

01
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men
David Foster Wallace · 2001
A dizzying, darkly hilarious plunge into the neurotic, self-justifying minds of profoundly alienated people.
Shares:
- absurd
- neurotic
02
Consider the lobster, and other essays
David Foster Wallace · 2005
A dizzying, hyper-articulate plunge into the absurdities and moral anxieties of modern American life.
Shares:
- anxious
- intellectually dizzying
- darkly comic
- neurotic
03
Pastoralia
George Saunders · 2000
A hilarious, heartbreaking funhouse mirror reflecting the soul-crushing absurdities of modern work and life.
Shares:
- darkly comic
04
Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls
David Sedaris
A globe-trotting masterclass in finding the hilarious, grotesque, and surprisingly tender details hidden in everyday life.
Shares:
- absurd
- sardonic
- self-deprecating
05
When You Are Engulfed in Flames
David Sedaris · 2008
A masterclass in turning everyday mortifications and neurotic spirals into sharp, surprisingly tender comedy.
Shares:
- neurotic
- sardonic
- self-deprecating
06
No One Belongs Here More Than You
Miranda July
A tender, delightfully weird exploration of lonely people fumbling toward connection in the most unexpected ways.
Feels:
- intimate
- surreal
- bittersweet
07
I was told there'd be cake
Sloane Crosley
A wry and hilarious celebration of well-intentioned haplessness in the modern city.
Shares:
- self-deprecating
08
Reasons to live
Amy Hempel · 1985
A masterclass in saying everything by saying almost nothing, wrapping profound grief in sharp, brittle wit.
Shares:
- darkly comic
09
The mezzanine
Nicholson Baker · 1988
A hyper-focused, footnote-laden love letter to the overlooked mechanics of everyday life that turns a simple escalator ride into a philosophical odyssey.
Shares:
- earnest
10
Get in Trouble
Kelly Link
A darkly playful plunge into a world where suburban anxieties and teenage sleepovers collide with ghosts, superheroes, and the uncanny.
Feels:
- dreamlike
- eerie
- unsettling
11
The Polysyllabic Spree
Nick Hornby · 2004
A laugh-out-loud, highly relatable chronicle of the eternal battle between the books we buy and the books we actually read.
Shares:
- self-deprecating
12
Every love story is a ghost story
D. T. Max
An intimate, painful, and deeply sincere portrait of a brilliant but tormented literary mind.
Shares:
- earnest

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