Any fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation is familiar with Lieutenant Commander Data, a Soong-type android who went through several episodes fruitlessly seeking to understand and feel humor. At one point, he confesses, “I am superior, sir, in many ways, but I would gladly give it up to be human.”

Humor is a peculiar human trait that can’t be learned or forced. It’s organic. It is harder to elicit laughter than to generate tears. In today’s world, humor is a precious commodity. With daylight diminishing during this season, humor can be as effective as sunlight to lift our spirits and maintain a balance in our daily lives.

Fortunately, humor is as accessible as a book.

What puts one reader in stitches may fall flat to another reader. To help you find books that have tickled many a funny bone, I’ve rounded up a dozen that appear on multiple lists as funny favorites:

A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K. Jerome
Catch-22 — Joseph Heller
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Doug Adams
Bridget Jones’s Diary — Helen Fielding
Lamb – Christopher Moore
Me Talk Pretty One Day – David Sedaris
Thank You, Jeeves – P.G. Wodehouse
Dave Barry Slept Here – Dave Barry
The Importance of Being Ernest – Oscar Wilde
Portnoy’s Complaint – Philip Roth
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened – Jenny Lawson

Cheers!