but I am crushing on this particular author this week…  I’m reading Consider the Lobster and it is so funny.  He reminds quite a bit of Bill Bryson, another favorite of mine. 

Mr. Wallace is somewhat more literary in his writing style but equally hilarious.  Let’s just say that it isn’t often you find yourself laughing uncontrollably while reading a review of "A Dictionary of Modern American Usage", which includes a discussion of "the seamy underbelly of US lexicography [that] reveals ideological strife and controversy and intrigue and nastiness and fervor on a near-Lewinskian scale".

Note to my brother Paul:  this is a must read for your list.  In fact, he quotes Bill Bryson in the above mentioned essay!