What kind of book do you call this?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

I don't read fiction anymore.

There are books that seem to me that they don't have a plot. They are just a string of jokes or anecdotes strung together.
I'm thinking of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" which I thought was very funny.
And
"Even Cowgirls get the Blues". I did not think it was funny. I thought the repetition about the girl with the huge thumbs she used for hitchhiking were annoying as hell, and didn't constitute a plot.

:shrug:

[Drale]

1. Hitchhikers has a plot

and its an awesome plot.:rofl:

Marvin: I've been talking to the main computer.
Arthur: And?
Marvin: It hates me.

[Liberal Veteran]

2. The mice would be very offended at then notion there was no plot.

[glinda]

3. Boring and a one hit wonder based upon thumbs. Meh* Sorry I read it.

[fadedrose]

4. I used to only read non-fiction

Now I feel sorry for me because I didn't start fiction sooner - haven't touched fiction since high-school and early twenties. Here's a ferinstance...

Vanessa talking to Patrick....

"Clarence misses you, by the way."

Clarence was Vanessa's dog, a chocolate Lab she'd bought on impulse six months ago and, last time I'd noticed, didn't have a clue how to raise. You said, "Clarence, sit," and Clarence ran away. You said, "Here," and he shit on the rug. There was something likable about him though. Maybe it was the puppy innocence in his eyes, a wide aiming-to-please that filled his brown pupils even as he pissed on your foot.

A few chapters later, Clarence was killed by the fictitious killer and the fictitious characters were sad and very mad at the killer. I was sad and very mad at the author for killing the lovable fictitious dog.

It takes a gift to dream up characters, their appearances, personalties, hang-ups, plots, and dialog that makes you laugh or cry, put together to make a good book...(all fiction isn't good). Non-fiction is a collection of facts observed by a great mind, and biographies depend on the sources and good grammar and leave your emotions intact. Imagination is the gift that rattles every emotion in your mind's closet.

[SheilaT]

5. I'm not sure I follow you.

Are three examples of books you don't think have a plot the reason you don't read fiction any more?

Try some other books. There are so many different genres, so many different ways of telling a story, that surely something will grab you.

[Onceuponalife]

6. "Time is an illusion; lunch time, doubly so"

Hitchhiker's is one of my faves and I'm a big Tom Robbins fan. Read his first book, Another Roadside Attraction. Then dare to come back here and say there is no plot.

[JitterbugPerfume]

7. me too---

What Onceuponalife said

although Even Cow Girls Get The Blues is not my favorite Robbins book . I love everything Douglas Adams wrote!

[fadedrose]

8. Sorry, my first reply was so far off the track...

The only thing that registered was "I don't read fiction anymore."

That would be a pity.

But you were referring more to some Douglas Adams' books. I've had a big thick book of his that has 5 novels in it ("Cowgirl" is not one of them). Had it for years - someone got it for me when I was still "too good to read fiction." Time to read the yellowed book and will comment on Hitchhikers when I know what the non plot is all about. Biggest problem is the book is too heavy and clumsy...