Here are some ideas in no particular order:
anything by Vonnegut (especially "Breakfast of Champions," "Sirens of Titan" and "Mother Night" and "Cat's Cradle") - very dry and witty and deliciously cynical with a good dose of optimisitc humanism (his work can get a little predictable and repetitive after awhile, but certainly enjoy the ride while it lasts)
anything by Alain de Botton - very funny and very intelligent reading
anything by Italo Calvino - very cool post-modern stuff
"The Stranger" by Albert camus - metaphorical exploration of the relationship between man and the indifferent universe (or is it?) - very cool book and at less than 150 pages it is amazingly succinct
"The Trial" by Kafka - same existential romp as above, but a little more in-depth
"Nothing Like the Sun" by Anthony Burgess - awesome book, first person rambling fictionalized account of the imagined love-life of Will Shakespeare (of course, "A Clockwork Orange," too)
David B. Feinberg can be pretty funny
Peter S. Beagle's "The Last Unicorn," - funny and well-crafted
The whole delicious Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series - funny, spot-on examination of human foibles
Maybe some Updike
Maybe some classics like "Tom Jones" or "Candide"
"The Princess Bride"
anything by Tom Robbins - very, very cool
A little non-fiction? "Lies My Teacher Told Me" is an amazing look behind the sorry state of history textbooks - a look at real American history - it is truly enlightening and fun to read and it is without a real agenda beyond education
Happy Reading !!!
