15+ Delightfully Bookish Puns Bound To Be Crowd-Pleasers

Love wordplay? These brain-teasing bookish puns are sure to make you chuckle (or groan).

Phoebe Pineda –
Book Culture Just For Fun Pop Culture
Three girls reading in the grass. One girl is lying down sideways and smiling, one is hiding her face in a book, and the third is sitting behind them with her face obscured.

Love it or hate it, the humble pun has been a staple of both language and literature since ancient times. A good pun plays with our expectations, using multiple meanings and similar sounds to trick the reader or listener. It’s a great way for writers to demonstrate how creative they can get with words!

Here are twelve bookish puns we think are pretty novel — and three classic literary zingers we wish we’d come up with ourselves.

Bookstr’s Puns

I asked an author why all her books were about criminals, and she said, “I really enjoy writing wrongs.”

I wanted to meet my librarian friend for coffee, but she said she was overbooked.

A woman with glasses sitting at a desk in front of bookshelves, looking at a laptop.
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My friend is good at all kinds of poetry, I guess you could say they’re pretty “verse-atile.”

What’s Orange Juice’s favorite book genre? Pulp fiction.

Tall clear glass of orange juice with slices oranges on the side
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Have you read the grifter’s new memoir, Prose and Cons?

Why do tomatoes make the best writers? Because they’re well-read.

a pile of ripe tomatoes
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I tried to talk to my mom about this book we’ve both been reading, but I don’t think we’re on the same page.

This book jacket’s so gorgeous, I’ll never recover.

I’d love to tell you the story about the monkey, but it’s a pretty long tale.

a small monkey sitting on a wooden swing eating
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My dad covered our Christmas tree in books, and when I asked him why, he said, “Well, your mom wanted the tree lit.”

Which paperback should I buy next? I’m torn.

I’ll never finish this skyscraper book; it has too many stories.

City skyscrapers from the upward view into the sky from the street.
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Puns From the Greats

“Ask me for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.” —Mercutio, Romeo and Juliet

Illustration from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Two men in Renaissance attire hold up a third man who has been stabbed. To the left, another man holding a sword runs into an arched hallway. Another sword lies on the ground beside them.
IMAGE VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Alas, poor Mercutio! His duel with Tybalt may have been fatal, but at least he got in one last joke.

“Why, if a fish came to me, and told me he was going a journey, I should say ‘With what porpoise?’” —The Mock Turtle, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Illustration from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Depicted is the Mock Turtle, a creature with the body of a tortoise and the head and hooves of a cow, standing on a rock. Sitting beside him against a boulder are a gryphon, which has the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion, and a young girl.
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We’re not entirely sure what’s going on with the Mock Turtle, but he seems to love a good pun.

“I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital importance of being earnest!” —Jack “Ernest” Worthing, The Importance of Being Earnest

Production still from Oliver Parker's The Importance of Being Earnest. Depicted are two male-female couples embracing in a room with yellow walls.
IMAGE VIA MIRAMAX

Truly, the title drop of the century.

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