Introduction

Hello. Before I start telling you about the first component of my project, I'd like to start off by giving a short overview of the books I'm currently reading. The purpose of my project is to discover the world of wit in literature, how we as readers identify it, and how it is effective.
Books for reading....
1) The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
Description: A work of a well-known witty author.
2) The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
Description: Contains her more famous verse, stories, essays, and journalism.
3) American Wits: Ogden Nash, Dorothy Parker, Phyliss McGinley
Description: Works by several authors who specifically use wit throughout their works. Interesting to see how tones of each are created and how diction and language of the text are juxtaposed with it.
4) Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis Description: funny novel describing the attempts of England's postwar generation to break from that country's traditional class structure.
5) Stories from the New Yorker and the Onion? by various authors; also "The Smoker"
Description: I'd like to see a variety of different authors use "wit" having no background knowledge of their style just to observe whether or not there is a consistent pattern between their works.