LAUGHING MATTERS: A Celebration of American Humor <i> selected and edited by Gene Shalit (Ballantine: $14.95, illustrated)</i>

The reader invariably wants to re-edit a humor anthology, and “Laughing Matters” is no exception. Gene Shalit has assembled some hilarious material for this collection: Mark Twain’s “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences,” Dorothy Parker’s “From the Diary of a New York Lady,” Woody Allen’s “The Scrolls.” But he also made some very odd choices: He included three of Garrison Keillor’s comic essays, but no “Lake Wobegon” stories; Will Rogers is represented only by a fragment of a monologue, rather than his newspaper columns. Burns and Allen’s “Say Goodnight, Gracie” and Costello’s “Who’s on First” are classics, but they should be heard, rather than read. “Laughing Matters” is certainly entertaining, but the reader can’t help thinking that omitting some pieces and including others would make it funnier.