Books: Dungeon Crawler Carl

Whenever I have insomnia, I usually do some light reading to ease my mind.  I try not to take on anything too challenging or deep; ideally the book should have some humor and zaniness to help me relax.  Dungeon Crawler Carl, a LitRPG series by Matt Dinniman, fits the bill perfectly.  

In the eponymous first novel, Carl is a fairly average ex-Coast Guardsman in the midst of a depressing breakup with his girlfriend.  When he follows her spoiled show cat Donut outside, he is swept up in a sudden alien invasion that transforms the entire Earth into a giant, multi-level fantasy-themed dungeon, all for a deadly reality show broadcast around the galaxy. 

It's not the world's most original premise (the book can be very accurately described as "Sword Art Online plus The Hunger Games plus The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"), but Dinniman has a breezy first-person style and a knack for drawing likable characters. The series must have struck a chord with fantasy fans, because the books are usually hard to borrow from the library and there's a TV series in the works.