Tim Sample’s new book is a witty, fun collection of 66 short essays that will have you laughing out loud.

Among the numerous gems is “Rebel Without a Clue,” in which Sample recalls how foolish he looked as a hefty teenager riding his beloved but tiny Honda motorcycle.

“At 6’3″ and 200 pounds,” he writes, “I’m sure that on the road I resembled a Shriner who’d lost track of the original parade.”

“Answers to Questions Nobody Was Askin’ ” is a defining collection of humorous tales by the man whose subtle, often self-deprecating humor has regaled millions and spotlighted Maine as a place where people wax funny without even trying.

This book of punchy little essays is unlike most 21st-century comedy in that its gentle satire doesn’t heap criticism on unpopular people or politics. It’s a convenient book. You can read two or three essays a night. You can enjoy more while drinking a latte at your favorite coffee place, then consume an additional essay waiting for a doctor’s appointment.

I have lots of favorites in Sample’s book. In “A Cats’ Tale,” we learn in the first paragraph that Maine’s most popular humorist has “a real soft spot for animals in general.” While volunteering some years ago for a midcoast group that rescues abandoned and stray cats, Sample received a call from a mobile-home park resident who tells him that her deceased bachelor neighbor left four stray cats huddled in the crawlspace under his trailer.

Sample dutifully traps the four but doubts he can find them a home. And no wonder.

Their former owner, Sample learns, drank heavily six nights a week at a local watering hole. On the seventh day he drank at home while loudly singing to gospel music on his radio. His mostly neglected cats apparently listened.

Pleasantly surprised when an elderly couple volunteered to take in the strays, Sample told them about the pets’ old routine, including how they spent Sundays. The adoption didn’t go well at first. The cats hid and hissed. Then everything changed in a matter of days. The cats turned friendly. One slept on a sunny windowsill.

Amazed, Sample went to the couple’s home. He observed the happy cats and a tape recorder on a card table. In it was a cassette titled “Gospel Greats! America’s Most Loved Songs of Praise.”

“People always seem to wonder whether dogs go to heaven,” Sample writes. “I have no idea, of course. But, at that moment I was pretty sure I knew of four cats who were headed in the right direction.”

At 61, Sample’s career as a humorist goes back 40 years. He’s published four “Bert and I” albums in cooperation with the late Marshall Dodge and the Rev. Robert Bryan, author of “The Flying Parson of Labrador and the Real Story Behind Bert and I.” For 11 years, Sample was featured by Charles Kuralt as a correspondent for the TV show “CBS News Sunday Morning.” In 2013 he received a Maine Press Association first-place award for his newspaper column, “Stories I Never Told You.” His recordings and the books he has written or illustrated, including “How to Talk Yankee,” have sold more than a million copies.

Born in Aroostook County, Sample grew up on the Maine coast and attended Hebron Academy. He has an apartment in Portland and a camp in Washington County.

Lloyd Ferriss is a writer and photographer who lives in Richmond.

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