Is it permissible to read books of Arab anecdotes and jokes that contain indecent language or use Quranic verses out of context?

There is no harm in reading books of anecdotes, jokes, and literature, even if they contain some of what the questioner mentioned. Scholars have authored and transmitted in their books pre-Islamic poetry, which included frivolity, without prohibiting it. Ibn al-Jawzi, in his book "Akhbar al-Humqa wa al-Mughaffalin" (Accounts of Fools and the Gullible), mentioned anecdotes and textual corruptions (tashifat) by reciters and scribes, such as what was narrated about Uthman ibn Abi Shaybah concerning textual corruption in reciting the Quran. These accounts are transmitted and read without objection from scholars.