Dave Barry
Author of Peter and the Starcatchers
About the Author
Dave Barry was born in Armonk, New York on July 3, 1947. He received an English degree from Haverford College in 1969. His early attempts at small-town journalism for the Daily Local News in West Chester, Pennsylvania, were directed towards local matters, such as zoning and sewage. In 1975, he show more briefly attempted to teach business writing to business people. Since then, he has worked as a professional humorist. For many years he wrote a newspaper column that appeared in more than 500 newspapers and for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He is the author of numerous fiction, nonfiction, and young adult books. His novels include Big Trouble, Tricky Business, Lunatics, and Insane City. His nonfiction works include Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys, Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States, I'll Mature When I'm Dead, You Can Date Boys When You're Forty: Dave Barry on Parenting and Other Topics He Knows Very Little About, and Live Right and Find Happiness (Although Beer Is Much Faster): Life Lessons and Other Ravings from Dave Barry. His young adult books include the Starcatchers series and the Never Land series. Dave Barry's title, Best. State. Ever, made the New York Times bestseller list in 2016. (Bowker Author Biography) Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist. His recent novel, "Big Trouble," spent several months on the "New York Times" best-seller list, & his most recent nonfiction book, "Dave Barry Turns 50," was also a national best-seller. Dave lives in Miami, Florida. (Publisher Provided) show less
Series
Works by Dave Barry
Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway : A Vicious and Unprovoked Attack on Our Most Cherished Political Institutions (2001) 526 copies, 10 reviews
Escape from the Carnivale: A Never Land Book (A Peter and the Starcatchers Never Land Book) (2006) — Author — 456 copies, 7 reviews
Dave Barry's Guide to Life (Contains: "Dave Barry's Guide to Marriage and/or Sex" / "Babies and Other Hazards of Sex" / "Stay Fit and Healthy Until You're Dead" / "Claw Your Way… (1987) 405 copies, 3 reviews
Dave Barry's Money Secrets : Like, Why is There a Giant Eyeball on the Dollar? (2006) 376 copies, 13 reviews
Babies and Other Hazards of Sex: How to Make a Tiny Person in Only 9 Months, with Tools You Probably Have around the Home (1984) 261 copies, 3 reviews
Claw Your Way to the Top: How to Become the Head of a Major Corporation in Roughly a Week (2000) 221 copies, 2 reviews
You Can Date Boys When You're Forty: Dave Barry on Parenting and Other Topics He Knows Very Little About (2014) 203 copies, 10 reviews
Live Right and Find Happiness (Although Beer is Much Faster): Life Lessons and Other Ravings from Dave Barry (2015) 162 copies, 7 reviews
All the Dave Barry You Could Ever Want : Four Classic Books in One from America's Foremost Humorist (2001) 155 copies
Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass: How I Went 77 Years Without Growing Up (2025) 152 copies, 14 reviews
A Field Guide to the Jewish People: Who They Are, Where They Come From, What to Feed Them…and Much More. Maybe Too Much More (2019) 73 copies, 3 reviews
"My Teenage Son's Goal In Life Is To Make Me Feel 3,500 Years Old" and Other Thoughts On Parenting From Dave Barry (2001) 58 copies, 2 reviews
"The Greatest Invention In The History Of Mankind Is Beer" And Other Manly Insights From Dave Barry (2001) 45 copies
Dave Barry Collection: Dave Barry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down, Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway, and Tricky Business (2004) 14 copies
Peter and the Starcatchers Series (Set of 5) Starcatchers, Shadow Thieves, Secret of Rundoon, Sword of Mercy, Bridge to Never Land (2010) — Author — 5 copies
How To Easily Speed Up My Computer 3 copies
Peter and the Starcatchers Set 2 copies
Childbirth is Yucky 2 copies
עסקים מפוקפקים 1 copy
Life Lessons and Other Ravings from Dave Barry Live Right and Find Happiness (Hardback) - Common (2015) 1 copy
ממאדים וגם מנוגה 1 copy
Passion: Men on Men {audio} — Contributor — 1 copy
צרות בצרורות : רומן 1 copy
2007: An Inconvenient Year 1 copy
Natural Childbirth 1 copy
How To Argue Effectively 1 copy
Associated Works
For the Love of Books: 115 Celebrated Writers on the Books They Love Most (1999) — Contributor — 479 copies, 4 reviews
The 50 Funniest American Writers: An Anthology of Humor from Mark Twain to The Onion (2011) — Contributor — 286 copies, 3 reviews
You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons - The World on One Cartoon a Day (2006) — Foreword, some editions — 244 copies, 3 reviews
Not So Funny When It Happened: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure (2000) — Contributor — 244 copies, 7 reviews
There's No Toilet Paper on the Road Less Traveled: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure (1998) — Contributor — 217 copies, 5 reviews
Mid-life Confidential: The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America with Three Chords and an Attitude (1994) — Contributor — 75 copies, 4 reviews
Peter and the Starcatcher: The Annotated Script of the Broadway Play (2012) — Introduction — 45 copies
Photo du Jour: A Picture-a-Day Journey through the First Year of the New Millennium (Focus on American History Series, Edited by Don Carleton) (2002) — Foreword — 24 copies
Reader's Digest Today's Best Nonfiction 2002 Volume 2: Public Enemies / Diana's Boys / An American Insurrection / Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway / No Finish Line (2002) — Author — 3 copies
Funny Times: A Monthly Newspaper of Humor, Politics & Fun, Volume 16, Issue 3 (2001) — Contributor — 1 copy
Funny Times: A Monthly Newspaper of Humor, Politics & Fun, Volume 16, Issue 2 (2001) — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Barry, Dave
- Legal name
- Barry, David McAlister
- Birthdate
- 1947-07-03
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Haverford College (B.A., English, 1969)
- Occupations
- columnist
guitarist (Rock Bottom Remainders) - Organizations
- Rock Bottom Remainders (band)
The Miami Herald
Tribune Media Services - Awards and honors
- Pulitzer Prize (Commentary, 1988)
- Short biography
- The New York Times has pronounced Dave Barry "the funniest man in America." But of course that could have been on a slow news day when there wasn't much else fit to print. True, his bestselling collections of columns are legendary, but it is his wholly original books that reveal him as an American icon. Dave Barry Slept Here was his version of American history. Dave Barry Does Japan was a contribution to international peace and understanding from which Japan has not yet fully recovered. Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys is among the best-read volumes in rehab centers and prisons. Raised in a suburb of New York, educated in a suburb of Philadelphia, he lives now in a suburb of Miami. He is not, as he often puts it so poetically, making this up.
Dave's most recent books are "Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland," and "Lessons From Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog." His next book, "A Field Guide To The Jewish People," which he co-wrote with his friends Adam Mansbach and Alan Zweibel, will be published September 24. Dave is not Jewish, but Adam and Alan are, so it's kosher. - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Armonk, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Miami, Florida, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
Rating: 2.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Grdankl the Strong, president of Kprshtskan, is plotting to take over the American government. His plan is to infiltrate the science fair at Hubble Middle School, located in a Maryland suburb just outside Washington. The rich kids at Hubble cheat by buying their projects every year, and Grdankl's cronies should have no problem selling them his government-corrupting software. But this year, Toby Harbinger, a regular kid with Discount Warehouse shoes, is show more determined to win the $5,000 prize—even if he has to go up against terrorists to do it. With the help of his best friends, Tamara and Micah, Toby takes on Assistant Principal Paul Parmit, aka "The Armpit", a laser-eyed stuffed owl, and two eBay buyers named Darth and the Wookiee who seem to think that the Harrison-Ford-signed BlasTech DL-44 blaster Toby sold them is a counterfeit. What transpires is a hilarious adventure filled with mystery, suspense, and levitating frogs.
My Review: The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day for July 2014, is the goad I'm using to get through my snit-based unwritten reviews. Today's prompt for the 15th is a choose-you-own day! Wheee, right?
Naw. I hadda go an' eff it all up by making this my Drano book of the month. (You know, the one I read because I'd really rather drink Drano than read this author/genre/what's-it.)
So as expected I hated it. It's a middle-school market book. I didn't like middle-schoolers when I was one, and I like them less now. Vicious little bastards. They're hateful and spiteful and brimful of stupid. Yuck.
It doesn't help that the fake country the co-authors invent, Krpshtskan, is something straight out of Borat. (Remember that movie? Ye gawds.) It also doesn't help that the entire plot is such that Spy Kids begins to resemble Strindberg.
But you're not the audience, comes the cry. No indeed I am not. I am an adult with forty-six years of obsessive reading behind me! And yet others have tutted and tsked because there are those of us who don't want to read YA novels. So this random example, a Kindle special today, got the nod as my test subject. I have a Zilpha Keatly Snyder novel cued up to see if it's just humor that doesn't play well to an older audience. I need a respite before I wade into that one. This could easily be the most wonderful thing a kid could find, so I'm not raggin' on it as itself. It's just so extremely ridiculously grotesquely overblown and overplayed and after all, that's how kids like 'em.
But really, moms and dads, read this before giving kids access to it. Every adult is malevolent or stupid or both. Every authority is deaf, every honest person is reviled by all and sundry. Serious question here: Do you want your kid absorbing this message? That s/he's alone against an uncaring-to-hostile world, with parents that won't listen, teachers that smell bad, take bribes, and collude with enemies of the state?
This isn't good. It panders to an invidious set of stereotypes that reinforce a helpless, whadda-ya-gonna-do passivity and does so with "humor" so it slides down their gullets easier.
This bothers the hell out of me. show less
The Publisher Says: Grdankl the Strong, president of Kprshtskan, is plotting to take over the American government. His plan is to infiltrate the science fair at Hubble Middle School, located in a Maryland suburb just outside Washington. The rich kids at Hubble cheat by buying their projects every year, and Grdankl's cronies should have no problem selling them his government-corrupting software. But this year, Toby Harbinger, a regular kid with Discount Warehouse shoes, is show more determined to win the $5,000 prize—even if he has to go up against terrorists to do it. With the help of his best friends, Tamara and Micah, Toby takes on Assistant Principal Paul Parmit, aka "The Armpit", a laser-eyed stuffed owl, and two eBay buyers named Darth and the Wookiee who seem to think that the Harrison-Ford-signed BlasTech DL-44 blaster Toby sold them is a counterfeit. What transpires is a hilarious adventure filled with mystery, suspense, and levitating frogs.
My Review: The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day for July 2014, is the goad I'm using to get through my snit-based unwritten reviews. Today's prompt for the 15th is a choose-you-own day! Wheee, right?
Naw. I hadda go an' eff it all up by making this my Drano book of the month. (You know, the one I read because I'd really rather drink Drano than read this author/genre/what's-it.)
So as expected I hated it. It's a middle-school market book. I didn't like middle-schoolers when I was one, and I like them less now. Vicious little bastards. They're hateful and spiteful and brimful of stupid. Yuck.
It doesn't help that the fake country the co-authors invent, Krpshtskan, is something straight out of Borat. (Remember that movie? Ye gawds.) It also doesn't help that the entire plot is such that Spy Kids begins to resemble Strindberg.
But you're not the audience, comes the cry. No indeed I am not. I am an adult with forty-six years of obsessive reading behind me! And yet others have tutted and tsked because there are those of us who don't want to read YA novels. So this random example, a Kindle special today, got the nod as my test subject. I have a Zilpha Keatly Snyder novel cued up to see if it's just humor that doesn't play well to an older audience. I need a respite before I wade into that one. This could easily be the most wonderful thing a kid could find, so I'm not raggin' on it as itself. It's just so extremely ridiculously grotesquely overblown and overplayed and after all, that's how kids like 'em.
But really, moms and dads, read this before giving kids access to it. Every adult is malevolent or stupid or both. Every authority is deaf, every honest person is reviled by all and sundry. Serious question here: Do you want your kid absorbing this message? That s/he's alone against an uncaring-to-hostile world, with parents that won't listen, teachers that smell bad, take bribes, and collude with enemies of the state?
This isn't good. It panders to an invidious set of stereotypes that reinforce a helpless, whadda-ya-gonna-do passivity and does so with "humor" so it slides down their gullets easier.
This bothers the hell out of me. show less
Excellent! Such clear, vivid language and well-written humor. This was such an interesting story - I kept snatching minutes throughout the day to read a chapter or two. The shorter chapters make it very readable as well. I love books that "talk to you" and treat you like a part of the story. I really connected with Peter, Molly annoyed me a bit, and Black Stache was absolutely fabulous. This book seamlessly fits as the start of a series of books describing how Peter became Peter Pan. I am show more definitely looking forward to reading the rest in the series, and cannot wait to see the Broadway show!! show less
It's Black Friday, so clearly it's time to read a holiday shopping gift guide! Right? This one features items we're told are actually available to buy (or were in 1994 when the book was published) and which might mean you never need to have to worry about exchanging gifts again, because you'll be off everybody's list. Some of the selections here are genuinely, intriguingly bizarre. (A service that will pack your dead loved one's ashes into a bullet so their hunting buddies can shoot animals show more with them?!) Others are just ordinary and not especially interesting novelty gifts. (Reindeer antlers to put on your pet's head? You don't say?) Some just had me staring at them in honest confusion. (Was composting really so unheard of in the 90s that a book on the subject was considered that weird and mockable?)
It's sporadically amusing, but... Well, I sort of hate to say this, because I've been fond of Dave Barry since sometime in the 1980s, but overall this particular offering feels like a rather uninspired novelty item itself. Much like those "Old Fart" slippers that make farting noises when you walk. show less
It's sporadically amusing, but... Well, I sort of hate to say this, because I've been fond of Dave Barry since sometime in the 1980s, but overall this particular offering feels like a rather uninspired novelty item itself. Much like those "Old Fart" slippers that make farting noises when you walk. show less
Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass: How I Went 77 Years Without Growing Up by Dave Barry
I have a very distinct memory of standing in the bookstore when Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs was released, and laughing so hard as I read it that I thought I was going to have an accident of some sort. It is still probably my favorite book of his, and I was right there for the prime years of his column. I remember reading it in the local paper and then grabbing up all of the books he had published to that point, mostly collections of his columns and essays. Our senses of humor were show more definitely on the same wavelength.
When he retired from writing his column in 2005, that was kinda the last I "saw" of him. I was aware that he'd written more books, both fiction and non-fiction, and I'd pick up the nonfiction when I spotted it in the library, but it wasn't the same as having that weekly column or those collections or the still-hilarious compendium of bad songs. I've enjoyed his post-2005 work, but not with the same intensity and interest as when we were both much younger.
I was a little hesitant to pick up the memoir. These things can either be really awesome or really horrible - and mercifully, it landed squarely in the awesome category. This was just like picking up the old column again. And I even learned some new things, like the fact that Rob is also a journalist and has also won a Pulitzer Prize!
This books feels like old times because it excerpts quite a bit of the old columns, as Barry waxes poetically about his career, going from a daily reporter at a small-town daily newspaper, to a feature writer for the Miami Herald Sunday magazine (Tropic), to a nationally-syndicated columnist who not only won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, but whose collections of columns and essays formed the basis for the TV series Dave's World, and whose first novel was turned into a cult classic movie.
Barry is hilarious as usual, but also poignant, when he outlines his modest childhood years, the issues his parents suffered through, and the inexplicable tie to 9/11 that soured that movie experience. He outlines the reasons why he ended his column "so soon" (as if a thirty-year career is somehow "soon") and how he has moved through his professional life over the last 20 years.
It is quite amazing to realize how neatly he excises his personal life (after college) from this book, especially considering how much fodder it provided for his columns. There is also comparatively little about The Book of Bad Songs, and Dave's World. This is totally his right, of course, and good on him for protecting the privacy of those who never sought the spotlight, especially in this changing media landscape. There is plenty here to reminisce about, and it's a really great read.
If you were a fan of the column-days Dave Barry, I think you'll really enjoy this. show less
When he retired from writing his column in 2005, that was kinda the last I "saw" of him. I was aware that he'd written more books, both fiction and non-fiction, and I'd pick up the nonfiction when I spotted it in the library, but it wasn't the same as having that weekly column or those collections or the still-hilarious compendium of bad songs. I've enjoyed his post-2005 work, but not with the same intensity and interest as when we were both much younger.
I was a little hesitant to pick up the memoir. These things can either be really awesome or really horrible - and mercifully, it landed squarely in the awesome category. This was just like picking up the old column again. And I even learned some new things, like the fact that Rob is also a journalist and has also won a Pulitzer Prize!
This books feels like old times because it excerpts quite a bit of the old columns, as Barry waxes poetically about his career, going from a daily reporter at a small-town daily newspaper, to a feature writer for the Miami Herald Sunday magazine (Tropic), to a nationally-syndicated columnist who not only won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, but whose collections of columns and essays formed the basis for the TV series Dave's World, and whose first novel was turned into a cult classic movie.
Barry is hilarious as usual, but also poignant, when he outlines his modest childhood years, the issues his parents suffered through, and the inexplicable tie to 9/11 that soured that movie experience. He outlines the reasons why he ended his column "so soon" (as if a thirty-year career is somehow "soon") and how he has moved through his professional life over the last 20 years.
It is quite amazing to realize how neatly he excises his personal life (after college) from this book, especially considering how much fodder it provided for his columns. There is also comparatively little about The Book of Bad Songs, and Dave's World. This is totally his right, of course, and good on him for protecting the privacy of those who never sought the spotlight, especially in this changing media landscape. There is plenty here to reminisce about, and it's a really great read.
If you were a fan of the column-days Dave Barry, I think you'll really enjoy this. show less
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 104
- Also by
- 177
- Members
- 38,628
- Popularity
- #467
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 964
- ISBNs
- 684
- Languages
- 11
- Favorited
- 95
