Dave Barry is Not Making This Up

Incredibly funny—Dave Barry is Not Making This Up—Dave Barry is the sort of person you’d love to sit close enough to eavesdrop on at a dinner party, but not close enough that you’d end up being in one of his stories. I particularly enjoyed invasion of the money snatchers: a story of a bunch of old guys trying to do the right thing by declaring income from a lottery win and ending up being sued by the government for money well in excess of what was won. The chapters are different 2-4 page articles written by Barry. It’s an easy, fun read. Dave Barry combines heart and humor, rendering the mundane comical, like no other living humorist. This one was definitely a laugh out loud read.

This was a couple of dozen of his columns which I've always loved. The perfect length as my sense of humor tends to trip out after a while. I was cutting up a tree that ice storm took partially down in the horses' field while listening to this, so I had to take a few breaks when things got dicey.

(Lots of energy & twisting left in that big, old hackberry. I wish the wood was prettier as it was 16" in diameter & should make some nice bowls, but I'll have to stain them or something. I don't like the gray cast the wood gets.)

This wasn't all humor, though. The last one was about how he felt when his 12 year old got hit by a car while riding his bike. A broken leg & stitches patched the kid up, but he made a great point about how parenthood show more changes a person.

I can't remember all the subjects he tackled, but they were pretty diverse & a lot of fun. His dating advice for a teenage boy was hilarious. Excellent as an audio book. show less

Always fun to read a Dave Barry collection. Listening to it was interesting since Barry only did intros to the sections and not the whole book reading.

Dave Barry is one of the funniest writers I've read. He writes about everything with a serious tone, but it's hysterical. He says he is not making this up. Maybe he is, but who cares when you're rolling on the floor laughing?

In addition to following up 1992's "Dave Barry Talks Back" with a collection of his weekly humor columns from the Miami Herald through 1994, this book also includes several longer pieces Dave Barry wrote for other publications, including one about the "natural" birth of his son, an expose of a Western Florida UFO hoax, and a couple of travelogues (of a sort) about a trip to China on the eve of Britain's withdrawal from Hong Kong and a boating trip to Bimini Bay. Also included is a rather serious (for Barry) column about his son being hit by a car while riding his bike, which is actually quite touching.

But of course, the staple of any Dave Barry book is the zany humor, and it is plentiful here, including among many other classic columns show more the infamous "Bad Song Contest." If you are a Dave Barry fan, you will enjoy this book, and if you haven't discovered him yet, this would be a fine place to start. show less

Fun. My parents read him a lot when I was a kid. It's silly, but cute. This book has a piece that is a description of Hong Kong before the hand over. Interesting in retrospect.

Sparkling anthology of very funny feature articles by the engaging syndicated columnist.