Rating: 
Summary: Dave Barry strikes again
Review: Classic Barry iconoclastic humor. A real hoot for any baby-boomer. Chock full of nostalgic remembrances mixed in with a little 60's philosophy. I chuckled through nearly every page. Would also make a great birthday gift.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost as good...
Review: I have to admit that my favorite Dave Barry books have been the ones that simply compile his newspaper columns. Maybe it's that I have a short attention span. Nonetheless, this book was highly entertaining. Now, I wasn't born until the late 70s, so I probably didn't find it as amusing as, say, my parents would have. But still, it's typical Dave Barry. And a good, quick, painless history lesson for anyone my age who had a less-than-adequate education in American history.
Rating:
Summary: you'll smile!
Review: I learnde so much from this book! I laughed(yes!), I cried(not really), and I had the time of my life. This is a great book. I've only been around since the late 80s so a lot of jokes were kinda way above me. But I still enjoyed it! Herman's Armpits forever (har har)
Rating: 
Summary: It gets old
Review: I was required to read this for a Literature class suprisingly and this is the first Dave Barry book I have ever read. Although I probably will not subject myself to another one willingly, it was better than I had expected. I dredded reading the book but found myself laughing out loud a few times. If you are a Dave Barry fan you will enjoy this book and if you don't mind listening to quite a bit of history you will also; it just gets old after a few chapters.
Rating:
Summary: This book is about my husband...
Review: My husband bought this book because I was always berating him about reading Barrons and the Wall Street Journal on our vacations. He read this book by the pool, before bed, at the beach, everywhere. He never wanted to put it down... He laughed out loud on almost every page. He would read paragraphs to me and start laughing so hard he would be crying...I think the reason he really likes this book is because Dave Barry is one year older than he is. He, also, is accused of looking younger than he really is... No one believes he is over 50 until he starts talking about Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doody--just like Dave does... He managed to get in the National Guard to get out of Vietnam and was very impressed with Dave's CO status. Jim had to get an ulcer to get out all together. I am so glad there is another guy out there that my husband can relate to. He is hanging out with too many young people now (like me.) He had to explain who Captain Video was to me. His first memory was begging his mother for a Captain Video helmet. Once he got it, he turned on the TV show and ran around in cirlces with the helmet on his head...(???) I am so happy Dave made my husband's trip so enjoyable. I promise I will read it myself to gain insight into his psyche. (Even though he has read over 3/4 of it aloud to me already.) Because of this book, I now know what to get him for Father's Day: the Collected Works of Dave Barry. I hope it comes in a boxed set suitable for giftwrapping. PS We used to get Dave in our newspaper (and my husband used to cut out the articles and send them to his friends....) but now that we live in Connecticut, we don't get his column in our Stamford Advocate (or the New York Times.) If his publicist is reading this, please see if we can get his column in the New York Times... Thank you... Dee Bragg deebragg@yahoo.com
Rating:
Summary: This book is about my husband...
Review: My husband bought this book because I was always berating him about reading Barrons and the Wall Street Journal on our vacations. He read this book by the pool, before bed, at the beach, everywhere. He never wanted to put it down... He laughed out loud on almost every page. He would read paragraphs to me and start laughing so hard he would be crying... I think the reason he really likes this book is because Dave Barry is one year older than he is. He, also, is accused of looking younger than he really is... No one believes he is over 50 until he starts talking about Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doody--just like Dave does... He managed to get in the National Guard to get out of Vietnam and was very impressed with Dave's CO status. Jim had to get an ulcer to get out all together. I am so glad there is another guy out there that my husband can relate to. He is hanging out with too many young people now (like me.) He had to explain who Captain Video was to me. His first memory was begging his mother for a Captain Video helmet. Once he got it, he turned on the TV show and ran around in cirlces with the helmet on his head...(???) I am so happy Dave made my husband's trip so enjoyable. I promise I will read it myself to gain insight into his psyche. (Even though he has read over 3/4 of it aloud to me already.) Because of this book, I now know what to get him for Father's Day: the Collected Works of Dave Barry. I hope it comes in a boxed set suitable for giftwrapping. PS We used to get Dave in our newspaper (and my husband used to cut out the articles and send them to his friends....) but now that we live in Connecticut, we don't get his column in our Stamford Advocate (or the New York Times.) If his publicist is reading this, please see if we can get his column in the New York Times... Thank you... Dee Bragg deebragg@yahoo.com
Rating:
Summary: Typical Dave Barry - gut-bustingly funny - but not his best
Review: OK - are you a Dave Barry fan, or is this going to be your first Dave Barry book? If you like Dave, this is another of his never-ending series of incredibly funny books. You'll get a copy, of course, and it will be one of the funniest books you've ever read, of course, since no one else (except James Lileks) is even remotely as funny as Dave Barry is. Like someone else said here, even if this one isn't his funniest, it's funnier than almost any other 'funny book' you'll read. I'm not kidding when I tell you that I stopped carrying Dave Barry books to read on flights. It's not possible to laugh under your breath three times a minute, and I've noticed that people tend to stare if you laugh out loud three times a minute, for an hour or more. If you're not a Dave Barry fan already - this one won't be the best place to start if you want to decide whether to join the Dave Barry club or not. Read "Dave Barry's greatest hits", or the travel one (can't remember the name). After having read all of Dave's books, I must conclude that there is something fundamentally wrong with people who don't find him funny ... just kidding! But honestly, Dave's is a brand of humor that appeals to a surprisingly large variety of people; and this one (DB turns 50) is typical Dave.
Rating:
Summary: still damned funny
Review: Okay -- having read every single one of Barry's books, I'd agree that this is not his absolute funniest, but I still laughed out loud every other page or so. I consider Barry the most hilarious writer alive, bar none. This may not be his funniest book, but it's still funnier than 99% of the other books out there.
Rating:
Summary: Highly "educational" :-)
Review: Okay, I'll admit that Dave Barry has written books that are much funnier than "Dave Barry Turns 50". This is not his absolute best book by any means. However, and it sounds weird to say this, I learned a lot from it! As someone who wasn't alive until the early 1980's, a lot of the jokes about musical groups, politicians, etc. went over my head, but his year-by-year account of what he calls "the formative boomer years" taught me a lot about the things that were going on in the world at that point in history. One of my favorite things about Barry is his ability to be informative, genuine, and funny at the same time. Yes, his writing can be very immature and silly at times, but he has shown himself more than once to be a man with opinions and a great deal of knowledge who just happens to have a juvenile side. I especially enjoyed reading the section about the Vietnam war, the draft, and the protests that went along with it. This is a great book, as Dave Barry books usually are. I hope he keeps writing, even though he's getting to be an "old fart" :-)
Rating:
Summary: a touch of maturity in there, too
Review: The guy is gross, goofy, really really funny, but he's not the tenage moron he sets you up for. I read this book on my way to Japan for the first time. It was a great flight companion and every word of it turned out to be true. How he could get such insights out of so short a trip, with kids in tow amazes me, but my point here is that he handled the tough stuff--racism, pacifism...you know, the NOT FUNNY!!! stuff...with the compusure of a monk! Really. I would have read the book just for the profound insights (sorry Dave). As it happened my trip coincided with Bush's declaration of war on Iraq. Had I not read his chapter on Hiroshima, I would have been blindsided by the questions I was asked in highschool classrooms about the American attitude toward war. Intestinal fortitude or not, I vote for Dave to represent us around the globe.
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