Dave Barry in Cyberspace
- Book Review,
by Dave Barry
Amazon.com
Trust Dave Barry, middle-class America's chronicler of the absurdities and inanities of daily life, to provide the authoritative funnyman's guide to life with computers. Barry is sometimes insightful, as when he notes the ridiculous number of keystrokes needed to actually write something, often hilarious, as in his sendup of technological support hotlines, and occasionally genuinely indignant. This book is the perfect gift for anyone who, like many of us, can't live with computers and can't live without them.
From Publishers Weekly
Whether you're a computer whiz or a computer nerd, this tongue-in-cheek guide to computing by bestselling humorist Barry (Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys, etc.) has enough byte to keep you entertained. Designed to look like a user's manual, complete with section tabs and a mock glossary, it offers a wryly skeptical tour of the digital world with outrageously irreverent commentary on word-processing applications, software installation and use, Windows 95, Comdex trade shows, technical support services and much more. Computerphobes will instantly relate to Barry's spoof, which taps into the residual anxieties lurking even in computer sophisticates. (How to buy and set up a computer? "Step One: Get Valium.") Along with a brief history of computing from cave walls to virtual reality, Barry chats on the Internet, eavesdrops on a cybersex session and visits selected weird World Wide Web sites ("Proof that civilization is doomed.") Barry's nonstop humor is, perhaps necessarily, hit and miss, but he never loses sight of his big target and lets loose with enough volleys to remind us that, despite all the hype, a computer is just a machine "that operates on simple principles that can be easily understood by anybody with some common sense, a little imagination, and an IQ of 750." Major ad/promo. Author tour. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
HUMOR This latest spoof by a best-selling author and popular syndicated humor columnist is a welcome antidote to the recent influx of technical jargon regarding computers and the Internet. In typical style, Barry pokes fun at everything imaginable: "Picture this scenario. ...Your 12-year-old child suddenly remembers that he has a report...due tomorrow. He needs to do some research, but the library is closed....Your cyber-savvy youngster simply...logs onto the Internet...and, in a matter of minutes, is exchanging pictures of naked women with youngsters all over North America." Although readers of Barry's past collections will often see the punchlines before they arrive, there is enough hilariously imaginative material here?particularly a chart depicting emoticons, those annoying keyboard symbols that chat group users employ to suggest emotion?to justify purchase in most public libraries.?Mark Annichiarico, "Library Journal"Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The New York Times Book Review, Robert R. Harris
After a day spent staring at the computer monitor, think of this book as kind of a screen saver for your brain.
From Booklist
The perdurably popular humor columnist (he's the Bob Hope of the Sunday supplements) admits he belongs to the tribe of computer geeks "who would much rather spend our time diddling with our computers than using them to do something productive." (Is there innuendo in that statement, or are we just filthy-minded? That's the kind of question that crops up repeatedly while reading Barry--and one reason to keep reading him.) Moreover, "the powerful studliness" of Dave's latest binary toy allows him to do multitasking, "which means I have the ability to . . . waste time faster than ever before." If you love Barry's shtick--that he's sort of a nonugly Rodney Dangerfield sans the profanity--you'll happily traipse along with him as he tells you how computers work and how to get computer literate and then takes you to a big computer convention and on to the 'net and even the Web. And if you don't love it, at least enough to be amused a few pages at a time, you're in a distinct minority. Ray Olson
Book Description
"RELENTLESSLY FUNNY . . . BARRY SHINES."
--People
A self-professed computer geek who actually does Windows 95, bestselling humorist Dave Barry takes us on a hilarious hard drive via the information superhighway--and into the very heart of cyberspace, asking the provocative question: If God had wanted us to be concise, why give us so many fonts?
Inside you'll find juicy bytes on
How to Buy and Set Up a Computer; Step One: Get Valium
Nerdstock in the Desert; Or: Bill Gates Is Elvis
Software: Making Your Computer Come Alive So It Can Attack You
Word Processing: How to Press an Enormous Number of Keys Without Ever Actually Writing Anything
Selected Web Sites, including Cursing in Swedish, Deformed Frog Pictures, and The Toilets of Melbourne, Australia
And much, much more!
"VERY FUNNY . . . After a day spent staring at a computer monitor, think of the book as a kind of screen saver for your brain."
--New York Times Book Review
From the Publisher
Designed especially for the geek in all of us, this is Dave Barry's take on everything from how to buy a computer to the information superhighway and how to get there -- hopefully in one piece or at least with an airbag. Anytime you feel real stupid about computers and the Internet, just pick up DAVE BARRY IN CYBERSPACE and you'll feel a whole lot better that somebody else might be in worst shape than you.
From the Inside Flap
"RELENTLESSLY FUNNY . . . BARRY SHINES."
--People
A self-professed computer geek who actually does Windows 95, bestselling humorist Dave Barry takes us on a hilarious hard drive via the information superhighway--and into the very heart of cyberspace, asking the provocative question: If God had wanted us to be concise, why give us so many fonts?
Inside you'll find juicy bytes on
How to Buy and Set Up a Computer; Step One: Get Valium
Nerdstock in the Desert; Or: Bill Gates Is Elvis
Software: Making Your Computer Come Alive So It Can Attack You
Word Processing: How to Press an Enormous Number of Keys Without Ever Actually Writing Anything
Selected Web Sites, including Cursing in Swedish, Deformed Frog Pictures, and The Toilets of Melbourne, Australia
And much, much more!
"VERY FUNNY . . . After a day spent staring at a computer monitor, think of the book as a kind of screen saver for your brain."
--New York Times Book Review
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