Customer Reviews

Dave Barry's Homes and Other Black Holes: The Happy Homeowner's Guide to Ritual Closing Ceremonies, Newton's First Law of Furniture Buying, the Lethal ... Perils of the (Beeler Large Print Series)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of Dave's funniest books, and, as always, it's well worth the money. Read it. Because where else could you find an auther who writes about plumbing and gorilla nests in the same book??!

Its probably a good thing I wasn't drinking anything as I read this book, because I would have frequently sprayed the pages with my beverage if I had! Dave Barry takes aim at the trials and tribulations of home ownership, and hits the mark as accurately as he does any of his targets. This is funny stuff, best appreciated by those of us who have actually been there and done that. I had to read a number of passages to my wife, but her favorite was the bit about finding a pediatric group after moving. There is one piece of advice in here that I might actually follow when we finally are ready to move again: "Set fire to your household goods...and just walk away."

If you have ever moved, chances are that you never want to do it again. And Dave Barry is quite willing to remind you why moving is such a hideous experience, and why if you ever get the urge to do it again, you should lock yourself in a broom closet until your fit of insanity passes.

Among other things, Dave explains why your furniture takes so long to arrive (it involves primitive harvesters in the jungle) and why you will hate it when it arrives; what is and is not a good neighborhood ("I [heart] my Pit Bull" is bad); the horrifying thing called a mortgage; home repair and why you should not do it yourself; making enemies with your neighbors and their big savage dogs; garage sales; moving stuff out of your old house ("Tropical fish should be individually wadded up in newspaper") and into your new house ("... which will give your possessions an opportunity to scurry, giggling, back out to the truck so that you may carry them inside again").

Basically, if the idea of moving doesn't scare you before you read the book, it definitely will afterwards. Dave explains in horribly, humorously accurate descriptions, just what will happen when you try to move from one house to another. His viewpoint is only warped by the bizarre mindset of one who has tried to move and is still scarred by the experience.

So if you ever look around your house and think that you need more space, or a chance of scenery, have the doctor prescribe you something. But only after you've read this book.

Based on truth hilariously - but only slightly - exaggerated. This is his best book. Despite his protestations to the contrary, there is actually quite a bit of good advice, too. For example, his essay on garage sales is good prep for doing one.

This is one of the best of his books, because everybody who has ever bought a home can identify with it. It is absolutely hilarious, if this one doesn't make you LYAO you need to check to see if you have a pulse.

Anyone who has ever purchased a home, looked into purchasing a home, or simply dreamed of purchasing a home, will find himself laughing at something on every single page of this book. Whenever I picked it up to read, I found myself laughing out loud -- and my husband would ask, from another room, 'Are you reading Dave Barry AGAIN?' :)

This is one of the funniest Dave Barry books that I've ever read, and I've read most of them. The experiences of looking for, purchasing, outfitting, and maintaining a home are described in accurate and hilarious detail. If you want a book to lift your spirits, this one will do very well.

A year or so ago I read one of Barry's fiction novels called Big Trouble which was pretty entertaining so when I came across this non fiction book as well as Dave Barry's Bad Habits I decided to check them out. Of the two non fiction books Homes and Other Black Holes is certainly the more entertaining of the two with Barry giving more tongue in cheek advice based on exaggerations of the real world. In Bad Habits he was prone to telling more of his life stories than dishing out advice which to be honest they weren't that interesting, so this much thinner book with most of the life stories filtered out is much more pleasurable a read and is also a lot less dated too.

In Homes and Other Black Holes Barry comments on and gives advice on all of life's big decisions such as purchasing and selling homes, having kids, having pets, security alarms, gardening and buying furniture. Definitely an interesting and entertaining read. Check out his fiction as well.

Look, how can you not love Dave Barry. The man is one of the touchstones of the '80s and '90s, standing among such comedic giants as PJ O'Rourke and holding his own.

This book cracked me up when I first read it as a non-homeowner, and cracked me up even more after I'd bought a house. While Dave has slown down slightly with success, this and his other early books (Babies and other Hazards of Sex, and Dave Barry's Guide to Marriage and/or Sex) are still uproarious.

Look, you need something to read on the john. This should be in the can at the Library of Congress.

If you've ever bought a home or you work in real estate, you will find this especially funny because it hits so close to....uh, home. And it's a short book too, so it'll be a nice quick read to fit into your busy schedule.