Dave Barry's Bad Habits: A 100% Fact-Free Book [Paperback]

Dave Barry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1993

If you're not already acquainted--nay, infatuated--with the works of the man who the New York Times calls "the funniest man in America," you can get cracking right now with this all-time favorite collection of Dave Barry's humor columns. Dave Barry's Bad Habits won't rot your teeth, cause your insurance premiums to go up, or make your kids go cross-eyed if they sit too close to it. It will, however, make you laugh so hard your middle actually moves (the best exercise, and possibly the only kind you'll be interested in after forty). Here, preserved for all time, are Barry's profoundest musings on such topics as how to get kids to stop smoking (eliminate tenth grade), what to do if your car is making loud noises (turn up the radio), and a solution to the battle of the sexes (let the men do housework, say, for the next six thousand years to even things up). Together they serve to expose the little insanities of everyday life and assure us that we're not completely alone in a world gone mad.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"To most people, news means information about events that affect a lot of people. On local TV news shows, news means anything that you can take a picture of, especially if a local TV News Personality can stand in front of it."

Dave Barry is the modern master of silliness; there's a party in his pen. While he's more recently branched out into books and magazine articles, the form where he shines brightest is the newspaper column. Dave Barry's Bad Habits is a cracking-good collection of his syndicated column taken from the early 1980s. And Barry at his best can stand among the greatest humorists America has produced.

First of all, let me assure you that we are not in a depression. The key economic indicator of a depression is that you suddenly start seeing a lot of primitive black-and-white newsreel films of people wearing old-fashioned hats and overcoats and forming lines in the streets of major cities to obtain bread. So far, all the lines of people have been videotaped in color, which is the sign of a stable economy. Also, the people have not been lining up for bread. They have been lining up for cheese, which the government has several million tons of."

When you're looking for a good belly laugh, sometimes only Dave Barry will do. Dave Barry's Bad Habits skates from topic to topic, always light, always rambunctious. For the dedicated fan, it's an essential volume; for the rest, it's yet more evidence that Barry is the Zen master of written mirth. --Michael Gerber

Review

"Bad Habits--funny book. Read it."--Gannett News Service

"Dave Barry is nothing less thatn the smart-aleck Peter Pan of American letters."--the Seattle Times

"Dave Barry is the guru of guffaws."--the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"He has the ability to charm us with nonsense so compelling that it almost makes sense."--Houston Chronicle

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; 1st Owl Book Ed edition (September 15, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805029648
• ISBN-13: 978-0805029642
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #710,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So funny I wet myself (well, sort of...OK. I didn't but..., January 21, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Lawrence, Kansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dave Barry's Bad Habits: A 100% Fact-Free Book (Paperback)

...I felt it best to keep in the spirit of Dave Barry's irreverence. The book DID keep me laughing in spite of myself, and I just couldn't put it down. So, I was laughing and sniggering on the plane (I got it for a long trip), in elevators, and at home, and any other place I could catch a few minutes to savor a bit more delicious laughter until I finally finished the last morsel of wonderfully pointed and silly humor that is Barry's trademark. I read it again in less than a year and still got much joy from it. Now, I've passed it on to my mother (yes, she can read it without tut-tutting over the gross jokes, which are pretty accurate anyway). Every time she mentions the book, she smiles, and she can't help but find something to laugh out loud about in the book each time she picks it up. So, you may not wet yourself, or want to, but it WOULD be a good idea to at LEAST put your cup of tea down before reading this book. I wouldn't want you spilling it and ruining a good guffaw...

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Barry's finest collection, January 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dave Barry's Bad Habits: A 100% Fact-Free Book (Paperback)

Dave Barry has published several collections of his fine humor columns. This collection, one of the earliest, is also the best (I personally find that his material has declined with time). Taking on everything from high school English to barbecuing, Barry turns out one hilarious piece after another. Well worth-reading.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Habits you'll want to pick up., December 16, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dave Barry's Bad Habits: A 100% Fact-Free Book (Paperback)

I didn't have a clue who Dave Barry was when I checked this book out of a library in 1984. I just saw the disclaimer, "A 100% Fact-Free Book," and was attracted by that kind of truth in advertising. There were three adults living in the house, and you could always tell, day or night, when somebody had picked up Bad Habits by the sounds of choking laughter. We spend two blissful weeks periodically resuscitating each other. Quintessential Dave. Read it.