Customer Reviews

Dave Barry's Gift Guide To End All Gift Guides

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

 

 

Ever want an "Auto Security Spider," the cheap alternative to "The Club?" How about a game of "Roadkill Bingo" for the kids? Perhaps a "High-Tech Loudspeaker Hat" for your loved one who has it all? These are just a few of the items listed and described in detail in this wacky book.

Dave Barry is one of the funniest writes of all time, but he is usually at his best when it comes to him poking fun at the truth. This book, slightly dated written in 1994, is a virtual catalogue of items that you can actually purchase. Trust me. These gifts are better given than received.

It's a really fast read, and Dave Barry is truly at his best. It 's just non-stop laughter, and there are some decent gift ideas in the book. If fact, Dave Barry's Gift Guide to End All Gift Guides would make a pretty nice gift itself.

Like several of the other reviewers, I try to read anything that I can find written by Dave Barry. Unlike most of the other reviewers, however, I would not list this book among his best. There were certainly a few moments when I had that standard "laugh out loud" response to Barry's wit. However, this book really read to me like an excuse to publish and sell a book without too much work. Most of his other books that I have read and thoroughly enjoyed included a lot more text and fewer pictures. The genius of Barry's writing is his ability to use everybody language in hysterical ways, and this "Gift Guide" doesn't allow him a platform for his usual linguistic shenanigans.

In short, it's a quick and easy read with a lot of pictures. It does offer a few good laughs. But given the body of his work, I would recommend his other books well ahead of this one.

I'm a big Dave Barry fan, but somehow I missed this one. So here's a quick October, 2011 review.

How about this for a perfect opportunity? Dave Barry unleashes his wit on goofy stuff you can actually buy. Great concept, but...

Each item gets about one page of text, if that, and although his sense of humor is very much there, he doesn't really give himself the room to run with it. Also, a shortage of actual items makes for a very small book. I bought it from an Amazon reseller for less than $2, and with shipping it was still a small $6 book.

Although, like Barry himself, I'm too lazy to do research, I'm certain there are a LOT more products out there on which he could have unleashed his infectios brand of humor. As it stands, this book is fun but just way too short.

Unlike other paper books written by comedians, the presentation and laughs are perfectly conveyed through Barry's ridiculous analysis of what makes the tackiest, most awful gift. (Pictures included!) If you want to give the gift of laughter, this is it.

Humorist Dave Barry puts together an annual list of potential holiday gifts that even spark his interest. And these are real gifts, not imaginary ones made up in some twisted humorist's mind.

I'm used to seeing a long column about Dave Barry's recommendations of warped and unusual gifts this time every year in a newspaper. This book, Dave Barry's Gift Guide To End All Gift Guides, is from the early 1990s. Did this book inspire his annual list, or was this just an experimental book version?

From fake arms to fake derrieres, from a can of pork brains (in milk gravy) to a Last Supper wall clock, Barry describes these odd gifts through those "Dave Barry glasses." I suspect many of these products are no longer available, although I know where to obtain a realistic copy of 5, 10, and 20 pounds of body fat. Today, a similar list would have many more electronic items. Merchandise marches on!

So this book doesn't age well. However, "Pork Brains" might be an interesting name for a rock group...

OK, this is just a silly piece of fluff, but it's a FUN silly piece of fluff, and that's all it ever aspired to be. It's a collection of items that are actually available for purchase, with all relevant information necessary to purchase them, that NO ONE in their right mind would ever buy, along with Dave Barry's comments. (As an example, perhaps the most "normal" item in the book is a rubber chicken; one of the less-normal items was a motrized prank rat, a realistic rubber rat with it's nose caught in a trap that wriggles and writhes when a loud noise is registered.)

I can't see reading this book over and over, but the "Mr. Dip Lip" is funny every time I imagine some poor, hungover fool waking up to, "Hello Bob, WELCOME TO HELL!"

Dave Barry's always fun, but never more so when he riffs on real stuff. This book is full of his take on some of the stupidest products available. The fact that I am one of the alert readers who sent him an idea (that he used in the book) has no bearing on my favorable review ;-)

I've read everything by Dave Barry I could get my hands on, but this is his best work. If you can't find the perfect gift (for a loved one, hated one, or yourself) in here, you're probably Dilbert's boss.

I think my favorite is the one so tasteles he refused to include a picture. We'll be taking up a collection for one of these soon at the office, for a victim I shan't name.

A very good book of cool gifts.