Dave Barry in Cyberspace (Paperback)

by Dave Barry (Author) "The first human beings didn't need computers, because they had no numbers..." (more)
Key Phrases: banana labels, musical sand, correctly spelled words, Technical Support Representative, Bill Gates, World Wide Web (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st Ballantine Books Ed edition (September 23, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449912302
• ISBN-13: 978-0449912300
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #526,937 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #48 in

  Books > Entertainment > Humor > Computers & Internet

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Dave's funniest -- but still great., December 21, 2000

By	Jon D. Satko "jdsatko" (Porterville, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Let me start by saying that I love Dave Barry's work -- I've been reading everything he's written since the early-'80's, always with great anticipation. With that said, I regret to report that this book is merely OKAY. Of course it was funny (how could Dave Barry not be?!), but I only found maybe two or three rolling-on-the-ground-laughing parts. So, if you're a fan of his, or if you have an interest in computers, you should definitely read it. Just don't expect as much side-splitting as other reviewers have claimed. For laugh-out-loud-til-you-wet-yourself Dave Barry humor, I recommend any collection of his weekly columns, and also *Dave Barry Slept Here*.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ROTFL :---), August 14, 2001

By	"beemboy" (Belmont, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This book is rip-roaring, side-splitting, and downright howlarious! Oh my god. I read it cover to cover as though I were taking the bar exam except that every other minute I was literally rolling on the carpet howling as though someone was performing the "Tunisian Tickle Torture" on me. And I'm not even exaggerating.

The first few chapters are incredibly funny, and as you get accustomed to his kind of humor you start to want more and more of it and you eventually start laughing in preparation for his jokes!

Coming to the actual content of this book - it is an extremely comically cynical look at computers and how they affect everyone everyday. The guffaws begin with his description of evidence of computer usage in the stone ages, continue through to his tips on selecting a computer to buy, persist with his description of software and its purpose and culminate with a tongue-in-cheek description of the "information superhighway", internet and chat rooms. My personal favorite is his definition of "electricity" - it should appear in all physics text books.

Somewhere towards the end, there is also a somewhat touching story about a couple that meet in a chat room. I wonder if it landed up in this book as a mistaken cut-and-paste operation. Nice to read all the same.

All in all, if you are ever bored, forget TV and everything else - pick up this book and do yourself a favor. You never thought you could laugh so much.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revenge of the sub-nerds, February 9, 2000

By	Michael J Edelman (Huntington Woods, MI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

What other author could sum up Jerry Pournelle in one sentence, make jokes about the Radio Shack TRS-80, tell an enticing tale about a cyber romance, and still manage to work the word "booger" in at least once per chapter? Updike couldn't do it. Mailer certainly couldn't do it. Only Dave Barry can do it.