Ratings2
Average rating3.5
A brilliantly funny look at the tumultuous recent past from the Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist. Remember when everything was going to go to hell when Y2K struck? That didn't happen. Right? But what did happen? To provide a little perspective on a really messed-up millennium (so far), the one and only Dave Barry slips into his historian's robe (it's plush terrycloth) and revisits the defining moments in our country's recent history, from the Bush years to-jeez, it's still the Bush years! As an added bonus, Barry quickly "we're busy here" tosses in the complete history of the last millennium, covering crucial turning points such as the invention of the pizza by Leonardo da Vinci and the computer by Charles Babbage (who died in 1871 still waiting to talk to tech support). Fellow Americans, the time has come to bone up with Barry as he puts the hysterical in history.
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This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Back in high school, I worked at a public library (shock, right?), and I kept shelving this book – Dave Barry Slept Here, and eventually succumbed and took it home – several times. I fell in love with Barry's humor, and read him a lot over the next decade – every book, as many columns as I could find, etc., etc. But I eventually stopped, for no good reason that I can think of (it's probably not Harry Anderson's fault) – and have really only read his novels since then.
Still, when I saw this audiobook on the library's site, it was an automatic click – without even reading the description. This is essentially a reprinting of his “Year in Review” columns for the first few years of this millennium and a review of the previous 1,000 years of human history.
It was hilarious. Just that simple. There's nothing more to say, really.
In the beginning Frederic played it straight – which surprised me a bit, but I liked the effect. A serious reading of Barry's goofiness worked remarkably well. Later on, Frederic seemed to loosen up – he even did a couple of decent impressions. I really enjoyed his work on this.
Yeah, the humor's a bit dated, but funny is funny. This is a great look back at the early part of the 21st Century (and before). I laughed a lot, remembered a few things, and generally had a good time with this.
The only problem with this book was that I wanted more! This book only has something like six columns in it, that I had already archived on my own.