Take a joke: Dave Barry in Cyberspace

by Alan Zisman (c) 1997. First published in Computer Player, June 1997

Okay, so you use computers, right. In fact, we could say you?re into computers, am I right? And that?s not a laughing matter, right?

So you?d better not read Dave Barry in Cyberspace, since this is a very funny book that makes it appear as if computer users are able to laugh at themselves.

You wouldn?t know it from the table of contents, however. At first glance, this could be a typical XXX for Dummies look, with chapters like ?How Computers Work?, ?How to Buy and Set Up a Computer?, ?Selected Web Sites? and more. But it always pays to read the fine print? the ?Word Processing? chapter, for example, is subtitled: If God Had Wanted Us to be Concise, He Wouldn?t Have Given Us So Many Fonts.

Right from the introduction, popular US newspaper humorist, Dave Barry admits to being a ?total computer geek?? someone who reads computer magazines in bed, looking at pictures of hardware while saying things like ?Whoa! Check out the 6X SCSI-2 CD-ROM drive on THAT baby!? Someone who can admit that any magazine with a name like ?Byte? must be moderately arousing, and that multitasking means having the ability to waste time faster than ever before.

If you can laugh at yourself and your addiction (that?s why you?re a ?user?, right?), then get this book. Right now!