Dave Barry’s columns are okay, but seem very repetitive. The only novel I read by him—Big Trouble was excellent. Though this book is semi-non-fiction like his columns, it’s excellent. I laughed out loud a lot while reading it. Rarely do books make me laugh. People (not just the blurbs on the back—real people) are always saying Diana Wynne Jones is hilarious, but I don’t get it. She’s one of my favourite authors, but has she made me laugh even once? Not that I can recall. Dave Barry did. Megaprops to him.