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Read Dave Barry's Money Secrets: Like: Why Is There A Giant Eyeball On The Dollar? (2006)

Dave Barry's Money Secrets: Like: Why Is There a Giant Eyeball on the Dollar? (2006)

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Rating
3.65 of 5 Votes: 5
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ISBN
0307351009 (ISBN13: 9780307351005)
Language
English
Publisher
three rivers press

Dave Barry's Money Secrets: Like: Why Is There A Giant Eyeball On The Dollar? (2006) - Plot & Excerpts

Dave Barry’s Money Secrets is like a Fantasyland ride through all the stuff that bugs us most in the real world: finances, the economy, work and the corporate environment, sending kids to college, marital arguments, dubious infomercials, buying a car and retirement. Celebrity value is added with jabs at Suze Orman and Donald Trump throughout the book and mentions of Angelina Jolie and Cher. I personally thought one of his best sections was on the corporate world (the jabs at Coca Cola messing with success apply to so many companies). Barbs about the newspaper industry, made playfully, should be taken seriously and bring an end to consultants who have decimated an industry with their advice to ignore the real newspaper audience and slavishly appeal to an audience that will never be: young people.I almost cheered out loud concerning Barry’s much needed insights concerning Glinda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz. That is, after Dorothy kills the Wicked Witch of the West, Glinda the Good Witch shows up and “…she knows exactly how Dorothy can use the slippers to get home. When the Scarecrow asks Glinda how come she didn’t just explain this to Dorothy in the first place, Glinda gives a lame explanation about how Dorothy wouldn’t have believed her, when in fact from the start Dorothy totally believed everything Glinda told her, including the lie that the ‘Wizard of Oz’ was great and powerful…”. Pointing out this Good Witch gaffe in an American classic is long overdue. Thank you, Dave Barry.If I had to come up with something that bothered me, and it didn’t bother me so much as it was unnecessary, it was the book’s sexual innuendo in chapter titles (“How to Get a Job: The Amazing Power of Oral Sex” and “Ethical Guidelines for Corporate CEOs: Beware the Penis That Squirts Vodka”). But, the reality of the publishing world is that many people would never pick up a book if not for some reference to sex, so I understand. I had to check the copyright date a couple times while reading (in case it changed) because most sections were as topical and appropriate today as in 2006 (the copyright): eating healthy, reality shows and healthcare costs, to name three. I guess, unfortunately, these things will never change in America so it’s good that we have Dave Barry to bring his unique humor to them.The book’s charts, tables and personal photos throughout are priceless (the pictures showing him victim to his father’s haircuts and the squat little family car he had to drive on dates were especially memorable).The book exposes the shortcomings of so many of our societal institutions that, by the end, you are left with only one certainty: Dave Barry will always be funny.

Superb. One of the latest Barry books and just as creative and wide-ranging as ever. Contains, for example, a helpful guide to how much extra you should tip a waiter if you're an obnoxious restaurant patron ("Want everything 'on the side' even though you'll be mixing all your food up anyway? Add 10% to the tip...") Theorizes that "money isn't everything". The lack thereof, however, makes it harder to sustain a true, fulfilling relationship with a special someone. Having loads of money makes it much easier to have "lots of genuine fake love". Overall Barry seems to be a little more hard-hitting here (like when he makes fun of rising college tuition costs and also Donald Trump's book on how to be successful, which Barry describes as nothing more than a celebrity name-dropping exercise). This is a good thing, even though he doesn't have that one serious essay mixed in with all the funny stuff like he usually does. Plus this audio version is read at warp 9 by Dick Hill, so often times he sounds like that quick legal mumbo jumbo at the end of car or prescription commercials ("side effects include vomiting, severe abdominal pain and a fear of being alive..."). On the plus side the whole book makes it onto 5 CDs.Succinctly, here's how I would rate the Barry books I've read/listened to (from best to least best) including "Money Secrets":1. Dave Barry Is From Mars AND Venus2. Dave Barry Turns 403. Dave Barry's Money Secrets4. Dave Barry Turns 50 5. Dave Barry's History of the Millennium6. Dave Barry Will Never Turn 60 (or 70)

What do You think about Dave Barry's Money Secrets: Like: Why Is There A Giant Eyeball On The Dollar? (2006)?

good break."Why are Ivy League schools so expensive? Simple: they hire the smartest professors in the world, and these professors do nothing -- the actual classes are taught be graduate students making $9.50 an hour -- but sit around thinking up ways to jack up tuition.""Yes, medical care has become hideously expensive in this country. Go to any American hospital today to have even a minor surgery such as removal of your tonsils., and you're looking at a minimum cost of $13,000. And that's just for parking. ... Why is medical care so expensive? There is no one simple answer to this question, by which I mean: lawyers."
—Zachary

Personal finance books are my secret passion. So, when I saw a parody of one done by Dave Barry, I picked it right up. His books are usually hilarious, easy-to-read, and immensely quotable. However, this one missed the mark a little. It's not nearly as funny as his other books. His jokes were predictable, and paced in the same manner throughout the book. Every paragraph seems to be two serious comments, followed by a joke. This began to wear on me a little, and I found my self laughing less frequently as the book went on. There were still some great Dave Barry moments though. This passage about the cost of college tuition is one of my favorites:"Unfortunately, college costs money, unless your child is really good at football or basketball, in which case goodhearted knowledge-loving strangers will cover all your child's educational needs, including a sport utility vehicle. But, chances are you'll have to pay for your childs college education. This is a problem if your child wants to go to a top college such as Harvard, where tuition is currently $37,5000 per... ...no, wait, while I was writing that sentence it went up, so now it's $38,928 per... ...no, hold on, it just went up again, and now it's $40,2...Why are Ivy League schools so expensive? Simple: They hire the smartest professors in the world, and these professors do nothing but sit around thinking up new ways to jack up tuition. The pioneer in the effort was Princeton University, which in 1932 hired Albert Einstein to work on the tuition problem. At the time, a semestor at Princeton cost $16.75, which included a class beanie and a manservant. After studying the situation, Einstein developed the General Theory of Relativity, which states :"People in general will pay any amount of money to be able to tell their relatives that their child goes to Princeton."...Dartmouth seems to be proving this with it's Tuition + Organ Program (TOP), which requires that each semester's tuition payment be accompanied by a functional human kidney. "It's amazing," reports a Dartmouth official. "We figure that, between Mom and Dad, each set of parents would be good for a maximum of four kidneys, but darned if they're not coming up with more! God only knows how."
—Jenna

Do not - and I swear I'm not making this up - do not read this book if you're looking for actual financial advice. If you're looking for a couple of laughs, my financial advice is to buy it. Better yet, go to the library, get it for free, save the money you would have spent on the book for a mocha latte grande. Barry's discussion of financial matters goes free range using the stock market, real estate, and saving for a college education, among others, as stepping off points for his usual clever brand of humor. It was worth more than a few LOLs, and who can put a price on that? If you like audiobooks, I highly recommend Dick Hill's narration of this book. It is not so much a narration as an actual performance, and it is brilliant.
—Chris

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