It's Black Friday, so clearly it's time to read a holiday shopping gift guide! Right? This one features items we're told are actually available to buy (or were in 1994 when the book was published) and which might mean you never need to have to worry about exchanging gifts again, because you'll be off everybody's list. Some of the selections here are genuinely, intriguingly bizarre. (A service that will pack your dead loved one's ashes into a bullet so their hunting buddies can shoot animals with them?!) Others are just ordinary and not especially interesting novelty gifts. (Reindeer antlers to put on your pet's head? You don't say?) Some just had me staring at them in honest confusion. (Was composting really so unheard of in the 90s that a book on the subject was considered that weird and mockable?)

It's sporadically amusing, but... Well, I sort of hate to say this, because I've been fond of Dave Barry since sometime in the 1980s, but overall this particular offering feels like a rather uninspired novelty item itself. Much like those "Old Fart" slippers that make farting noises when you walk. ( )

Funny at times but just plain strange at others, this quick read was not waste of time, but parts of it came close. Clearly, some of these “gift” items were not meant as gifts but rather as educational or helpful medical items. There are unusual gift items available – things that are marketed as gifts; these are the items the author should have chosen. Not up to Dave Barry’s usual standards of humor. ( )