Miami resident Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humor writer and sometime columnist for the Miami Herald. He has written many books and plays lead guitar in the Rock Bottom Remainders, whose other members include Stephen King, Amy Tan, Ridley Pearson and Mitch Albom. They are not musically skilled, but they are extremely loud. His latest collection of essays is I'll Mature When I'm Dead: Dave Barry's Amazing Tales of Adulthood (Putnam, May 2010).
On your nightstand now:
King Dork by Frank Portman.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Any of the great Tom Swift books, such as Tom Swift and His Electric Saxophone.
Your top five authors:
Robert Benchley, P.G. Wodehouse, Patrick O'Brian, Shakespeare (we were in college together), Marcel Proust (I am lying about this one).
Book you've faked reading:
The Brothers Karamazov, which I wrote several lengthy papers about in college despite never having gotten past approximately page 11.
Currently mine. I am actually beyond evangelist and into the realm of prostitute.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Thin Thighs in Thirty Days.
Book that changed your life:
The Brothers Karamazov.
Favorite line from a book:
"If only you knew how much I smell you."--Roy Blount Jr. from the book of the same name he did with Valerie Shaff about dogs.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Brothers Karamazov.
What will happen if people fail to buy your new book, I'll Mature When I'm Dead?
Very bad things.
