Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living Author: Visit Amazon's Nick Offerman Page | Language: English | ISBN:
052595421X | Format: EPUB
Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living Description
From Publishers Weekly
In his first book, Offerman—best known for his popular character Ron Swanson on NBC&'s Parks and Recreation—opens up about his life and the values that he says have brought him prosperity and success. Each chapter of the memoir is accompanied with an essay outlining a relevant principle Offerman claims may lead the reader to a better life. The veracity of some of his statements may be called into question—vegans will bristle at his position on meat (eating red meat gives one character) and Millennials will not appreciate his dismissive attitude towards GPS devices and smartphones—but Offerman openly admits on the first page that what works for him may not be everyone&'s glass of scotch. Whether or not the reader considers his advice worth following, it is thought-provoking, profane, and frequently hilarious, although the book sometimes detours into recommendations of well-known movies and plays; Parks and Rec fans may be disappointed at the small amount of material about the show, but getting to know Offerman through his stumbling courtship with Megan Mullally and Kabuki theater training is well worth the price of admission. (Oct.)
From Booklist
Ron Swanson is a mustachioed, breakfast-food-loving, woodworking red-meat connoisseur. Nick Offerman is a mustachioed, breakfast-food-loving, woodworking red-meat connoisseur but, more important, also a real person—a grateful, gracious, bemused actor in love with his wife, Megan Mullaly (best known as Karen in Will & Grace), and the earnest simplicity of his not-so-Hollywood Hollywood existence. From his humble beginnings in Minooka, Illinois, to his meteoric rise portraying Ron Swanson on the much-loved TV show, Parks and Recreation, Offerman has lived a lot of life. He looks back as fondly on his upbringing in a small farming community with his hardworking parents and three siblings as on the time he spent at the University of Illinois and, later, in Chicago, where he received theater training. Not only does he recall his life, but he also offers chuckle-worthy anecdotes, diagrams, even a haiku (about—what else?—bratwurst) to help his readers find their own ways toward delicious living. Ron Swanson would be proud. --Courtney Jones
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- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Dutton Adult (October 1, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 052595421X
- ISBN-13: 978-0525954217
- Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
As soon as I saw this book was available I purchased it for my Kindle and read it that same evening. As a long time fan of Parks and Rec as well as Offerman's other work, I was really excited. I know that Ron Swanson is a fictional character, but one of the things that sets the charachter apart is how little Offerman has to "act" to be believed. As a trip to the Offerman Woodshop website will show you, he truly is passionate about some of the same things that Ron Swanson espouses. He also has a killer 'stache. That's sadly where the similarities end.
(SPOILER ALERT: I reflect on things I didn't like in the text, with minor specifics. Proceed with caution if you want to be suprised by the tale of his life)
I didn't expect a book "by Ron Swanson" but the only amusing parts of this work are written in the spirit of the character. I laughed out loud several times only to realize it was Mr. Offerman "taking his character's voice" briefly. He then promplty rebukes the sentiment that was amusing in the first place. Offerman takes great pains to point out that he is not the source for Ron Swanson, and is even somewhat self referential about why anyone would find his real story compelling. He's right there, as I struggled through several chapters that only served the purpose of recounting his experiences with high school girls. These stories are neither unique nor meaningful, in fact they're mostly boring. Awkward teenage romance has been mined pretty well, Offerman strikes nothing new here.
Perhaps the greatest dissapointment was the sheer amount of time spent on opinions. I'm inclined to accept Mr. Offerman's opinion on things he likely knows a great deal about, like growing a mustache or using a hand plane.
I don't remember where I first heard about this book, but I recall someone telling me it sounded like the kind of thing I wound enjoy and - based on the title - I agreed. I'm interested in things like being independent and self-sufficient and pragmatic and all of those things seem to be summed up in that title. I should also add that I don't watch a lot of TV and so didn't have the slightest idea who Nick Offerman or Ron Swanson are.
What this book should have been called is "Pat Yourself On The Back" because that's mostly what it is - Nick Offerman talking about how lucky he is and how well he's doing and how even when he wasn't doing well he was doing well and how even the mischief he got into was better than yours. I actually listened to the book during my commute and after reading things Offerman seemed to find funny (he reads it himself) he even stops to chuckle at his own amusing anecdotes, which made me cringe every time.
I did get a couple laughs out of it - mostly at the way some things were phrased than out of any of the actual content of the stories in it. I guess I thought this would be more philosophical and less biographical - but in a nutshell, that's what it is. Nick Offerman's Biography. The thing is - I don't really give a crap about Nick Offerman and if it was titled "Nick Offerman's Biography" I wouldn't have purchase it and having purchased it and listened to it, I don't feel any differently about that.
The last - oh, let's say 1/3 of the book - is B.O.R.I.N.G. I don't care how Nick met his wife or what a good interior decorator she is. I don't care about Courtney Valenti or how sweet "Sandy" Bullock is in real life. I don't really care for a roll call of people Mr.
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