Reviews - Paddle Your Own Canoe

805 reviews for:

4 stars.

My feelings on this book are definitely coloured by the fact that I love Nick Offerman, and I listened the audiobook which he narrated.

This is half autobiography and half musing on life. It contains some questionable stories and lots of good ones. It's funny, but not in a belly laugh way (usually) and more about being tongue-in-cheek amused.

I thought the pacing was great, and I really enjoyed the writing. I'm sure it would be a different experience to read it in a physical form, because Offerman writes the way he speaks - something that works well for an audiobook.

Fun, amusing, nothing life-changing though it was touted to me as an excellent example of non-toxic masculinity. I suppose that's true, but I didn't find it anything special in that way.

alexreviewsit's review against another edition

3/5 stars. DNF at 57%. It wasn’t terrible, but I just couldn’t make myself keep listening. I think it was just not quite as funny as I was hoping, and it just felt like I was too young for the target audience.

I went into this biased because I loved Nick Offerman on Parks & Rec. I’ve been to one of his live comedy shows, so I already knew I found him funny outside of TV. I also listened to this on audiobook and loved that he narrated his own book.

It was definitely a lot more memoir and hearing his philosophy on life than a book focused on humor. He’s lived an interesting life, and it was nice to hear so many of his stories. I also liked that many of the stories were from before he was famous which makes him so much more relatable. It is absolutely WILD how he described exactly how I feel about religion. I loved those sections of the book.

There were definitely a lot of parts that had vibes of “back in my day” which put me off. It definitely felt like it would be aimed at a target audience of liberal people aged 50+.

akovel's review against another edition

2.0

Very “old man yells at cloud” but sometimes I agree? Funny man was not very funny

vince30's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

A fun read. Nick's led an interesting life and has a great attitude. His humor comes across in the book. He had a great upbringing and family (as you'll read in the book) and it shows in the man he became.

blademitchell's review against another edition

5.0

Very enjoyable and lots of fun. As a forewarning, I’m already a Nick Offerman fan AND I listened to him read it himself. If the above aren’t true for the reader, it may not be as enjoyable.