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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
I have mixed feelings about this book. First off, I LOVED Nick Offerman's voice. I had no idea he was this good with words.
That said, I loved his stories on growing up in a cornfield, on woodworking, and even partly on his education and theatre. However, a lot of the theatre stories felt like they were kind of, same old same old, or that you had to be there to truly appreciate them and I occasionally got bored reading much of the same over and over again.
But because I am me, all the chapters about Megan and how they met and how much he loves here get like 8 out of 5 stars because they were EVERYTHING to me. EVERYTHING. What a good.
I would have loved to read a bit more than 3 pages about Parks and Rec, but such is life.
I think that all evens out to about 4 stars? I really did like this overall, but it was too long.
That said, I loved his stories on growing up in a cornfield, on woodworking, and even partly on his education and theatre. However, a lot of the theatre stories felt like they were kind of, same old same old, or that you had to be there to truly appreciate them and I occasionally got bored reading much of the same over and over again.
But because I am me, all the chapters about Megan and how they met and how much he loves here get like 8 out of 5 stars because they were EVERYTHING to me. EVERYTHING. What a good.
I would have loved to read a bit more than 3 pages about Parks and Rec, but such is life.
I think that all evens out to about 4 stars? I really did like this overall, but it was too long.
Listened to this as an audio book which definitely added to the experience because Nick himself read it. A great balance of an account of his life along with genuine and thoughtful advice
I did enjoy this book, but I feel like it's one I should have listened to.
Amusing but, as other reviewers warned, quite preachy. His life stories are good listening and since I'm not familiar with much of his work that isn't written by show writers, I was pleasantly surprised by his voice. As I agree with many of his opinions at face value, I wasn't offended by the preaching, but I also wasn't interested and tuned out much of it. You live your life how you want, I'll do the same. I feel like that's an opinion he'd respect, based on listening to an entire book of his, so it's ironic that he spends so much time repeating his handful of mandates.
An enjoyable-enough read if it's available on Libby, but don't come to this book looking for actual advice. In a nutshell, he tells you to go outside, create things, get away from screens, keep church separate from state, and be a nice person. It's the anecdotes that make it funny.
An enjoyable-enough read if it's available on Libby, but don't come to this book looking for actual advice. In a nutshell, he tells you to go outside, create things, get away from screens, keep church separate from state, and be a nice person. It's the anecdotes that make it funny.
Nick Offerman, not Ron Swanson, tells the tale of his success as an actor with life lessons sprinkled throughout. As he discusses his formative years you begin to understand just how he became the decent human being that he is today. Right off the bat, I knew that I would like this book as I am a fan of Nicks work and have read other books authored by him. I appreciate how candid and straight-forward he is about life and humanity. I tend to agree with much of what he says so it is also no surprise that I liked the book. Be prepared to hear political, religious, and personal views by Nick that you may not agree with, and that is ok. If you are a fan, you won't be disappointed.
I listened to the eBook, and it was a delight to hear Nick's liquid gold voice.
There are a bunch of reviews here from Christians mad about chapter two, but I feel the need to point out that Nick doesn't disparage church (his philosophy is 'each to their own, if you're trying to be a good person, that's cool), he disparages those who push religion into government and school, because that's unconstitutional. He has many good things to say about his church-going childhood.
So if you like Nick, Ron, Parks and Recreation, and life advice from the best moustache in the business, read this book.
There are a bunch of reviews here from Christians mad about chapter two, but I feel the need to point out that Nick doesn't disparage church (his philosophy is 'each to their own, if you're trying to be a good person, that's cool), he disparages those who push religion into government and school, because that's unconstitutional. He has many good things to say about his church-going childhood.
So if you like Nick, Ron, Parks and Recreation, and life advice from the best moustache in the business, read this book.
Why I Read It: RON SWANSON!!!! I adore Parks and Rec and Ron is one of the most hilarious and lovable TV characters in my opinion. I'm a sucker for these celebrity/comedian works so this seemed like an obvious choice.
Premise: Nick shares his personal history and his personal ideology in a sort of "guide".
What I Liked: There were moments of laugh-out-loud laughter for me and I found some of the parallels between Nick and Ron surprising and funny. Some of his personal philosophies were actually interesting, apt, and well-delivered (especially about hobbies, passion, etc.).
What I Didn’t Like: OOO boy. These all kind of overlap but I've tried to organize this a bit.
- The writing style can only be described as SO OVERWRITTEN. It feels intentional too, like the voice Nick is going for is a pretentious, offensive, redneck caricature. At times that voice contributed to the humor (and the eerie parallel to Ron), but after a while the constant vulgarity, unnecessary verbiage, and super long sentences became painful. I felt like he was putting on a weird show that lasted way too long (maybe one chapter in that style would've been funny and less overwhelming?) and made it seem like he thinks he's more manly AND more intelligent than the rest of America.
- A lot of he book dragged for me. His stories about theatre (particularly in Chicago) were incredibly boring. I ended up skimming entire chapters because they just were not funny or interesting.
- Related to the super slow pace of the book, generally I find it fascinating reading people's faith systems (for a good example check out Rainn Wilson (who played Dwight Schrute)'s discussion of his Baha'i faith in The Bassoon King). However, when Nick goes into his history with Christianity and his current hatred of it my thoughts were "OK, Nick is anti-Christian, cool" then it cropped up again... and again! This became a common problem with the book. If you cut out the re-hashing or repetition you'd cut out half of it.
- Related to Nick's "manifesto" that is peppered throughout the book, it was weird, because I actually agree with most of his perspectives (separation of church and state, the value of hard work, etc.) but the way he presented some of them turned me off. Again, this is likely due to the vulgarity and this extreme arrogance depicted throughout the book.
- Finally, there is a fine line between disagreeing with something and attacking it. Nick sees the line, leaps 4 miles over it, then tries to claim he's still back on the other side. "I have no problem with Christianity/religion, I just don't agree with it BUT now let me bash it intermittently throughout my whole book". OK, Nick, if you'd explored why you don't agree that would be cool. But instead you decided to denounce all Christian as morons and pick apart their beliefs (based on very poorly researched arguments), so you don't get to pretend to be open-minded while being a passionately offensive asshole.
Verdict: 1/5 stars - not all celebrities should write a book.
Premise: Nick shares his personal history and his personal ideology in a sort of "guide".
What I Liked: There were moments of laugh-out-loud laughter for me and I found some of the parallels between Nick and Ron surprising and funny. Some of his personal philosophies were actually interesting, apt, and well-delivered (especially about hobbies, passion, etc.).
What I Didn’t Like: OOO boy. These all kind of overlap but I've tried to organize this a bit.
- The writing style can only be described as SO OVERWRITTEN. It feels intentional too, like the voice Nick is going for is a pretentious, offensive, redneck caricature. At times that voice contributed to the humor (and the eerie parallel to Ron), but after a while the constant vulgarity, unnecessary verbiage, and super long sentences became painful. I felt like he was putting on a weird show that lasted way too long (maybe one chapter in that style would've been funny and less overwhelming?) and made it seem like he thinks he's more manly AND more intelligent than the rest of America.
- A lot of he book dragged for me. His stories about theatre (particularly in Chicago) were incredibly boring. I ended up skimming entire chapters because they just were not funny or interesting.
- Related to the super slow pace of the book, generally I find it fascinating reading people's faith systems (for a good example check out Rainn Wilson (who played Dwight Schrute)'s discussion of his Baha'i faith in The Bassoon King). However, when Nick goes into his history with Christianity and his current hatred of it my thoughts were "OK, Nick is anti-Christian, cool" then it cropped up again... and again! This became a common problem with the book. If you cut out the re-hashing or repetition you'd cut out half of it.
- Related to Nick's "manifesto" that is peppered throughout the book, it was weird, because I actually agree with most of his perspectives (separation of church and state, the value of hard work, etc.) but the way he presented some of them turned me off. Again, this is likely due to the vulgarity and this extreme arrogance depicted throughout the book.
- Finally, there is a fine line between disagreeing with something and attacking it. Nick sees the line, leaps 4 miles over it, then tries to claim he's still back on the other side. "I have no problem with Christianity/religion, I just don't agree with it BUT now let me bash it intermittently throughout my whole book". OK, Nick, if you'd explored why you don't agree that would be cool. But instead you decided to denounce all Christian as morons and pick apart their beliefs (based on very poorly researched arguments), so you don't get to pretend to be open-minded while being a passionately offensive asshole.
Verdict: 1/5 stars - not all celebrities should write a book.
I learned no advice. I basically learned Nick Offerman's ranking of drugs and that luck prevails in tough situations. Barf.
I found this book to be both insightful and entertaining - full of down-to-earth wisdom that could come only out of the midwest. Mr. Offerman's tenure at Illinois was just after mine so unfortunately I missed his early work. (I did, however, have a crush on a classmate from Minooka and she would have undoubtedly known him.) His advice for those pursuing acting careers is solid, and his outlook toward living - finding the right balance between hard work and the enjoyment of its fruits - is refreshing. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go make a paddle.