Paddle Your Own Canoe Audiobook By Nick Offerman cover art

Paddle Your Own Canoe

One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Paddle Your Own Canoe

By: Nick Offerman
Narrated by: Nick Offerman
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $15.75

Buy for $15.75

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

Parks and Recreation actor Nick Offerman shares his humorous fulminations on life, manliness, meat, and much more in his first book.

Growing a perfect moustache, grilling red meat, wooing a woman - who better to deliver this tutelage than the always charming, always manly Nick Offerman, best known as Parks and Recreation's Ron Swanson? Combining his trademark comic voice and very real expertise in woodworking - he runs his own woodshop - Paddle Your Own Canoe features tales from Offerman's childhood in small-town Minooka, Illinois - "I grew up literally in the middle of a cornfield" - to his theater days in Chicago, beginnings as a carpenter/actor and the hilarious and magnificent seduction of his now-wife Megan Mullally. It also offers hard-bitten battle strategies in the arenas of manliness, love, style, religion, woodworking, and outdoor recreation, among many other savory entrees.

A mix of amusing anecdotes, opinionated lessons and rants, sprinkled with offbeat gaiety, Paddle Your Own Canoe will not only tickle readers pink but may also rouse them to put down their smart phones, study a few sycamore leaves, and maybe even handcraft (and paddle) their own canoes.

©2013 Nick Offerman (P)2013 Penguin Entertainment & Celebrities Gender Studies Social Sciences Celebrity Witty Funny Inspiring Heartfelt Thought-Provoking

Critic reviews

“[Offerman] not only explores his Paul Bunyan-like image with tongue-in-cheek lessons on manliness, complete with illustrations and advice, but also offers poignant memories of his childhood growing up in Illinois and hilarious anecdotes from his career.” (Entertainment Weekly)

“Offerman touches on everything from his days as a break-dancing, football-playing farm boy in Minooka (about 50 miles southwest of the Loop) to his freewheeling, hedonistic 20s in Chicago to the inevitable Hollywood struggles that followed. But he doesn’t gloss over embarrassing moments, including his two trips to jail during college at the University of Illinois - one for shoplifting Ronnie Milsap cassettes from Kmart as a joke; the other, he says, a convoluted case of mistaken identity. Between anecdotes, he delivers impassioned pleas and rants…” (Chicago magazine)

“Thought-provoking, profane, and frequently hilarious…getting to know Offerman through his stumbling courtship with Megan Mullally and Kabuki theater training is well worth the price of admission.” (Publishers Weekly)

Featured Article: Tune into the Best Audiobooks and Podcasts by Sitcom Stars


When you love a TV show and follow it for seasons, it almost feels like the characters are old friends. That's why audiobooks and podcasts by fan-favorite sitcom stars can feel so uniquely engaging and intimate. Whether they're letting you in on behind-the-scenes stories, recalling memories from their own lives and careers, or simply telling interesting or funny anecdotes, it's a joy to hear beloved actors share their points of view in their own voices.

Featured Article Tune into the Best Audiobooks and Podcasts by Sitcom Stars
Engaging Storytelling • Authentic Voice • Soothing Baritone Voice • Heartwarming Relationships • Inspiring Journey
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  

Would you consider the audio edition of Paddle Your Own Canoe to be better than the print version?

Yes, I read through half of the printed edition until I found out the author read the audio version. Without hesitation I downloaded this book and let ten hours fly by as I listened to this gentle, bear-like man recite prose that made my chest hair grow

What does Nick Offerman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Is this a question? Have you heard him talk? His man giggle? Phenomenal stuff, really.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed much, but more importantly I could feel my twenty-something-year-old inner yuppie child quiver before a new mountain man like giant of self reliance and well roundedness

Any additional comments?

You'll love it more than Ron Swanson. I read this book going in with the idea that it'd be more of a book on life from the humorous outlook of Ron Swanson ( A character played by Offerman on Parks and Rec.) Instead, I was delightfully surprised to hear Nick's recounts of growing up with larger than life parental figures, his often humor infused humility, and his down to earth life lessons. I Will listen to it again.

Like bacon for your ears

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Nick's story gives regular chump's like me hope. Although we equally have sassy love buddies, I'll still paddle my own canoe.

#RainbowSong

Slow read, but worth it. Great story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a great book and even better when read by the Author. Would recommend.

Great Book. Love the Authors work.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you listen to Paddle Your Own Canoe again? Why?

I would definitely listen to Paddle Your Own Canoe again. I originally thought of buying this book in hardback, yet made the choice to hear it read aloud by Nick himself on an audiobook. Instantly I realized I made an amazing choice. Listening to Nick narrate his life in his own words was as entertaining and majestic as passing a bottle of whiskey around the campfire with friends, then in a drunken stupor, shooting off bottle rockets and running around naked. The experience would be nothing of the sort if I was reading it by myself, and hearing him actually sing the Rainbow Song, the one he wrote his wife Megan Mullally's birthday, made it all the better. As a fan of Parks and Rec and an avid follower of Offerman Woodworking, this book brought greater depth to a person who is often confined to the character Ron Swanson he plays on TV. And while his tone and affect still enlivened images in my head of the mustachio'd, deadpan Libertarian, I walked away with a greater respect and admiration of a hard-working American actor and icon. He's articulate, funny, thoughtful and entertaining.

What other book might you compare Paddle Your Own Canoe to and why?

The Heming Way by Beckerman, A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. Anything satirical yet honest when it needs to be.

Which character – as performed by Nick Offerman – was your favorite?

Himself. I feel like Offerman has as great sense of self-awareness as he does humor, and often it's masked by the character of Ron Swanson. To hear his vulnerable side, his hardships, successes, blatant sex drive and of course how much he loves his wife is inspirational.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Laugh, for sure. His little ad libs as he reads along really personifies the book.

A Truly Great American Read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This audio book was amazing. I loved every second of it. If you are a fan of Offerman's you can't go wrong with this book.

Worth every penny.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Mr. Offerman narrating this this audiobook made this one of my favorite listens. It once again capitalizes on his dedication to his art of sharing oddly heinous pearls of wisdom, wrapped with the dry humor only he can achieve. If you don't find yourself tempted to read this, check between your legs gentlemen.

Nick Effing Offerman... Nuff said

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great performance and story, I just felt it droned on a couple of times (especially about how much he hates religion), but ultimately entertaining and an enjoyable listen.

Great performance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
If you haven't read anything by Mr Offerman you are really missing out. thank you

Nick Offerman is a smarty pants

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What can I say...this is Nick frickin' Offerman! I would read anything written by this man and the extra treat of hearing him read it. Great book for Offerman and non-Offerman fans. He can craft a well-written phrase as well as some of the greatest humorists of all time. Read it!

Thank you Mr. offerman

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Wonderful - just fantastic.
It's really great to hear a text like this read by the author with the phrasing, and timing they imagined when they wrote the book.

Epic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews