Where The Deer And The Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations Of One Ignorant American Who Loves To Walk Outside By Nick Offerman
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Web ID: 13393507Ummm, I thought this was going to be about nature!
Don't get me wrong, I don't care about what your politics are but don't trick me into thinking I'm buying a nature book! I felt like the title was misleading and fell into a liberal political pitfall. I really thought I was going to get a humorous nature book from what I've watched and heard about Nick Offerman but I was mistaken. I just wanted a good book as far from Hollywood as possible and this wasn't it. What a waste of money!
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
All Over the Place
I am a big Nick Offerman and in reading this book, the content simply reaffirmed that support. At the same time though, the book felt jumbled and all over the place at certain times. I appreciate the humor and sentiment in the current crises facing our country but also feel as if the digressions were a bit much at times. On a brighter note, I have never wanted to explore the outdoors more!
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Engaging. Convicting. Persuasive. Inspiring.
This book combines several of my favorite topics: nature, hiking, Wendell Berry, RVs, corporate greed, sustainable farming, Christianity, and taking care of our fellow humans and planet. Offerman writes with wit, humor, and a bit of the prophetic that calls us to re-examine our values and make amends for our sins. I wasn't a fan of Offerman's Paddle Your Own Canoe (a two-star disappointment), but Where the Deer and the Antelope Play intrigued, engaged, and inspired me. I finished 67 books in 2021, and this one was in the top 5. [[Warning: If you love American capitalism and/or Donald Trump, you will likely hate this book.]] I am a Christian who has voted for conservatives most of my life. I was an Evangelical pastor for 20 years who, in my personal time, volunteered for Republicans campaigns on a national and local level. Yet, this book was convicting and persuasive to me.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Annoying Neighbor
This book is incredably unlikable. Nick comes across like an annoying neighbor of mine that always turns every conversation into one about politics. No matter the topic of the initial conversation, he will always loop back to politics and how if things don't go the way he wants, then it must suck. I try to avoid him as much as possible. How does one go from describing a hike in a beautiful national park to wondering how many of his fellow hikers voted for Trump? Little bit of a disconnect there. My expectations for this book were way off. I was expecting a Bill Bryson type of book about the outdoors. One combining insights about the outdoors and humor. This book has neither. Very disappointed.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Tiresome Rants That Miss
I must begin by saying that politically I agree with much of what Offerman writes. And I also will say that I used to find him funny or, at worst, somewhat unique and interesting. Slowly though, the further removed he is from Parks and Rec, the less funny and less interesting he has become. This book seems to be the culmination of all that I have grown to dislike about Offerman. He comes across as an arrogant and, frankly, pompous jerk. He uses the outdoors and nature as little more than a means to spew his own political ideology, completely reducing the majesty and wonder of the natural world to something that serves only one worldview and one ideology (his). And indeed, this book is nothing about exploring the outdoors but instead is about one man’s perceived rants about what upsets him about America. Anything within the book—the outdoors, manual labour, exploring, simply serve as vessels for furthering Offerman’s rants. This reduction cheapens the entire book. Other authors do an infinitely superior job of capturing the arguments Offerman so clumsily attempts to make. Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitude and Rachel Carson’s works all capture the depths of the natural world and the impacts of politics. Robert Pirsig’s The Art and Zen of Motorcycle Maintenance explores the values of manual labour in ways that Offerman completely misses. Finally, the tone and the “preaching” are exhausting within this book. I agree politically with Offerman but I don’t agree with how and why he says what he says. Taking cheap shots at Trump supporters is not witty or funny anymore—it’s been overdone. This somewhat juvenile writing (without the charm of being young) just further adds to the pitiful nature of this book. I simply cannot recommend this book to anyone. It feels that Offerman’s 15 minutes of fame from his Park and Rec days have faded and what we are left with is a deeply unpleasant character. For his sake (and ours also) it would be nice if he actually spent more time in nature and more time actually working in his wood shop and less time preaching and ranting. Perhaps it would make him less close-minded and less of a pompous jerk. But until then, I am going to avoid whatever drivel he spews and appreciate the things he seems incapable of understanding.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Is there an option for less than 1 star?
This has nothing to do with the outdoors. I bought this book due to my passion for hiking. If you would like an artist’s political views and scattered rants shoved down your throat…buy this book. I stuck pages into a lit candle just to end the pain and suffering. The summary is completely inaccurate. If I could summarize the book I’d state “Unreliable narrator has a meltdown and talks about hiking for 5 paragraphs over the course of 300 pages while crying into his organic trail mix with his man friends on a road trip that is never mentioned.”
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
If I could give this 0 stars I would
I read the description and thought it would be a good outdoors book. I enjoy books that talk about outdoor hiking and adventure, this is not that type of book. I Quickly found out this is a political crybaby memoir. Don’t buy, trust me.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Awful Book. Don't Waste Your Money
I read the description of the book and it sounded like it might be similar to "A Walk in the Woods", type of read. So I ordered it. I was wrong, bought into the description and won't fall for that again.. This description by Barnes and Noble was incredibly misleading. Instead, this is nothing but a liberal rant...I could go on and on, but will stop here. Don't waste your money.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com