• Good Clean Fun

  • Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop
  • By: Nick Offerman
  • Narrated by: Nick Offerman
  • Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (1,605 ratings)

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Good Clean Fun  By  cover art

Good Clean Fun

By: Nick Offerman
Narrated by: Nick Offerman
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Publisher's summary

After two New York Times best sellers, Nick Offerman returns with the subject for which he’s known best - his incredible real-life woodshop - in a program that includes five original songs.

Nestled among the glitz and glitter of Tinseltown is a testament to American elbow grease and an honest-to-god hard day’s work: Offerman Woodshop. Captained by hirsute woodworker, actor, comedian, and writer Nick Offerman, the shop produces not only fine handcrafted furniture, but also fun stuff - kazoos, baseball bats, ukuleles, moustache combs, even cedar strip canoes.

Now Nick shares his experience of working at the woodshop with his ragtag crew of champions, tells you all about his passion for the discipline of woodworking, and teaches you how to make two of the woodshop’s most popular projects along the way: a Pop Top bottle opener and a three-legged stool. This audiobook will take you behind the scenes of the woodshop, both inspiring and teaching you to make your own projects while besotting you with the infectious spirit behind the shop and its complement of dusty wood-elves.

While working on their projects, listeners can also enjoy exclusive original songs by Nick and his pal Jeff Tweedy - “Music to Sand By”, “American White Oak”, “Raising the Grain”, “The Lazy Carpenter”, and the title track, “Good Clean Fun”.

Good Clean Fun also includes writings by Nick, humorous essays, odes to his own woodworking heroes, insights into the ethos of woodworking in modern America, and other assorted tomfoolery, all imbued with Nick Offerman’s brand of bucolic yet worldly wisdom.

*Includes a Bonus PDF with Drawings, Visuals, and Original Song Lyrics.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2016 Nick Offerman (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Good Clean Fun has helped me discover new ways to have fun in the shop.... If Offerman’s goal is to expose a wider audience to the world of woodworking, he’s hit the nail on the head. The guidance is sound and presented in a much more entertaining manner than you’ll encounter in other woodworking books. Good Clean Fun may be the first woodworking book that’s actually fun to read.” (Woodcraft Magazine)

“Offerman offers detailed projects, shop tips, and tricks, wider reflections on his career and craftsmanship.... Offerman really loves wood. By the time you’re finished, you will, too.” (Popular Mechanics)

“Part memoir...part technical guide (which provides instructions on how to build fine pieces down to the very inch), and part spiritual guide (there's zen-like life lessons to take away from crafting something with your hands).” (Esquire)

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What listeners say about Good Clean Fun

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A woodworking audiobook *yawn*

What did you love best about Good Clean Fun?

I had no idea what to expect from a woodworking audiobook. I mean, was it going to be instructional? how to join wood? how to build xyz?
Was it an autobiography? "This is how I got good at woodworking"?
Was it going to be a Q and A session?
In any of the above questions, all I could think about was *yawn*....
Although I wouldn't classify myself as a Nick Offerman fan from television or standup or any of his other appearances, I was intrigued. What could THE Nick Offerman teach me about woodworking? and more importantly, could he keep me awake through it?
Well, I was pleasantly surprised that Nick provided a book STEEPED in woodworking history, and taught me a bit on how he (and his whole crew) came to the love of woodworking.
He exalts all of the people around him and teaches us how he built his amazing woodshop. He adds enough humor, that will keep the listener entertained through the entire book.
Nick teaches his listeners, the how and why of the love of woodworking. How to learn, how to grow, and how to achieve the best out of your own work.

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

Nick has a unique voice... This completely lends to the book experience. I would choose his audiobook over the written one any day.

What did you learn from Good Clean Fun that you would use in your daily life?

Enjoy what you do. Do what you are passionate about. No matter what life throws at you.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Insightful, Cover to Cover

In my spare time I like to call myself a Woodworker. I have a small wood shop in my garage, and I do my best to make furniture and what not for the house, as time, and budget permits. When I saw a title on Woodworking, written by someone with as much enthusiasm for the craft as I, while being pleasantly surprised to find it written by a comedic talent whom I enjoy on television I had to give it a try. I wasn't disappointed!

Nick Offerman is a well recognized character actor, and notable Hollywood comedian. I'm only famous at my address. What makes Nick and I the same, and thus my attraction to his book, is our title as craftspeople, instilled with the desire to work with our hands, building and designing with wood with a complete understanding that regardless of our lot in life, to a degree we are one in the same.

Like most people who dabble in the wood craft, our devotion to a skill, that still utilizes 14th century tools, while accepting the fact that no matter how much time and effort one applies, to the craft, it cannot be perfected is humbling at best. It is the quest for knowledge, and like-minded people that continues to fuel our desire to make sawdust with the outside hope that a piece of furniture, or a bookcase, or a shelf, or a picture frame, finds its way into a home with the intent of providing a domestic (decorative) need, while ultimately satisfying the craftsman.

This book was a delight! I found it entertaining, insightful, reflective, and humorous, and it kept my attention from start to end. His droll delivery along with his woodworker quips kept me listening and had me on Audible, and Youtube immediately following, looking for additional titles by Nick Offerman. Regardless of whether you're a woodworker, you may find this title as fulfilling and insightful. You will be educated and entertained from the get go, and may even inspire you to go make some saw dust.

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14 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

not what I expected

although I love Nicks performance and his well written style that articulates his passion for woodworking very well it did not offer anything for me being a well-seasoned woodworker. The book was essentially 40 chapters of what tools are and the personalities of the people who work at his shop and his woodworking Heroes. if that's what you're looking for it's a five-star read.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Awesome

Nick Offerman is great and I love how he teaches about his craft in this book. I am a wood worker myself and I think this is great for either someone wanting to get started or an experienced woodworker.

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Mildly Disappointed

It was essentially a biography of Offerman's woodworking heroes and coworkers. His performance was excellent.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

woodworkers dream.

lots of good woodworking info and damn entertaining! I really learned a lot about his background and about tricks of the trade.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Woodworker by Birth - He speaks my religion

I heard an interview, probably on NPR, of Nick Offerman, about this book before it was released.

Now, I don't know what it's like to read this book on the page, but Nick reads his own book and his pacing, vocabulary, inflection and storytelling are like a room filled with a trestle table, a fine century-old chest of drawers, and framed in live-edge timbers filled with burr puzzles. When I'm driving around and I'd rather be making sawdust, listening to Nick describe a table saw or a jointer is music to the woodworking soul.

I'm no wood magician myself, but work it because I love it. I feel it was passed down to me from my grandfather to my father and now me - my father's eldest daughter and only grandchild (of a dozen) of my grandfather to continue woodworking on a regular basis.

Thank you, Nick, for reading your own book. It's a real treasure.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Meh

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Maybe I was expecting too much about woodworking but the story was kind of boring. It was very heartfelt about his employees but it didn't really do it for me.

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Inside baseball for the Offerman Workshop

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

This definitely is best heard in the author's original voice. It wouldn't sound correct any other way.

Any additional comments?

I'm an avid woodworker and really appreciate the visibility Nick has brought to the general public about our craft. I'm also excited to read a 'mainstream' book about woodworking. That said, the projects described I wasn't really into. And although I appreciate all the talented people in his workshop and am glad they got their due I didn't really have a connection with these people to really get into their stories. Incidentally due to Nick's slower speech (I listened to this as an audiobook) this is one of the few books I could actually listen to at 250% speed. Since I listen for entertainment though and am typically not trying to rush through, take for it what you will that I listened to it quickly. Again, I'm really glad this book was made, it just wasn't really my cup of tea.

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Drier than sawdust.

I ran out of patience during this book.

The occasional funny quip about wood working or relationships is great; but there's a lot of fluff in between about Offerman's employees and peers.

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