At My Worst

A career-spanning collection, bringing together the most celebrated stories of outdoor misadventures by the beloved five-time New York Times bestselling humorist Patrick F. McManus

Here are all the most hysterical and heartwarming accounts of Patrick F. McManus’s incompetence at camping, hunting, fishing, hiking, boating, biking—even the simple task of walking his dog—and his love for these activities all the same.

From his days as a kid, digging traps with his buddy Retch Sweeney, to his years of dragging his own kids on weekend trips through “Mosquito Bay,” McManus’s life in the rural Northwest exemplifies the true outdoorsman’s passion for self-inflicted suffering: sore feet, singed facial hair, stomachaches from camp cooking, and humiliation from a day of fishing with nothing to show for it. (True sportsmanship is releasing the fish before it’s caught.) McManus celebrates the moments that make life worth living. And they’re all the sweeter for being enjoyed with family and friends, even if his family and friends might wish they weren’t anywhere near him as soon as he picks up a handsaw, assumes the wheel of a car, or gets that twinkle in his eye that means he’s been struck with a bright idea.

These thirty classic stories contain a lifetime of lessons learned the hard way. They are to be shared and cherished around the campfire or in the comfort (and safety) of one’s own home. At My Worst brings together the best of McManus’s hundreds of stories over decades of writing for books and magazines, with an introduction by New Yorker staff writer Ben McGrath. It is the perfect put-in point for readers new to McManus. And for longtime fans, this is the essential collection to have.