I'd Rather Not EPUB

From one of Australias most wryly funny writers comes an original and utterly hilarious memoir of reaching for the stars while lying in a ditch

I was sleeping in what might reasonably be described as a ditch, though I tried not to think of it in those terms for morale reasons . . .

Robert Skinner arrives in the city, searching for a richer life. Things begin badly and then, surprisingly, get slightly worse. Pretty soon hes sleeping rough and trying to run a literary magazine out of a dog park. His quest for meaning keeps being thwarted, by endless jobs, beagles, house parties, ill-advised love affairs, camel trips and bureaucratic entanglements.

Sometimes a book catches the spirit of the times. Id Rather Not is about work, escape and that something more we all need.

I was told this man came from the Adelaide Plains and so commenced to read his work. By the time I realised Id been viciously misled and he actually grew up in Magill, it was too late. I was already completely in love with the book. Its an absolute bag of lollies. --Annabel Crabb

Robert Skinner writes with humour, intelligence and heart. Pick up this book and you may never put it down. --Tony Birch

This book is like a big, properly made gin and tonic drunk outside in a garden on a perfect Saturday afternoon. --Cate Kennedy

[Skinners writing is] underpinned with what it is to be alive on this planet at this moment. --Michael Winkler

No one writes better when the stakes are lower. --Sam Vincent

My heart leaps whenever I see Robert Skinners by-line; I know I am in for a hilarious literary treat complete with wry pearlers, gallows truths and wicked timing. People will say he is Australias Sedaris, but hes not. Hes Robert Skinner and hes a bloody marvel. --Anna Krien

A funny and affecting celebration of the glorious choices we so often have about where to go and how to get there. --Jim Shepard

Brevity may be the soul of wit, but the nimble economy of this slim volume will make readers pine for more. A decidedly skewed, hilarious collection of life reflections and colorful storytelling. --Kirkus

Seriously the funniest book Ive read all year. I cant stop thinking about Robert Skinners forays into the most mundane and frustrating aspects of life - Centrelink, being a tour guide, applying for arts funding - and the shameless truths he not only reveals about himself but about us as a society. Read this book with a bottle of wine, and be alarmed and enlightened! --Alice Pung

If only all books were as funny, human and true as Id Rather Not. I raced through it, marvelling and envious all the way. --Michelle de Kretser