Pay in installments of $6.25 with
,
and
Shipping Estimate
USA
- USA
- CAN
- USA
- CAN
Ships within 48 hours · Estimated delivery Aug 9 - Aug 14
Promo Codes Available:
For Your Every Summer RSVP, with Code: SUMMER15
Description
Is That Thing Diesel ? {Paperback} by Paul CarterAt forty years old, a successful writer, husband and father, no longer toiling on offshore drilling rigs, was Paul Carter happily nestled in the cotton wool of suburban life enjoying the fruits of his labour? Was he f**k! With his manic life left far behind and the perfect opportunity to take it easy stretched before him what else would a middle aged, bike obsessed, man want? Yes, that's right, he'd want to be the first guy to ride around Australia on
At forty years old, a successful writer, husband and father, no longer toiling on offshore drilling rigs, was Paul Carter happily nestled in the cotton wool of suburban life enjoying the fruits of his labour? Was he f**k!
With his manic life left far behind and the perfect opportunity to take it easy stretched before him what else would a middle-aged, bike obsessed, man want?
Yes, that's right, he'd want to be the first guy to ride around Australia on an underpowered experimental motorcycle that runs on used cooking oil, wouldn't he? Preferably without getting hit by a semi-trailer full of bridge parts. Is he out of his mind? Quite possibly.
Embark on a rollickingly, downright dangerous and often unhinged quest that starts on an environmentally friendly motorcycle built on a shoestring budget by students, and ends with a plan to break the motorcycle land speed record for bio fuel.
Carter is back to his old balls-to-the-wall style of writing, prepare to laugh out loud.
Shipping Notes
- Free Standard Shipping on $100+ Orders to the USA.
- Except Preorder products are shipped in 48 hours.
- Delivery to the USA:
- Standard Shipping : 3-10 business days
- If time is of the essence, please consider selecting expedited delivery for faster service.
Exchange/Return Notes
- We offer a 30-day return/exchange service after receiving.
- Final sale items are not eligible for returns or exchanges.
- To process your return/exchange, please contact us at [email protected]
- Please click here for more details>>> Return & Exchange Policy
4.8 ★★★★★
Based on 16 reviews
Sort
Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
Aunt Jane, Georgian Spinster Queen of English Prose
Format: Mass Market Paperback
I'm reading Emma again for the third time. It happened like this: I thought I'd try an audio book on CD for the first time, something to listen to in the car besides music. Scanning the shelves at the local bookstore, I saw loads of contemporary best sellers, self and financial help, new age and evangelical Christian spirituality, and Jane Austen's Emma in MP3 format, all on one disc. Austen! Water in the desert! I scooped her up.
For the last week I've been listening to her in my car. At the beginning it was without much concentration. Over the next few days my attention gradually increased. Now I'm hooked. Down the throat. Through the gut. Again. It happens to me every time I return to Jane. I just can't get enough. The last two nights I've gone to bed reading ahead of where I've listened. Even though the story is coming back to me, I'm still taken by it, hook line & sinker. Jane's reeling me in, and the line is utterly slack.
Now, I am a guy. I break out in hives if I happen to accidentally brush a romance novel. As far as I am concerned, bodice rippers where the tall olive skinned duke inevitably has his forceful yet gentle way with the heroine are good only as ammunition with which to tease the women in my life who enjoy such tripe. Having said this, I realize a lot of people also refer to Jane Austen as "Chick Lit," equating her with the likes of Nicolas Sparks. For the record, those people are on crack.
Austen is much more a comedic writer than a writer of what we call romances. She is simply a hoot. Subtle disjunctures and ironies build to exquisite crescendos. She has me laughing every other page. Her characters, even her unpleasant and ridiculous ones, tend to breed sympathy. Like most of my favorite books, she creates worlds, or a world, really (all of her books are set in the same historic and geographic milieu,) which comforts and gladdens. The feeling I get from her is much like the feeling I get when I read Tolkien describe the Shire or Last Homely House, or something like the children's book Frog & Toad to my niece.
It's an eating poached egg on toast snuggled up inside under a quilt on the couch with a cup of tea on a rainy day kind of feeling. (Don't you just love English prepositions and phrasal verbs? Try doing that in French! Austen and phrasal verbs: two of the many reasons English speakers ought to rejoice in their language, I say!)
Anyway, during all of her stories, including Emma, Europe was being blown apart by the Napoleonic Wars, and the only oblique references in any of her stories to that maelstrom is that Great Britain has a mobilized Army (Pride & Prejudice) and an active Navy (Persuasion.) The reason the military is important has nothing to do with Austerlitz, Waterloo, Trafalgar or any of that nonsense. Rather, it is that both services have officers which make very suitable suitors for women of her heroines' social positions (Lt. Wickham & Capt. Wentworth, for example.)
Some brand this awful: elitist, sexist, parochial. I, for one, find it beautiful. Small, intimate, ordered, secure, anchored. Very human and sane, that is.
What matters most is not what some silly diminutive one armed Corsican with maniacal delusions of world conquest is doing; no. What really matters is whether and how Mr. Woodhouse takes his gruel, or if Mr. Elton will propose to Harriet. Or if Mr. Knightly and Mrs. Weston have come to visit yet, today. Will Mr. Frank Churchill come, and what is he like? Has Emma truly foiled Mr. Martin's advances on her friend, he being an entirely unsuitable yeoman farmer? Harriet must marry a gentleman, you see.
Just so. Indeed, these are truly the things that mattered- and still matter- most. Don't let the history books and the reverse snobbery of some critics fool you.
Instead go read this book, and every other that Jane wrote, and prepare to be enchanted.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2006
★★★★★ 4
Jane Austen: A Classic
Jane Austen's novel Emma has been well known since it's publishment. In the 90's, a successful chick-flick movie, Clueless was based on this novel. Even though the movie does not in any way depict the intelligence of Jane Austen, it serves the main characters' personalities. The book by far was absolutely and brilliantly written while easy to understand in fairly relatable modern English. This book is a great read for literature analysts because it serves a wide variety of character traits within their society. It can also be used to analyze the socio-economic stereotypes and lifestyles of their time. The plot and storyline were at a consistent pace with a surprising climax and turn towards the end. Because it is a love story, it does follow the usual typical love story scenes. However, love is depicted differently by each couple and character, which sets it apart from other cinderella-like stories, which were popular during that time period. It is a very relaxing book -- not an intense read. It is also a classic even though not as widespread or as known as other Austen's novels such as Pride and Prejudice. It is definitely a recommanded read.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2010
★★★★★ 5
Very good read. Depend upon it!
Format: Kindle
After reading Pride and Prejudice, I figured that I ought to read Austin's "Emma", too.
It was a very good read and quite long. However one thing that kept sticking out to me was Emma's use of "Depend upon it!!". Unfortunately I must confess that as an anime fan, all I kept hearing in my head was Uzumaki Naruto's "Believe it!"—The English translation of his Japanese quirk, "~datte ba yo!"—and I would have a good chuckle. Now I picture Emma wearing a ninja headband and and I'm noxiously orange jumpsuit. Sorry. Now you can't unhear it either.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2026
★★★★★ 3
Good, but had to labor through this...
Emma was such a character who in my opinion, was a little bit too conceited - she had thought to know of the feelings of other people that made her feel very confident of her match-making skills; and yet, when these matches failed to be, she thought the failures were all her doing too! Just the same, as in any chick-lit novels, everything was well and as it should be towards the end.
It took me almost three weeks to finish this book, and I questioned myself why. It just didn't have that pull on me that I sometimes found myself browsing the net rather than reading the book. It's always a struggle for me to read 18th century writings; I always have to go back and reread for a more thorough understanding of what's being said. This is my second book by Jane Austen, and I'm probably getting tired of all the ceremonious ways of her period. Still, I could not fault the writing, being from a long ago era and true to it; it also elicited `hate and like' feelings towards the characters which is a sure indication of good literature...But still, I labored through it...so three stars to be fair to Ms. Austen and to myself.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2011
★★★★★ 5
A timeless, elegant delight
Emma is one of those rare classics that still feels alive in your hands. Jane Austen’s wit shines through every page, giving us a heroine who is flawed, charming, and endlessly human. The world she builds is warm and vivid, full of gentle humor, sharp insight, and the kind of slow‑blooming romance that lingers long after you finish. It’s a beautiful reminder of why Austen remains brilliant centuries later.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2026