More and more Kiwis are keen to take up cycling, but don't know how to start. Popular media personality Jon Bridges wants to take biking to the masses – and have a good dose of fun along the way. Easy Rider outlines the many joys of riding a bike in New Zealand, and provides a complete beginners' guide – from riding for fun, to commuting, riding for fitness, mountain biking and even racing. We learn about the reasons for, the reasons against (there aren't any), the basics of buyin...

If necessity is the mother of invention then Kiwi ingenuity is its father. No. 8 Re-wired is a comprehensive, colourful treasury of New Zealand inventions – jam-packed with the stories behind 202 home-grown creations and the crafty people who dreamt them up. From well-known innovations (human flight, the discovery of DNA, the pavlova) to lesser-known feats (instant coffee, the referee's whistle, the electronic petrol pump) to the newest in high-tech world-firsts (...

For at least two decades now modern man has been on the brink of a crisis.Persuaded by both the post-feminist political landscape and his representation in the popular media to remodel himself as an endearingly hopeless halfwit, he now exists only as an object of pity.James and his happy band of brothers (plus a few women, but we try to edit them out) are engaged on a quest to lead maledom to a broad sunlit upland strewn with slim books of English verse and...

In the spirit of Schott's Miscellany, The Magic of Reality, and The Dangerous Book for Boys comes Can a Bee Sting a Bee?—a smart, illuminating, essential, and utterly delightful handbook for perplexed parents and their curious children. Author Gemma Elwin Harris has lovingly compiled weighty questions from precocious grade school children—queries that have long dumbfounded even intelligent adults—and she's gathered together a notable crew of scientists, ...

An effective memory is crucial to anyone who wants to advance their career.Written by Jonathan Hancock and Cheryl Buggy, leading international memory experts, this book quickly teaches you the insider secrets you need to know to in order to recall whatever you need to in the workplace.The highly motivational 'in a week' structure of the book provides seven straightforward chapters explaining the key points, and at the end there are optional questions to ensure you have take...

For each of the 101 topics, a question from that topic is provided along with a model answer to that question. The questions are typical of those asked in part 2 of the IELTS speaking module and the model answers are suitable responses, though candidates are advised to modify the model answers and add to them as appropriate.

By the bestselling author of Just My Type: a "thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating" journey into the concept of time "stuffed with fascinating material" ( Observer, UK).Timekeepers is a book about our obsession with time and our desire to measure it, control it, sell it, film it, perform it, immortalize it and make it meaningful. In this fascinating, anecdotal exploration, award-winning author Simon Garfield has two simp...

'I love these books ... the best books ever. Brilliant' Chris EvansThis is an astonishing trove of the strangest, funniest, and most improbable tidbits of knowledge from the clever lot at the hugely popular BBC quiz show QI.The sock-blasting, jaw-dropping, side-swiping phenomenon that is QI serves up a sparkling new selection of 1,342 facts to leave you flabbergasted.Did you know that:Trees sleep a...

Who has time nowadays to put in the graft to succeed? And why bother, when the truly important things in life only take a quarter of an hour to master?Here, Tom Cutler proves that following the path to becoming disgustingly rich, stylish, intelligent, thin, happy, classy, successful and a legend in the bedroom need take no longer than it does to cut your toenails, or listen to The Archers.Learn how to become as popular as your dog.Which sports car suits your persona...

Holden is one of the few brands that has an emotional grip on Australia (Qantas being another). The closure of the Holden factory in Adelaide is not just the end of a business - it's the end of an era, of a story, and of a great Australian dream.When Holden signalled that it would close its Adelaide factory, it struck at the very heart of Australian identity. Holden is our car made on our shores. It's the choice of patriotic rev heads and suburban drivers alike. Ho...

**NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2017 by BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK, THE FINANCIAL TIMES, AND AMAZONLook out for Tim's next book, The Data Detective*.*A lively history seen through the fifty inventions that shaped it most profoundly, by the bestselling author of The Undercover Economist and Messy.**Who thought up paper money? What was the secret element that made the Gutenberg printing press possible? And what is the connection between ...

Gold, gold, gold for Australia's mega-selling scientist's 27th book...'Nullius in verba', the Royal Society's motto, roughly translated, means
 'take nobody's word for it'. Why not do the experiment for yourself and see the reality of nature. Don't trust authority - trust nature.Does cranberry juice cure urinary tract infections? Is the hookah really a safer way to smoke? Will the Large Hadron Collider destroy the Earth and the Universe? Is the purpose of the peacock's tail to attra...