She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse - Don't Tell Mom I Work on the Rigs

This was a funny book that showed the crazy things that happen on oil rigs around the world. I like the fact that the author is honest about his feelings concerning the oil industry and shows how people work in dangerous conditions to get the product to the market. The writing style is easy to read and very entertaining, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it for someone who just wants a light book to pass the time.

Carter's tales of his adventures on various oil rigs around the world make for entertaining and undemanding reading. The book is ideal for an aeroplane trip. The oil industry is a mix of high anxiety and stultifying boredom, and the people who inhabit its odd world are fairly weird as well. Carter seems to have met most of them at one time or another, as they let off steam in numerous unsalubrious watering holes in seedy parts of the planet.

Carter offers some unflattering but humorous depictions of the locals living near oil drilling operations (oil always seems to be found in the most remote and hostile locations, with inhabitants of a similar nature) and brings to life the multinational professional roughnecks who share his world.

His impressions of places are naturally affected by the strange nature of the oil business, which doesn't afford its workers anything resembling a normal lifestyle, and he emphasises colour over factual accuracy at times.

It is an entertaining and knockabout read.

I heard the author on the radio and his raconteuring skills won me. The book is true to form - tall and memorable yarns with the author's weaving path towards some kind of maturity holding the book together. There are no dwellings on the meaning of life but the different characters ring true. The reflections on places and oil rigs are refreshing. It is probably reasonable to say this is a 'boy's book' and won't win any feminist literature awards.

Some of the yarns are a little like those old mates have told me over the years (and vice versa), and I gradually realised that these mates are happy to quarantine some yarns in their past. In `Don't tell mum ...', there is little point to some of the stories, just outrageous and reckless shenanigans which err a little towards stereotyping. Still, I feel there is a rare lesson in Carter's directness and ability to hold a mirror to his life - I'm going to buy his other musings because they're good vicarious fun. I'm glad he finds time to write.

If you have ever been to Australia or know someone that works in oil and gas or just want a good laugh read this book. I work offshore and found it to be very accurate and hear crazy stories all the time. This book summarises crazy stories in an extremely hilarious manner. I highly recommend it.

I loved this book! Basically, it's a collection of short (some very short) stories about the author's life on and off the oil rigs of the world, the people he meets along the way and his reflections on all of it.

The writer is clever and extremely funny, he has the knack for telling a story that makes you feel as though you're at a party with him and he's a good mate just back from the rigs. He's also extremely honest about his past, his mistakes (sometimes with dire consequences for him and his friends) and his love life.

I have talked about some of his stories at parties and had people in tears with laughter.

I particularly liked that the author knew where a story should end. He didn't pad them out with uninteresting facts, he just told his stories and let them end where they should.

This book is heaps of fun and has the added advantage of being great for busy people; just read a story and pick it up again when you have a free 5 minutes.

Bugger the garden.... the housework... the grandkids..... couldn't put this book down! One of the funniest most engaging and entertaining books I have read in a long time. Who cares if it didn't educate... its entertainment value is priceless. Go Paul Carter!!!! Good to know there are still some good keen blokes out there!

Working the rigs myself I found this book particularly interesting. Life on land rigs in the jungles of Borneo is definetely something different from the sanitary and well(over?) legislated conditions of the north sea where I work.

The stories have the same feel as the ones I hear from the old guys in the field here although probably even a few notches more hardcore. Really good war stories from the oil field will be my best description. Extremely entertaining read, also for someone not in the oil business. Well reccomended !!

Paul Carter tells his tales of working on oil rigs like very few others can. This book is literally "laugh out loud" funny. Written by an Australian and from an Aussie view point, non-Australian readers may not enjoy the humour as much as I did, but I guarantee that you will like the book and will probably read it more than once and pass it on to friends. It has been selling very, very well here in Australia since its release. It's really is a "don't miss" book.

This is by no means a masterpiece of modern literature, but it was really entertaining. I opened the book the morning after I got it, and by that evening, I had read the entire book. Not a book you want to put down. Definitely recommended!

Brilliant!
Heard an interview with Paul Carter on ABC radio (Australia) and made up my mind there and then I must read this book.
Had no idea I would not be able to put it down, read the book in several hours and I am not known for reading.
Highly recommended to anybody with a sense of humor, interest in drilling or just love a good read.
Enjoy.

Kudos to Paul Carter. An excellent, fast read. Part travel book part action movie (without the fictional part), this book is highly recommended to anyone not squeamish or faint of heart. Paul's humor is just hysterical and laughing out loud tends to happen frequently. Just good old, kind-of clean fun.

Did not put it down until I had finished. Definitely ¨laugh out loud¨funny. I don't recommend reading it in bed while your partner is trying to sleep. After a few too many stifled laughs and resultant kicks, I had to go to another room to finish reading it :)

Very readable, very funny Australian humour.

I almost wet my pants laughing my way through this book. The other patrons at the resort pool were giving me strange looks as tears ran down my face and I struggled to catch my breath. I couldn't put it down till it was finished!

This book was hilarious. I read it in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. I have to admit, it may be "guy humor," though. I could identify with a lot of the situations. If you need a good laugh then pick up this book!