Rating: 
Summary: Greatest Book on Finance, Business, Travels Ever.
Review: This is one of the finest book ever written on anything. Jim Rogers is a man of action, a living Indiana Jones. He does what he says. Granted many people write on Finance, Business, Travels. However, virtually all wrote from the "ivory tower pinhead" perspective by professor who have never worked anywhere, built a business or personally been to all the places they write about. Jim Rogers has "been there" "done that" This is no easy task when you got 10 credit cards, BMW bike, and beautiful woman half your age and five inches taller than you. The very fact that he survived the trip and live to write about it is a miracle. Jim Rogers took the 2000 tour of the world. ...P>Jim travels to China, Russia, Africa and South America and talks to the business people there and get firsthand knowledge of what's going on. No "ivory tower pinhead" here. He been there and done that. ... This is surly one of the greatest business and travel books ever written. All should buy and read.
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting book
Review: I highly recommend this book to anyone born in the USA. Gives an outlook on the U.S. that's hard to find otherwise. Makes you realize the US won't be top dog forever, and concurrently how lucky one is to not live in most places Rogers visits (at least for now). His story about phoning home from college is worth at least part of the price of the book. Those who are resentful of financially independent people won't enjoy the book, of course. Indeed, I would feel a lot more confident biking across the world with multi-millions in net worth and the title "Doctor" than as a nobody. Being wealthy has a world of benefits...like being able to pay the expenses of that New York ingenue to do the adventure trip with you, and having the option to buy your way out of certain bad situations. One thing I knew before I read page one, you couldn't pay me to do a trip like this. I'm glad Rogers did, so I could enjoy the account from my easy chair. A great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Obnoxious drivel
Review: Self-serving, obnoxious and trite are some of the more polite adjectives I could use to describe the egotistical spew which comprises this "travelogue." It maps the countours of Jim's narrow life far more than it explores the world which tries to see. I only finished to see how many more times he could possibly mention his considerable wealth or the beauty of his traveling companion ... He mentions little to nothing about the places he visited save that some had accomodation inferior to those he is used to, and is a perfect image of why many dislike the American abroad. Don't waste your time with this book -- he's rich enough and doesn't need the royalties.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a Skilled Writer-But a Great Story
Review: I must say that the writing was less than impressive. I think the publisher should have given him a little more help. On the other hand the story is amazing! You have to respect a man who would blaze through the who's who of the worlds most dangerous countries even if his few attempts at flowery language make you want to gag
Rating:
Summary: Comments on Investment Biker
Review: I bought the book (in 1996) because I was interested about world traveling. My intention was to make a world tour by motorcycle and idea was to read how Mr. Rogers had done his trip and maybe to get some ideas. But the book was a total disappointment (wasting of money). Firstly disappointed to the layout of the book. A few hundreds of pages in the book, but if I remember correctly, just eight photos - black and white! Another reason was that I think I could notice the writer having some arrogant attitudes towards local cultures and people. Well, he's a rich man, possibly he thinks he can buy anything with his money. I expected more description of the local cultures and things they experienced on their almost-2-year-tour. I can say that I didn't learn anything new from his book, nor didn't bother to read it completely. I did my world tour by MC in July 1997 - October 1999....
Rating:
Summary: Don't the moon look good mama, shinin' thru the trees
Review: What made this book appealing to me is Roger's historical, political, social, and financial take on every country he went through. Like it or not, assets, such as a cow, translate into money and the money then translates into another cow. If readers don't understand the significance of money, credit, banking and the 20th century debate between Schumpeter and Keynes, they aren't going to get as much from this book. Another thing about Rogers is that he's a trader who in the short term can sound like an alarmist. He has a marvelously comprehensive world view, known as a top down model in the business of investing, and he isn't afraid to risk his capital and then turn on a dime. He'll reverse his investment from short to long in a heartbeat and usually win. A microscopic number of people are able to do this successfully. I repeat, he is not a buy and hold long term investor. He's highly energetic and capable of putting in a prodigious amount of time researching questions in order to improve his model of assumptions which dictate his investment expectations. While he waxes eloquently on the romantic aura of spending the night in the Sahara and on the colors of the light show in Siberia in contrast with the technicolor collage of the homes and gardens there, he was clearly more interested in buying low and selling high. Notice how he went for the beer and banking stocks; also the local power company provided if there wasn't excessive government regulation. As for Tabitha and the surrounding scenery Jimmy was doin' the best with what he's got. Like many men he lacks a full understanding of women, he just isn't programmed that way. The same can be said about women re men, but that's another subject. Sending her to mechanic's scholl was original thinking. The boy is on the cutting edge. The border crossing problems he describes are identical to those recounted by Keith Richburg, a black liberal American who worked on the Nairobi desk for the Washington Post, and wrote "Out of America", a tale about his stint in the heart of darkness. A great book. My German girlfriend, who travels on the cheap to out of the way places, loved this book. My hats off to Rogers for having the courage to do it, and to include his girlfriend.
Rating:
Summary: Great read if whether or not you enjoy finance...
Review: I'm an avid motorcyclist as well as a business professional and I absolutely loved this book. I couldn't put it down. If you're planning a long bike trip, I strongly recommend it - gives you insight into what unexpected things could crop up as well as ideas about planning. I also found the book quite motivational - made me want to take the bull by the horns (no stock market pun intended..<g>) and enjoy life a bit more. I'll be reading it again shortly since it's been a while. If nothing else, it will get you excited about planning an adventure of your own.
Rating:
Summary: Around the World on A Thousand Dollars a Day
Review: Rogers made a bundle in Wall Street and then takes some time off to travel the world on a motorcycle with his girl friend. He starts in Ireland on 28 March 1990 and finishes in San Francisco on 31 August 1992, 65,067 miles later. This isn't just an around the world motorcycle journey but a look at the current state and future direction of world economies. If you have read Dave Barr's Riding the Edge, Barr goes around the world on a dollar a day while Rogers does it on a thousand dollars a day. He even buys a new bike for his girl friend in Japan to finish the trip because her old one wouldn't make it. Even though this isn't a "how-to" book it does give a little more advise then Barr's book.
Rating: 
Summary: Poorly written rant by a "Master of the Universe"
Review: This is a book about what a Tom Wolfe-style Master of the Universe does on holiday. It's nearly impossible to have an "adventure" when you are carrying 10(!) platinum credit cards. He got cold and wet a few times, worried about finding gas, didn't always have hotel rooms up to his standards, and had delays at some borders. Maybe the adventure was resisting the urge to buy an air-ticket to New York on his Visa card. Mr. Rogers' writing is very poor. It is loaded with clichés. He and Tabitha are always zooming on powerful steeds into gorgeous scenery, or steep, craggy mountains into glitzy, glamorous hotspots or delightful, cozy hostels, or across hot, empty, flat deserts into dumps that are not up to American standards. He'll "describe" the Andes as "the top of the world" (p. 315) for five short sentences and then move on to more important matters like further adventures with border guards and investing. Mr. Rogers is woefully ignorant about the places he goes. He views the world through the tiny keyhole of economics. Most of the "interesting facts" he mentions about theses places are just wrong. One indicative example: He describes the Moreno Glacier in Argentina as, "one of the few in the world still moving." (p. 294) I found myself laughing out loud many times. I rode a bicycle around the world for 19 months at about the same time Mr. Rogers was having his "adventure." I am stunned that he perceived so little in his long travels. He appears to have been completely unchanged by the experience. Considering his mode of travel (making time) and attitude towards the local people, I'm not surprised he didn't connect well. This is not a travel book: Mr. Rogers uses his trip as a way to sell a long economic rant. You can save yourself a lot of time by just reading his final chapter, "Afterword." I will summarize his position: governments are bad; smart, rich guys like me are good. Many of his predictions are laughably wrong. He advocated selling the US economy short in 1993. Check the plots for the S&P 500 for the last 7 years ... If you want to understand the distribution of goods in the world, read "Guns, Germs, and Steel," by Jared Diamond. If you want to read about a real motorcycle trip, read Ted Simon's "Jupiter's Travels." "Investment Biker," a classic? Ridiculous. I rated it two stars instead of the minimum of one because there must be some good investing advice in there somewhere, based on what I have heard and read. Also, he helpfully breaks up the text into obvious sections. When he spins off into another (identical) rant against the local, benighted government, you can just skip to the end of that section and get on with the trip.
Rating:
Summary: Reveals Arrogance and Incompetence with first 20 pages
Review: ....he talks constantly about the fact that he is having a sexualrelationship with his younger and poorer companion. He immedeatelydecides that he won't be making any investments in Ireland. In fact he rejects each of the 3 Is Ireland, Israel and India. What a Genius. He did think the far east was a good bet. Hmmm considering when this book was written did he really need to travel to work this out. Repulsive personally and mundane professionally.
| 
