Adventure Capitalist

Publisher's Summary

It's the ultimate road trip. Legendary investor Jim Rogers and his fiancee travel to 116 countries in a custom-built, four-wheel-drive, bright yellow Mercedes. Over three years, they make their way through war zones, are guarded by military convoys, observe a 50-million-person pilgrimage, eat disgusting food, put the car on barges for transport between countries, and have their lives threatened at every turn. As well as describing his adventures, Rogers has plenty to say about the economies and roads he encounters on his journey. (Naturally, he's driven on the best roads and the worst.) With his keen financial acumen, he picks out those countries with the highest prospective economic success and which ones are headed for disaster. All in all, a wonderful trip.

©2003 Beeland Interest, Inc. (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"Rogers' insightful commentary on the political and historical topography of these diverse countries cuts through stereotypes to give us a glimpse of the world the way it really is, for better or worse. This is a gutsy travelogue adventure from a guy who shoots straight from the hip, and it really hits the mark." (Booklist)

New Perspective

A very entertaining audiobook. One of the ones you just hate to turn off - and hate to see end. I came away with more of an understanding of global economics, cultures, and politics than through years of classes - and enjoying every minute of the trip. I would love, like Jim Rogers, to "retire" early and travel the world. But, in the meantime, this book requires a lot less planning - and is far less expensive.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Get the abridged version

I purchased the unabridged version, but somehow got the abridged version. It was quickly fixed, but in the meantime I listened to part of the abridged version. Its a quick and fun listen read by the author.

Then I listened to the unabridged version, or rather tried to. These are two completely different books. The abridged is read by the author who, despite his unprofessional reading, reads from a perspective of actually being there and knowing his own voice. You get the feeling that you're being told a story from the person who lived it. The unabridged version lacks that excitement.

If you like these types of books, then get the abridged version. You may disagree with the author's politics/philosophy, but its still a fun adventure story.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Content great, narration not so great.

I read/listened to the abridged version of AC the first time around. Because I normally avoid abridged books, I grabbed the unabridged when I finally found it.

In this case, I would have to suggest grabbing the abridged version and the actual book rather than relying on the unabridged version. The narrator seems to miss the tone of the actual text, leaving the listener with something less than if he had hit the mark. His choice to "act" the foreign voices was a mistake, as it comes off as a distraction. A would-be 4.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Mixed Bag

As has been noted in previous reviews, the author does not seem to be lacking in self-confident (and self-serving) pronouncements, which I found quite tiresome. The reader of this version does make some rather odd choices in pronunciation and faux-accents. But here's the thing-- once you get past the annoying aspects of this audiobook (and they are many), there's some interesting stuff here told from a perspective which was new to me. While I don't agree with some of the author's political views, I do trust that he understands something about investing and has an interesting economic viewpoint from which he evaluates different countries. As an anthropologist myself, I would have liked to have seen more cultural details and less facile renderings of history and customs. Still, it made me think and learn-- which is always appreciated. You may be better off getting the abridged version however, which is read by the author rather than the hired narrator for the unabridged version.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Have car, will travel

I thought it was entertaining. No, the author isn't a professional reader, but his southern accent grows on you. I was simply amazed that he drove around the world. Anyone who drives around the world has to have some sort of opinion about things. As a successful business man, his insight was mainly from an investors point of view. He makes it personal though, as if you were in the car and he was showing you around town. You won't walk away knowing the meaning of life, but I think you will be inspired to go out and find it.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Old Hat

Rogers has been goofing off, travelling the world and telling us about it since the FIRST Bush Administration, and it's becoming tiresome. Yes, he's rich and smart and not some working stiff like us, but does he really need to keep writing vanity books about that, and do we really need to buy them? I think not. His brilliant insights are usually along the lines of "you have to play the stock market SMART to make money (like me)" or "what's better than going to B-school is becoming a successful businessman without going to business school (like me)" or "what this [insert developing nation here] has to do to get ahead is to stabilize its currency, build an economic infrastructure and create a positive business environment (like duh)." If you haven't read Investment Biker or his numerous articles and features you'll probably enjoy this book. But I wouldn't put it on my list of 1,000 books to read before I die.

6 of 9 people found this review helpful

Interesing travel book with superficial insights.

This book weaves back and forth between two halves. The first is an interesting series of adventures the author has while driving the world. The second half is full of half-baked, superficial historical, economic and financial insights. If you can withstand the barrage of neo-libertarian 'insights' and are not offended by someone who sees the world through green-tinted lenses, I recommend this book.

The narrator, however, is horrible with ridiculous foreign accents and an inability to pronounce foreign words and names, such as the name of London's Thames river.

6 of 9 people found this review helpful

An extraordinary investor with an eye opportunity

Co-founder of a wildly successful hedge fund this guy retired young and took a motorcycle trip around the world the first time.That is also an excellent book,but a bit dated for today's investor.He takes a Mercedes Benz and modifies it for harsh conditions.He does this with his future wife.They have many interesting adventures and this is a well balanced geographical tour of every continent but Antarctica.He spends more time in Asia,but it is also a place he currently lives and the biggest continent in the world.He helps us understand the value of currency,how governments play a vital role in their countries success or failure and does all this in a plain simple language we can relate to.I have ordered his book on commodities investment,but wish more of his books were available on Audible.He has been a guy that invested small in underdogs and chose correctly again and again.Anyone who can retire at 38 must be doing something worthy of learning.

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If you could sum up Adventure Capitalist in three words, what would they be?

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Who was your favorite character and why?

This is not a work of fiction and, therefore, you can't have your fav character. Ha ha.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This is not a book that will make you bend over with laughter or cry. But it's just admirable that he traveled so extensively even to extremely dangerous countries and regions. For a person lacking in a sense of adventure, this is an amazing story.

Any additional comments?

This is a very good story and you will have a lot to learn from the book. It's just that his travel happened at around 1999 and 2000, which is more than 10 years ago. So it's a little bit outdated. If you decide to read this, you should get other books on the countries Rogers visited to be up to speed with what's going on there.

Save your credits

I stopped about 1 hour into the book. His over-enflated ego continues to scrape on my nerves. I'm all for self-confidence, but he goes way over the edge. May finish one day. Wish I'd bought the abridged version, as the reviews on that seem better.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful