Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip Book

I'll admit this is a partial review- I got about a quarter way into the book and then quit, it was so bad. I picked this book up at a used bookstore intrigued by the fact that the guy traveled via modified vehicle through scores of countries where it would be somewhat risky to call attention to yourself. And I'm a free-market guy, so I thought this could be interesting from a business guy's standpoint.

While I have to hand it to him for bravery and enthusiasm for driving a yellow modified 4WD Mercedes through places like Georgia, China, Kazakhstan, etc.... he quickly as an authority became unbearable.

It could be that the financial meltdown and the unmasking of the amoral greediness of the financier community (not all but many) has tainted and jaded my view towards investment bankers and financiers that made it sour. He did publish it in 04 with much of the travels in the late 90's and early aughts, so his ilk hadn't had their mass thrashing/humbling by the media yet. As though they learned anything.

The shame is that there's a lot of good, interesting and useful anecdotes and information but you have to pick it out of the garden of smug, self aggrandizing, mocking, arrogant proclamations he regularly dispenses. Talk about broad brush statements: "China doesn't repress religious pursuits and we went almost EVERYWHERE in China" (capitals mine, but seriously.... EVERYWHERE? It's a gigantic country and there is PLENTY of documentation of repression) "Central Asia is a total disaster", "Prostitutes are the best sources of information in a country". And on and on...... It makes it difficult to tell when he's right and when he's just opining.

He apparently is also a historical (and cocksure) lecturer, happy to show how people such as Attila the Hun and the Hittites have affected a certain region to this very day.

He also continually notes how willing he is to take any adventure on, no matter how gnarly while on the other hand, his fainting, weak wife is unsure, afraid, upset, prissy, etc.... to the point where it starts to reek of misogyny.

If this guy took a humble pill and edited this story with a broader, kinder, more inclusive viewpoint, I'd definitely be interested in what he did. While cheesy, this saying is true: "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care".

I finally wearied of his blather and decided that the gems weren't that valuable. Just saw that it's available on audio read by himself. JSM (just shoot me) RECYCLE.