Rating: 
Summary: Check this one out from the Library
Review: After reading and re-reading It's Not About the Bike, I could hardly wait to order Every Second Counts. Unfortunately, it's a cheap sequel to the first book. Can you say "Show Me the Money?" The book is a poorly organized and superficial diary of Armstrong's joys, sorrows, hopes, fears, and yes, even a little belly-aching that picks up where the first book stopped. We read about cycling, but not as much as cycling fans would hope - there are few details about training and racing other than some brief comments on well-hashed episodes (this should make airport book purchasers and the majority of American sports fans happy - they don't like cycling anyway). Maybe next time Lance could team up with Bobke Roll, Phil Ligget, or Paul Sherman for some really interesting commentary. Lance talks about how teamwork is a two-way street, but then goes on to point out the many ways that the team supports him. I guess tongue-lashings and financial rewards are payback on USPS. No evidence that Lance rides to support team members (No wonder Heras is leaving - besides the unwelcome pre-race ZZ Top). "Teamwork" comes off sounding like how the team supports Lance, not how Lance supports the team. (What's up with the Kevin Livingston bashing anyway?). Of course, there are lots of thoughts about cancer (this was probably the strongest part of the book - but nothing new from book one). Lance seems to be genuinely concerned with making a contribution towards helping others help themselves. Lance's take on faith and religion was new and interesting reading, as were the thoughts on the joys of children and the challenges of marriage (just enough to figure out that things aren't going well but not enough to conclude that anyone knows why). For local color, we hear about life in Spain and Texas (in which Lance restores a medieval chapel and jumps into a deep swimming hole). Frankly, I doubt that Lance has time to write or even dictate and the book shows it. Better to have waited until after next year's Tour (2004) to see if there will be an extraordinary sixth victory. It would have been a good book to write after retiring from racing - that will probably come in a few years. I'll be looking for the next book, but I won't be buying the hardback! ...
Rating: 
Summary: Lance, RIDE THE BIKE and STOP TALKING!!!!!
Review: Who on earth wants to keep hearing the same story over and over? Okay, you had cancer, a woman helped you through it, you won 5 Tours, dumped the woman and kids, and decided to spend your last year as a celebrity chasing "real" celebrities. ENOUGH! You are 30 something and seem to be 17 or 18. Talented on the bike, yes. Otherwise? Hmmmm.
Rating: 
Summary: Real
Review: While many don't seem to like this book, I do. I like it because it's honest and real and sincere. When reading this book I felt like I was reading a real account by a real person that wasn't always polished or perfect or even completely well considered. As a racing cyclist, I don't need another book about tactics and all that. If I want that, I'll read Charmichael's or Freil's or Wenzel's books. What I wanted to read was the story of a guy who worked hard, got what he was working for and then found out that he had grabbed the charging bull by the horns. I wanted to read about successes and failures both big and small. In this book, I got what I wanted. I loved the stories about the big jump and working with Floyd Landis and team chemistry. I hated that his marriage fell apart and that he took so long to learn the lesson of failure. Most of all I appreciated that the book was real and not pop packaged for the bicycling or business or housewife or any other community. In many ways, the book is just like "It's Not About the Bike". The only problem is that it lacks the cohesive narrative given by the background of Armstrong's fight with cancer. Without that, it's not quite as compelling a story, but well worth the read regardless.
Rating:
Summary: Mostly a waste of time
Review: Armstrong is really struggling to say something new in "Every Second Counts", and repeats much from the earlier book. Aside from the repetitions, there are many sections describing his personal life which, frankly, are tedious. He provides little description of his training, and the sections on his Tour victories are superficial. The parts of the book describing the cameraderie of the US Postal Team and their "jokes" would make most people glad not to be on the team. They seem to have the sense of humour and emotional maturity of 12 year olds. I have a lot of sympathy for Rubiera and Heras complaining about the Americans' preference for playing ZZ Top loud in the team bus. There are no new thoughts on cancer, but more surprisingly Armstrong really has no insights to offer about the experience of cycling and racing. (Read Tim Krabbe's novel "The Rider" for real insight as to what a bicycle race is like from the inside). I can't criticise Armstrong for being brash, arrogant or crude, for being self-centred or abrasive, or for lacking real introspection and insight - he is an athlete, after all, not an artist - but I can criticise him for producing this shallow book when he has nothing of interest to say in it.
Rating:
Summary: Boring, Too Much "Philosophy"
Review: After reading "Its Not About The Bike" (a great book) I had really high expectations for this. Unfortunately, this book really disappointed me. There were some interesting notes from the 2001-2002 tours, but a lot of the book was just the same "carpe diem" philosophy over and over and over. The stories about the race and the team were good, but way too much filler in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book, spoiled by the last chapter
Review: I loved the accounts of the 2nd to 3rd accounts of the tour de france and they were on the most part accurate, if not a bit exagerated. I thought in this book there would be more accounts of le tour, and less about the cancer. The last chapter is an insult to lances fellow proffesionals. Its not accurate as to what happenedm, and he accuses Ulrich of not waiting for him after the minor crash he had. He fails to acknowledege the part his team played in him winning the tour in 2003 (the team time trial). I felt this chapter runied the whole book, and I lost a lot of respect for Lance after this.
Rating:
Summary: Lance wins 5 tours - loses all that really matters....
Review: Okay, he talks about all 5 of his tour wins in this book but the unwritten story is that he loses his wife and three children. Lance is self-centered, egotistical and at the end of the day, a real loser when it comes to what really matters. He is obviously frantically attempting to live big in his last year as a celebrity. There will not be a 6th. His ego is too much in the way. The book is a dismal failure although I enjoyed his first book. Poor Kristen, Luke, Isabelle, and Grace. Through familial association with this loser, they lose big too.
Rating:
Summary: Lousy Human Being
Review: I'd given this 0 stars if I could. Anyone who would walk away from his family after they have supported him the way they have is a loser, pure and simple... Besides, I predict you will see him exposed as having benefited from doping...
Rating: 
Summary: inspiration
Review: This book is not designed to be a great piece of editorial work. Its there to show you that if you put you mind to it and set your goals you can achieve anything with hard work. Lance did not just win the Tour De France from being an incredibly talented rider. He won because he put in the hours and hard work probably more so than most. It just so happened that he had the talent to go with it. I loved reading the book and would highly recommend that you buy this book. Lance often puts thing in perspective and this can be a good lesson for most. This books is an inspiration to those that have a dream and to those that have battle ahead with cancer.
Rating:
Summary: An honest account, though I wanted more cycling insight
Review: It would be difficult to match It's Not About the Bike. That story had a perfect arc to it: cocky young cyclist limited by his lack of discipline, brought down by cancer, but then redeemed by that very illness and the aid of his family and teammates to become a champion of the world's most grueling endurance event, in the process finding love. The saga beyond that, covered in this book, does not have such a naturally dramatic arc. He went on to win five more Tours, the cancer has not returned, and the story ends with the dissolution of his marriage. The process of living in the years after remission is not as naturally compelling as the battle with it, and Lance already covered some of his fears about the return of cancer in the previous book. So some of the book feels repetitive. For me, a cycling nut and a Lance fan, I would have loved more insight from Lance into the race itself, what he was thinking during every stage. He covers entire stages in the span of a page or two, and what he reveals leaves me greedy for more. Given how closely his last few Tour efforts have been followed by the media online and offline, a lot of it will be repetitive to his biggest fans. What we need is a DVD that contains edited portions of stages, with Lance and teammates and coach providing a commentary, interspliced with actual excerpts from the radio communications between Lance and his team car, like the bits shown in the Nike-produced documentary 28 Days to Paris. Still, book is highly readable, just like the first. I read it all in a few hours as soon as I received it. Lance is completely honest with his life, and I find that admirable. Many people have read his books and commented that they didn't really find him likable. He can come off as arrogant, brash, foul-mouthed, controlling; some of those qualities, though, probably make him one of the few people capable of dominating the suffer-fest that is the Tour de France. He doesn't hide who he is, and he doesn't claim to be a saint for having survived cancer. What I would have preferred is for him to have released this book after his days of competing in the Tour. Perhaps that would be after his attempt for six straight. Then the story would be more inherently dramatic, what with his marital problems and the struggle for his fifth Tour in the center of the story, instead of being a last-minute addendum at the end of this novel (tacked on just as the book was going to print, the last chapter about Tour victory #5 and the problems with his marriage naturally feels rushed, abbreviated). Maybe that story will be Lance and Sally's next endeavor.
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