A Pirate Looks at Fifty

Rating:
Summary: interesting yet funny
Review: I grew up listening to the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, etc. I have always enjoyed Jimmy Buffett's music and still do to this day. To see that he had published a book, I was eager to read it. I really enjoyed reading about his adventures and the colorful way he looks at things. It lets me into a world that I have never seen (South America), and after reading about the pie-plate size spiders, probably never will visit. I am planning on buying his other books and reading them also in the near future. Keep up the good work!

Rating:
Summary: For the first time, Jimmy has let me down!
Review: I am a huge Buffett fan. I go to his concerts every year, I have read his other books, and one of his CD's usually isn't far away. However, this book was quite a let down. It is extremely slow and deals mainly with his vacation. We parrotheads want to hear stories about being on the road and interesting people he has met. There were too many boring stories that just didn't go anywhere.

Rating:
Summary: The luckiest man alive
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed the book, more so for Jimmy's reminiscing about previous adventures than for the contemporaneous account of his travels around the Caribbean. I hope Jimmy realizes how truly blessed he is. Fortunately we can live vicariously through him, and his adventures. I could have withstood a little sex in the book though. There's no way I believe Jimmy spent the whole month celibate...but I guess he is 50. Yikes!

Rating:
Summary: This book may make a Parrot Head of me!
Review: I found Buffett's style of writing very entertaining. He has a gift for "showing" you what he is saying, for example: "The plane...came up out of the water onto the ramp dripping seawater like a golden retriever." "The water had been shaken up like salad dressing by the storm." A great storyteller! Being a constant proofreader, I would love to chat with the author about a couple of contradictions in the text and to find out what the terrific book of Spanish phrases is!

Rating:
Summary: A largely boring vacation journal.
Review: I was hoping for a lot more from Jimmy Buffett as he passed through the first half century of his life. Alas...it was not to be. This story is the tale of Jimmy's Vacation Around the Carribean and On Down to the Amazon With the Wife and Kids in rich Gringo-chic style. He took two airplanes and a couple of extra pilots plus all of his toys (he can't go to a shopping mall without a GPS). He tells the boring story of the big fish that got away after one strike followed by the boring story of his one day of surfing that was cut short because his knee hurt followed by more trips to more tourist traps. His one excursion into the unknown came when he had to divert his jet and land in a drug town in Columbia. He never got out of the coffee shop. There were a few glimpses into the old days and his roots in the music business. His story of finding Key West for the first time with Jerry Jeff Walker was a kick. But those kinds of tales where there was actually some question about the outcome of the story were few and far between. This is a cute little vacation journal by a really rich guy. It has about as much to do with being a pirate as "Dumbo" had to do with being a pilot.

Rating:
Summary: Living Vicariously Through Mr. Buffett
Review: I'd heard from friends that the book was slow, if you didn't like fly fishing. But traveling the Carribean and South America with Jimmy made me want to know more about geography, the Amazon, the people, the culture of the Carribean and the way of the Island people. To go where he has gone, see what he has seen, and taste life through unjaded and 'youthful at 50' lips is a dream of this southern bred girl. I embrace 40 as much as he did 50, with the hunger and zest to see what is beyond the border of the mundane life most of us are born to lead. He, like Hemingway, never forgets to describe the essence of the normalcy, and make it intriguing. I hated for his trip to end, as it seemed as if I were along for the ride. And what a ride it was! I wonder what he's got planned for 60?

Rating:
Summary: "With him I'd go anywhere."
Review: If you love adventure stories about fishing and flying, and island-hopping in the Caribbean, you will like this book. Buffett is a marvelous story teller and I immediately went out and bought his other two books. I like a man with wanderlust, one who can take me to places I've never been, and through his stories I feel as though I've been there with him. Write us another book, Jimmy!

Rating:
Summary: Who'd have ever thought...
Review: A man who makes such fun music, could entertain with longer vignettes. Thanks for making my three-day vacation seem a little longer and enjoyable!!! Happy B-day Jimmy!

Rating:
Summary: The best vacation I ever took without leaving home!!!!
Review: Jimmy Buffet brings out the wanderlust we all share. The books makes you feel as if you are there on vacation with him. His detailed descriptions of the places he visits are unmatched in any travel book I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Buffets a buffet of himself
Review: I liked the way he was brought up and his experiences on how he came to be. Jimmy Buffett cetainly has a lot to offer, especially being from the generation he was born into. But now, with all his riches and wealth, he's very full of himself. Obviously he like to hear himself talk about Jimmy. He's definitely a legend in his own mind.