Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: Excellent source of informtaion. A great story about Ernesto "Che" Guevara's travels through South America. This being my first reading on the individual, I was very impressed. Weather your interest in "Che" is personal or political, this is an excellent peace of work. Quick reading, leaves you wanting to read more on the subject.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a motorcycling travelog
Review: Folks who buy this book thinking that they are about to settle down to read a motorcycling travelog will be disappointed. La Ponderosa 'dies' VERY early on in the book and is never mentioned again. Otherwise an interesting story.
Rating:
Summary: What a gripper, One of the lads!
Review: I am not a great reader of books, but this one is an absolute scream. I read this book while I was flying from London to New York and I hardly noticed the flight go, a real entertainer. if you like life READ IT, if you like laughs READ IT, if you like adventures READ IT. An absolute howl from front to back. Spot on.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful Book
Review: I enjoyed The Motorcycles Diaries. It was an excellent book written by a sensitive and compassionate young man discovering who he was. I read it in Spanish and it made me want to go see The Motorcycle Diaries movie. It also made me want to go to the places mentioned in the book: Peru, Colombia, the parts of Argentina I've yet to visit.
Rating:
Summary: A humourous moving adventure, embellished with time
Review: I found this book entertaining and interesting yet I could not help wondering how much of it WAS written by the 22 year old Ernesto and how much of it was written by the older "Che" in Cuba. I felt that too much was added in hindsight for the book to truly work. It felt like I was being presented with an "On The Road" copy mixed with why a young medical student became a great revolutionary.... and don't get me wrong, I admire Che enormously. I feel the book should not be taken as a great work of literature or philosophy. The only importance this book holds is that it was written by a great man whose memory will live on a lot longer than the memory of "The Motorcycle Diaries". Not everything a great person does is great, sometimes the things they do can be, in this case, just ok.
Rating: 
Summary: Literate & Whimsical
Review: I grew up in Loma Linda, a University town with a medical school. I never heard of anybody taking off on a motorcycle, even after graduation, for a journey like this. But Che Guevara was an exception to the rulers. The young (Everything he did was young--he didn't live to see 40.) Ernesto "Che" Guevara, left the university & his life of privilege for seven months on the road, touring South America, first on a motorcycle, then as a vagabond, with his compadre Alberto. The two of them posed as Argentinian Doctors, specialists in the treatment of leprosy. This gained them food and lodging, as well as special treatment at times. It also gained them face-to-face experience with the impossible living conditions of people suffering from this disease. Alberto & Che traveled on their own resources. When money got tough, they scammed & stowed-away, sometimes even working for a meal, but they didn't cable home for money or assistance. During this experience, Che became personally acquainted with the poverty and disempowerment prevalent in South America. Reading the book was a delightful experience. Che has a poetic way with words. He doesn't take himself too seriously, telling tales of purloined wine, of scamming for sustenance, of bravely shooting a "puma" in the dark of night. By daylight it turned out to have been a local rancher's dog. He tells of hiding with a shipment of melons, hoping to stow away on a boat, but getting busted when sailors noticed melon rinds floating by the dock. Ernesto & Alberto were indeed a couple of scallywags, but loveable, the kind you'd sit down with for a stein of beer or a cup of mate. This book tells a human story, one that's unselfconscious enough to be truly enjoyable. Almost enough to make me want to sell the house, buy a motorcycle ...
Rating:
Summary: Not an interesting read
Review: I more or less stumbled upon this book looking for books on travelling in South America, which is one of my passions. I love to read travelogues of peoples adventures, especially those of people who find trouble, or have unusual experiences, or meet interesting people. I was hoping to find a lot of that in this book. Che does some story telling in his book, but it is a lot of very repetitive stories that last about one paragraph. "I slept under the stars, I begged for food, I caught a ride". I must have read that 40 or 50 times. I would have like to read more about the interesting people he met along the way. I think I would have had a greater apprecation for the book, had I known more about the post-revolutionary Che. Once I read more about his life, it became clear that the book offers much more, as it offers an insight in to an early phase of his life. If you are in to learning about Che, then I think you may like this book. If you are looking for stories of adventure, there are a few, but I would not say that Che is a great storyteller, or perhaps his writings lose something in translation.
Rating:
Summary: Not a motorcycle book
Review: I think the title of this book was a calculated effort to sell this book to people like me--people who care more about motorcycles than revolutionaries. If you pick it up determined to read about a guy who rode a motorcycle all over South America, you'll be disappointed. If you're seeking an adventure touring story, you won't be. I finished the book in a few hours and walked away glad I didn't give up when a youthful Che's motorcycle broke for good 30 pages into the book. The rest detail the travels of Che and a friend, total slackers posing as doctors and leprosy experts (which they were, in loose senses of the words), as they scam their way across the continent by hitching rides, sucking up to cops and brown-nosing anyone with food, booze and a warm place to sleep. The reader gets the feeling that this journey was perhaps the defining experience in Che's pre-revolutionary life, and that his worldview really came into focus based on the things--beauty, oppression, generosity, treachery--that he saw on his bohemian-style trip. This compelling read changed my impression of the man we call Che--much for the better.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent coverage of an extrodinery adventure.
Review: I think this book gives and excellent account of the events during ches adventures through parts of South America. It is one of his best writings. It shows his true ability to write a story like no other. You feel that you are in some of the situations. His describing is also great. One that every reader should like.
Rating:
Summary: The personal Che without the Politics
Review: If you are looking for a book dealing with Che's political views look elsewhere. However, if you want to read about Che in his formative years when his ideas were still taking shape then this is the book. Not much happens just some amusing anecdotes and a trip to the leper colony but after reading this you will view Ernesto Che Guevara in a whole new light
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