Rating: 
Summary: Seems too much ego! Almost like one large PRESS RELEASE.
Review: I'm also a fan of Robert Young Pelton's Dangerous Places Series of Books, but this book was a BIG Disappointment.The author was too busy displaying his EGO in this book. I also agree with the other reviewer that Robert Young Pelton could have been much more modest.
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Summary: The Adventurist by the Adventurist
Review: It is always an honor to have someone like Doubleday (aka Random House, aka Bertelsman) ask you to write your autobiography at age 43. It is not something I planned to do but considering it was once 1200 pages it is a relief to have it behind me.Asking to write one's life is a little like someone waking you up half way along a flight to Tokyo and asking you how the flight is. I don't really know but I can tell how the ride was so far. As someone who never claimed to be a literary gem it is odd to have reviewers review how I write rather than who I am. Life is about living not how well you write about it. I was told I would never write because of everything from dyslexia to spastic hands. But I write because it is the most concrete way of capturing our world. I also do television and photograph. Some readers seem to think that their is an arrogance built in to the Adventurist. At the same time they love the self deprecating humor they find in my other books and the more personal chapters of my autobiography. The personas are one and the same. A person affected and driven by what they see and feel, changeable in mood but never in purpose. My goal is to get people out there, leanring about the world and then doing something to better it. The Adventurist reflects the emotions of each moment as it happened and the forces that shaped me. Emotions and self image change. As I survive more and more events that kill my friends and peers it is natural to become transcendant about the fear of death and accept that there is a reason I am still alive. I survive because I will it and others let me. Perhaps a combination of arrogance and humility that does not translate well into words. But those that know me and know death will tell you that you cannot risk your life without some confidence in your survival and a thankfullness that you did. I would like to say that my force of character is really a fierceness of purpose that occurs to some men in the last years of their life. A time where the explaining and rationalizing is less important than the doing. I also think its important to share my emotions and thoughts at their rawest, least polished moments so that others can learn from my experience. And more importantly how these people and events have shaped me. And ultimately the reader. But it is impossible to capture the same impact that they have had on me. Ultimately the Adventurist is a book I wish I had read when I was young. It is raw, stinging and revealing. But it shows that people can overcome anything. And that people will help you overcome anything. My travels have taught me that my experience pales next to the wartorn and abandoned. They too survive but they will never write a book about their lives. As a tribute to them there is no cinematic or polished plot line in the book. It is as direct, erratic, true, ugly and undeniable as the wounds bullets can make in people. As simple and unassuming as a gesture of kindness to a stranger. The book is my life strung together as the human brain remembers, as the heart recalls and as the emotions try to suppress. I am always open to ways that make me more effective as a communicator. I will have done my job if there will be one reader, somewhere who will put the book down and carry on where I left off. Do not judge me as a writer or as a stylist or even as an adventurer. Only by who I am and what I have done. And maybe, more importantly, what you can do with what I have done. RYP
Rating: 
Summary: Oh yeah!
Review: Mr. Pelton is incorrect. The World's Most Dangerous Place is around you when you're looking for trouble. Walk into a 7-11 with a pistol and you'll realize what I mean. He's looking for a high in his book without participating. Never happen. Pelton, you have to cross the line. Readable though, in a pedestrian sort of way.
Rating:
Summary: Oh yeah!
Review: Mr. Pelton is incorrect. The World's Most Dangerous Place is around you when you're looking for trouble. Walk into a 7-11 with a pistol and you'll realize what I mean. He's looking for a high in his book without participating. Never happen. Pelton, you have to cross the line. Readable though, in a pedestrian sort of way.
Rating: 
Summary: Good on ya Pelton!
Review: Never mind what the stuffy wannabe literary critics have to say, Pelton writes about reality, and if you can't handle that, it is not a book for you. The people that have written negative reactions to the book obviously never left their home state or town for that matter. Pelton composes a fast, choppy, in your face yarn that will have you anxious to reach the next page...I highly recommend this one!
Rating:
Summary: Almost great
Review: Pelton has ventrued far and wide, to a self-reported selection of more than one hundred countries. Surely, in such extensive journeys he should be able to present new stories when he publishes new books. I bought this book looking not only for an autobiography, which was slow and repetitive about childhood and shallow beyond that, but for more adventures. When I realized that some of the longest stories in the Adventurist were stories that I had already read in World's Most Dangerous Places it disappointed me. Also, the book attempts to be artistic and creative by bouncing between stories much like The Things They Carried, but this fails in that sense. Here it is just slightly annoying and fairly useless. It could have been used well as a juxtaposition between similar phases of his life, but it didnt work as it should. The book is good, just dont expect too much.
Rating:
Summary: Awsome!
Review: RYP is an awsome writer. I first learned of him when researching stuff about other countries. This was the first RYP book that I read, and I truely love it.
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Summary: Some comments
Review: The Adventurist is an attempt to define a life in the way it is remembered, not an attempt to explain it in a traditional literary style. I think that Dangerous Places created a new genre in travel and to me The Adventurist is a new type of autobiography. (After all I am only 45!) When, or if, I am 80 I will have the grace and perspective to put my life to paper in the traditional manner that people expect. But for now The Adventurist mirrors my life..fast, hard and face forward. Nothing really introspective or sentimental about it. Just a continuous volley of, people, places, emotions and experiences Each episode in the book reveals a clue or an influence much the same way I remembered it. Each chapter is linked to the next by a subtle clue. The tone. length and content of each chapter has a purpose. The entire book is, to me a complete journey from abused child to adventurer. When people ask why, I simply say; feel the characters in the book, put yourself in my head, listen to what they have to say. Give weight to the simple words and statements. Then you will feel a part of what has shaped me. What I would like to point out is that how many people never even notice that the book is not about me. It is about the people, events and places that have shaped me. Not one person has ever commented on the dozens of fascinating characters that exist between the covers of The Adventurist. They expect it to be "I went here, did this and then I went there and did that" That would be the ultimate ego trip. For now I focus on introducing people to other people and making them think about the world outside their door. Why do people search for story arcs, false modesty, happy endings, clean cut transistions and nice easy to understand scenarios. Life on the edge can be confusing, short and without sense. To me a life lived well is a series of short intense events with no clear ending or beginning. The only structure comes from the way each event or person has changed your life.If life was really the way some people want this book to be, it would not be an adventure, it would be...well, fiction. For now I am thrilled that The Adventurist has turned out to be a litmus test for the adventurous. You get it or you don't.
Rating:
Summary: Pelton Rocks!
Review: This is one of my favourite books to reread, Mr. Pelton hits the nail on the head for adventure thirsty readers. The book offers insight on what it takes to travel, write, research and live the life of a true adventurist! I would also have to say, Mr. Pelton is a true romantic when it comes to his writting prose. If you have the slightest thirst for adventure and travel, then BUY THIS BOOK!
Rating:
Summary: Pelton Rocks!
Review: This is one of my favourite books to reread, Mr. Pelton hits the nail on the head for adventure thirsty readers. The book offers insight on what it takes to travel, write, research and live the life of a true adventurist! I would also have to say, Mr. Pelton is a true romantic when it comes to his writting prose. If you have the slightest thirst for adventure and travel, then BUY THIS BOOK!
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