Currency risk in excess equity returns: a multi time-varying beta approach [An article from: Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money]

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Currency risk in excess equity returns: a multi time-varying beta approach [An article from: Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money]
G.C. Lim
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000RR2YKU

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This digital document is a journal article from Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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This paper proposes a multi time-varying beta multivariate generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic (MGARCH) framework for estimating and testing conditional multi-factor asset pricing models. The framework nests a number of asset pricing models, and is especially useful when the betas and the factors themselves are of interest. The empirical study is concerned with the significance of a currency risk factor in the returns to a UK share price index-the FT Industrial Ordinary. Results are presented for models with time-varying multi-betas for the risk factors associated with the market, exchange rate volatility and inflation-differentials.

A Bayesian approach to estimate the time varying security beta (Faculty working papers)

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A Bayesian approach to estimate the time varying security beta (Faculty working papers)
Cheng F Lee
Manufacturer: College of Commerce and Business Administration, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Great Book for Managers

Packed with practical advice, easy to read and apply

Another great read by Carol Hacker!

Superb read for anyone interested in retaining employees

This book is a great resource for managers

The High Cost of Low Morale...and what to do about it
Carol Hacker
Manufacturer: CRC
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Binding: Paperback

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Building A HIgh Morale Workplace

366 Surefire Ways to Let Your Employees Know They Count

Managing Workplace Negativity

HR Answer Book, The: An Indispensable Guide for Managers and Human Resources Professionals

ASIN: 1574440985

Book Description

While the morale of an organization is an intangible element composed of feelings and attitudes of individuals and groups, the effects of morale include tangible and extremely important factors such as profits, efficiency, quality, and productivity. Low morale and its costliest indicator, high turnover, can be a tremendous drain on a company's finances. Managers often view morale as mysterious and unpredictable, when in fact it is a measurable, controllable expense. The High Cost of Low Morale explores the underlying causes of low morale and offers you field-proven, practical methods for increasing morale and reducing turnover in your organization.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book for Managers.......2001-11-25

I liked this book so much that I ordered a copy for each of my managers. I've used it in training and have found it to be extremely useful. My dog-eared copy is one of my bibles for dealing with low morale and employee retention. Thank you for sharing your ideas and that of the people you interviewed for the book.

Packed with practical advice, easy to read and apply.......2001-07-14

Many how-to books don't deliver what they promise. In some cases, the author never gets beyond obvious generalities, and in other cases the writer speaks as a theorist, not a practitioner. This book that escapes both of these drawbacks.In addition to drawing on her own managerial experience, she offers quotations and workable examples from 125 top leaders she interviewed. Readers will welcome her creative, upbeat, sometimes bouncy style--unlike most books about business. Sample: She titles her section on communication "Ma Bell Did It."

Managers will find dozens of suggestions they can use to bolster morale--leading to greater productivity and loyalty to the organization. I wish I had read this book during my twenty-three years in management, so I endorse The High Cost of Low Morale enthusiastically.

Another great read by Carol Hacker!.......1999-12-21

I enjoyed this book because like her other books, it offers practical advice for the manager or supervisor. It's got lots of practical information that applies to any business organization. A hundred or so people were interviewed for the book and that in itself adds a lot of credibility to the topic of improving employee morale. Those interviewed shared their perspectives on how they keep people contented in working for them. The author wove her own management experience throughout the book. I highly recommend this guide to managing morale.

Superb read for anyone interested in retaining employees.......1999-07-07

This book measures up to its title in that it's filled with real-life examples on how to avoid morale problems. The author speaks from her own experience as well as the many people she interviewed for the book. As a business owner, I found it extremely useful in dealing with my employees and their moods and sometimes difficult attitudes. Carol is an effective communicator and that made this book interesting to read and easy to follow. I could pick it up and put it down and not feel like I lost my train of thought. I have re-read it and bought copies for my entire team of people. We discussed it during several staff meetings and decided that we could do a better job of managing morale problems - better yet we believe we can avoid them altogether. This book is well-worth the cost and time it takes to read it.

This book is a great resource for managers.......1999-07-06

The High Cost of Low Morale opens up a world of ideas and strategies for improving morale in an organization. The author interviewed over 100 people in businesses of all sizes across North America for ideas. The result is an interesting and fun to read book on a subject that is of importance to any business. I recommend this book to anyone that wants a better team environment in which to work.

Book Description

The International Symposium on Interdisciplinary Science (ISIS) hosted some of the world's most renowned researchers in physics, life science, and chemistry to discuss the interdisciplinary approaches to complex scientific phenomenon. The collection is a diverse cross-section of ongoing research on cell motility, nonlinear waves, theoretical physics and biochemical complexity.

Customer Reviews:

If the rest of the books worth the read. .......2007-01-29

This is the fifth book of a series and if you have read the others it is worth the read. There were parts of the story that were so HOT there was steam practically coming off the pages, but that didn't make up for the boring parts at all. The first 50-60 pages were mostly catch up from the previous books. It is a slow starter. I still mananged to read the book in under 10 hours because so much of the book was from the previous books. I really expected authors writing to be more polished in this release. I loved Fancy's parts the best as this is the charactor that has the most devolpment. Darrius' and Jada are becoming played out. I will be starting the next book today "When Somebody Loves You Back." Hopefully there will be more to say.

3.5 stars.......2006-12-16

This book is like a Black soap opera. For me, it started off slow and then picked up. But when it picked up... it REALLY picked up! As bad as Darius is you just have to love this brotha and his "I'm better than you attitude". He is a complete and total trip. Fancy is almost as bad. I did like this book.

The only thing I didn't like was the SERIOUS soap opera drama going on. It almost made my head hurt trying to keep up with everyone and thier issues. Mary is a very good writer so it's not that bad. I will be getting the next book because I just have to find out what happens to everyone and if the homeless lady's predictions come true.

Absolutely Awesome - with a twist surprise.......2006-12-07

I must say that Mary has done it again! I've read all of the books in this series about Jada Diamond Tanner and I must say each time I just can't put the books down. It keeps you on your toes and wondering what's going to happen next. I have to say the endings really make you want to purchase the next book. I can't wait until the movie "Soulmates Dissapate" comes out. I just hope they pick the right actors for the parts. Darius sounds absolutely delicious. I just want Mary to keep bring the great stories. She truly keeps your attention!

Love the entire series!.......2006-11-06

Mary Morrison is an absolute pleasure to read. Her pacing is solid and the "intimate" scenes are off the hook. Her entire series is wonderful. They keep getting better and better; keep up the good work Ms. Morrison.

This is a very, very enjoyable story about love, betrayal and what can happen if..........2006-11-05

The author Mary B. Morrison in this story of what happens when we fall in lust instead of love, in her continuing series surrounding Darius and Fancy, their friends and family.
However as always, Ms. Morrison you have out done your self again, this story is fabulous, entertaining and we can't wait for the next book to come out so we can continue to follow the lives of Darius and Fancy...did they eventually get married???
This story has some very interesting characters, like the street lady, who gives both Fancy and Darius advice about their future. But, do they take her serious, not until the end when disaster after disaster constantly follows them.
This book flowed continuously from beginning to end and only as Ms. Morrison can, she creates the most interesting characters; who make you laugh, have you cheering, love to hate them and can even make you say "Humm"...
This is a very enjoyable book to read even if you did not read the entire series.

Book Description

Was Benjamin Franklin's famous electric kite experiment a fraud? And did it determine the course of the American Revolution?

Every schoolchild in America knows that Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm in the summer of 1752. Electricity from the clouds above traveled down the kite's twine and threw a spark from a key that Franklin had attached to the string. He thereby proved that lightning and electricity were one.

What many of us do not realize is that Franklin used this breakthrough in his day's intensely competitive field of electrical science to embarrass his French and English rivals. His kite experiment was an international event and the Franklin that it presented to the world--a homespun, rural philosopher-scientist performing an immensely important and dangerous experiment with a child's toy--became the Franklin of myth. In fact, this sly presentation on Franklin's part so charmed the French that he became an irresistible celebrity when he traveled there during the American Revolution. The crowds and the journalists, and the ladies, cajoled the French powers into joining us in our fight against the British.

What no one has successfully proven until now--and what few have suggested--is that Franklin never flew the kite at all. Benjamin Franklin was an enthusiastic hoaxer. And with the electric kite, he performed his greatest hoax. As Tucker shows, it was this trick that may have won the American Revolution.

Customer Reviews:

Absorbing character study.......2007-10-03

[This review was presented at a meeting of the American Revolution Round Table in New York City, October 2, 2007.]

The title ... might lead you to think we're pondering an academic version of Discovery Channel's Mythbusters, but happily this book is a great deal more, a serious contribution to the history of science and its interplay with society.
One might think, since people have undoubtedly always received shocks when shuffling across carpets, that natural philosophers would have sustained a steady curiosity in the phenomenon through the centuries, and made consistent but plodding progress in examining it. Well, apparently not. Beginning around 1743, and peaking over the next ten years, electricity was suddenly a huge European fad that gripped everyone, from serious scientists to high society to middle-class dilettantes to fair-going country bumpkins. It was suddenly realized that static electricity could be generated at will, by creating friction against a spinning glass jar; and with it, you could not only attract confetti up to your hand, you could make bells ring without touching them, or inflame a glass of brandy. Better yet, you could--in the pure interest of science--ask a willing, electrically-charged young man and a willing but neutral young lady, to touch, and enjoy the mildly prurient result of their shared convulsive shock. In 1746, the invention of the Leyden jar, forerunner of the electrical storage battery, made these parlor tricks into a new mass entertainment, fascinating everyone from village taverns to royal palaces.
One who caught the bug was the successful Philadelphia entrepreneur, Benjamin Franklin. In March 1747, Franklin wrote a friend that he was "totally engrossed" in the subject. Tucker, who has written on the history of invention before, goes to some pains to demonstrate that Franklin made genuine scientific contributions to the subject over the next few years. Among other things, in the process of meticulous experimentation on the properties of electricity, it was Franklin who coined positive, negative, plus, minus, and battery as electrical terminology.
Franklin kept current with scientific progress in Europe, and he knew that he'd done original and valuable work. He reported his efforts in the detailed epistolary style of the day to members of the British Royal Society. But not only did the colonial unknown get no thanks and no recognition for his labors, one of the best-known British scientists, the man to whom his letters were entrusted, William Watson, proceeded to plagiarize him.
This is the point at which Tucker's revisionist thesis kicks in. A subsequent missive Franklin wrote in 1750 contained what was known as the "sentry box experiment," in which a long iron rod was to be erected vertically into the sky and bent around into an open-fronted sentry box so that the bottom of the rod, hanging free, would not get wet, and then a person could supposedly conduct electrical experiments with it during a thunderstorm! The author asserts that, though phrased in bland scientific terms, Franklin's "experiment" was intended, and would have been received, as a sarcastic invitation to his nemesis to go commit suicide. Fortunately, no one ever attempted the sentry-box as Franklin originally wrote it. In May of 1752, however, some French experimenters, having read it in translation and taken it seriously, made some common sense revisions. They set up the rod as directed, but left a Leyden jar in the sentry box rather than a person. When lightning struck the rod, the rod charged the Leyden jar just as static electricity would have, demonstrating that lightning was electricity. Twitting the Royal Society, the Frenchmen gave profuse tribute to the unknown American, and Benjamin Franklin became world-famous overnight.
This put him into a serious fix, however. The question now was, what had happened when he did the experiment? Tucker's thesis is that Franklin stepped back, punted, and scored a touchdown: he dreamed up the famous electric kite experiment, intimated--but never precisely declared in so many words--that he'd already done it, and claimed it proved conclusively that the spark you get at the doorknob and lightning are one and the same. Franklin's clincher was an assertion to the Europeans that, by the by, we in Pennsylvania are already using iron rods to protect our buildings ... which was a bold-faced fib, but which catapulted Franklin to even greater fame, and was quickly backed up by instructions casually published in his Almanac for 1753.
Franklin went, according to our author, from being a scientist whose hard work had not been credited to a scientist credited for a proof he hadn't really originated. We might like to believe that Franklin would struggle tenaciously for his due while piously disclaiming the applause for what he wasn't, but ... that wasn't Franklin. (Nor, of course, was it typical of any of his contemporaries, or of too many geniuses before or since.)
Tucker devotes a great deal of primary source research to showing us exactly why the image we all share--of heroic Ben mucking about with a kite and a key in a driving rainstorm--is preposterous and simply never happened. I found it both interesting and convincing. His corollary contention--that the fame Franklin achieved as a result of this never-denied myth enabled him to coax the French into an alliance twenty-five years later, and thus "won" the American Revolution--is considerably more arguable ... but still engaging and provocative speculation.
If you have any special interest in Franklin or in the science of the Age of Reason, I think you'll find Tom Tucker's Bolt of Fate both entertaining and worthwhile.

Interesting read, but..........2006-07-15

I give this book three stars because it is basically fun and entertaining. However, much of the speculation about Franklin's elaborate hoax is based on reading between the lines in letters that Franklin wrote, or in just analyzing his over-all personality. One has to wonder how accurate this approach is several centuries after the fact. If you have more time, I would suggest reading one of the books about Franklin's over-all scientific career instead of this book, or maybe along side this book.

Interesting Theory, but How Accurate is It?.......2004-05-17

Tom Tucker's thesis -- that Ben Franklin's most famous and dramatic scientific experiment was a hoax -- holds up surprisingly well for most of his book. Tucker competently details the history of the eighteenth century science surrounding electricity, the various experiments with the phenomenon throughout Europe, and the personalities involved with its controversies. He is almost convincing in his portrayal of Franklin as something of an intellectually ambitious crank, using the sage of Philadelphia's numerous and well-documented literary hoaxes, among other things, to support the case for Franklin's alleged scientific hoaxes (the flying of the kite being but one of several scientific hoaxes Tucker says Franklin made up).

Tucker undermines his own book, however, by stretching his claims too far. He argues that Franklin's most famous scientific hoax was responsible for his oversized reputation in Europe, and that this reputation among Europeans was responsible, in turn, for Franklin's success as a diplomat in France during the Revolutionary War. Since France's support was a major factor in the American colonies winning their freedom from England, Tucker believes Franklin's hoax might have freed the American colonists: "It might have been a kite, the story of a kite, the hoax that won the American Revolution."

Of course that's a ludicrous judgment. And this highly questionable claim led me to look into how well Tucker's other claims on Franklin stand up. Even though "Bolt of Fate" was only just recently published, Walter Isaacson, the author of "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life" deals with Tucker's claims in a long footnote in his biography, and he is mostly dismissive of them. Isaacson writes, "[Tucker's] book does not address the detailed evidence I. Bernard Cohen cites on this question and is, I think, unpersuasive. Franklin's kite description is in no ways similar to his literary hoaxes, and if untrue would have been an outright lie rather than a hoax. Tucker also makes the odd allegation that Franklin's description of his sentry box experiment was a death threat to the president of the London's Royal Society.... The comprehensive analysis by Cohen, a professor of the history of science who is the foremost authority on Franklin's electrical work, addresses fully and more convincingly the issues surrounding Franklin's sentry box, kite, and lightning rods." [Page 534]

I have not read Cohen's research, and so I'm not able to affirm Isaacson's judgments comparing it and Tucker's work. I can say that there are parts of Tucker's book which are interesting and valuable, and other parts in which its claims seem greatly overdone. Read "Bolt of Fate" for enjoyment, but also with more than a little caution.

More Benjamin?.......2003-08-14

In the last couple of years we've had major biographies of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands, Walter Isaacson, and Edmund Morgan. Now we have Tom Tucker's take on Franklin the "electrical scientist." (Gosh, we haven't even gotten to the tricentennial of Franklin's birth, which will be in 2006. One wonders what's in the publishing pipeline!) This book has quite a few pros and cons. Here are the pros: Because of the 3 recent general biographies, we probably didn't need another one. Mr. Tucker has done us a service by electing to concentrate on Franklin the scientist. And although Mr. Tucker's background is in writing about science, he has an engaging "popular" style. There's nothing dry about this book. Another plus is that Mr. Tucker goes to great pains to show us how myth becomes enshrined as reality. He makes a pretty good case that Franklin never actually flew his "electric kite." Looking carefully at the primary sources, we see that Franklin gave instructions on how to construct such a kite, but never actually claimed to have conducted the "kite in a thunderstorm" experiment himself. He was also uncharacteristically evasive when questioned about details of the experiment. Mr. Tucker also points out that Franklin was not averse to a bit of self-promotion. If people wanted to assume that he had flown a kite in a thunderstorm....well, he wasn't going to disabuse them of the notion. Likewise, although Franklin came up with the idea and "blueprint" for the lightning rod, he apparently tooted his own horn by lying to his European "colleagues" when he claimed that lightning rods were being attached to public buildings in Philadelphia earlier than the historical evidence shows they were. Franklin was presumably miffed that the Royal Society in London had been virtually ignoring the papers he had written on electricity up to this point, and was trying to gain some respect. (There is also evidence that Royal Society member William Watson was trying to claim some of Franklin's theories and experiments had originated, independently, with himself.) So, those are the pros. What are the cons? Perverse as it may seem, zeroing in on Franklin the scientist is one of them. Frankly, (sorry, I couldn't resist) there isn't a whole lot to zero in on. Taking 237 pages to prove that Franklin didn't fly a kite in a thunderstorm, and that he lied about when the first domestic lightning rod was constructed, can tax your patience. Also, anyone who has read anything previous on Franklin won't be surprised by the author's comments that Franklin was fond of hoaxes, practical jokes, and that he was a lot more sophisticated than his public persona. However, the most grievous "negative" is that the author tries to assert that Franklin was responsible for our victory in the Revolutionary War. The logic is as follows: Franklin's self-promotion as an "electrical scientist" resulted in his being immensely popular in France. He parlayed this popularity into gaining a great deal of influence with Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, et al. Bingo....he convinced the French to form an alliance with the upstart Americans, which enabled us to win the war. While it is true that Franklin was popular and had influence, it is a long stretch to say that he was single-handedly responsible for the French coming in on the American side. Other Americans, such as John Adams, played key roles, and the French had excellent reasons of their own to enter the fray. Mr. Tucker may have felt that the basic theme of his book didn't quite pack enough of a wallop, and so he decided to "jazz" the narrative up with "The French Connection." But, he took things a bit too far. In any case, this book is worth reading for its exploration of myth vs. reality and for its elucidation of 18th century professional jealousy and backbiting within the world of the "electrical scientists."

Fun Book.......2003-06-23

I enjoyed this book because the author obviously likes and respects Benjamin Franklin so the story of how he flew the kite is one of a celebration of Franklin. As an ex-US History I know the playful mischiefness wit of Franklin is lost in our classrooms. The book does a great job of exposing this other side of Franklin so often lost.

Bolt of Fate: Benjamin Franklin & His Electric Kite Hoax

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Bolt of Fate: Benjamin Franklin & His Electric Kite Hoax
Tom Tucker
Manufacturer: Diane Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0756793327

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Was Ben Franklin's famous electric kite experiment a hoax? And did it determine the course of the Amer. Revolution (AR)? Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm in the summer of 1752. The kite conducted elec. & threw a spark from a key attached to the kite's string, thus proving that lightning & elec. were one. Franklin's kite experiment was an internat. event & the Franklin that it presented to the world became the Franklin of myth. He charmed the French & became a celebrity when he traveled there during the AR, & the French powers were cajoled into joining us in our fight against the Brit. Franklin was an enthusiastic hoaxer who launched a number of pranks & deceptions. With the electric kite, he managed the greatest hoax of them all -- the trick that may have won the AR.

Benjamin Franklin's science.(Scientists' Bookshelf)(Book Review): An article from: American Scientist

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Benjamin Franklin's science.(Scientists' Bookshelf)(Book Review): An article from: American Scientist

Manufacturer: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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In February 1976, the body of a woman was found on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The official autopsy attributed her death to exposure. Both hands were severed and sent to Washington for fingerprinting, and the body was hastily buried without legal documents.

When the FBI identified the woman as Anna Mae Aquash, a Canadian Mi'kmaq active in the American Indian Movement, her family and friends demanded a second autopsy. It revealed that Anna Mae had been killed by a bullet fired execution-style into the back of her head.

Anna Mae Aquash worked alongside Leonard Peltier and other leading members of the American Indian Movement. Like Peltier, whose case is now a cause célèbre, Aquash was targeted by the FBI. No serious investigation has ever been undertaken to determine the identities of her murderers, but evidence points to the involvement of American law enforcement officials.

In this second edition of this book, former federal Member of Parliament Warren Allmand contributed a foreword, explaining the links between Peltier and Aquash's cases.

Though some of the information in this book has become outdated as more information became available in 2001 and later about the complex facts surrounding Aquash's death, this book stands as the only publication that tells the story of her life and the puzzling circumstances of her murder.

Customer Reviews:

amazing.......2000-05-10

i think that its about time the true story of anna is told. i think this book is a real eye opener. i recommend it to everyone.

A fine book about a concerning subject.......1999-02-23

Unfortunately, this is the only book that deals with completely with the death of Anna Mae Aquash. Very informative and very disturbing at times, it will leave you demanding justice and wanting to know more. By itself, this book is slighlty incomplete. However, along with the absolutely necessary "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" and along with the Anna Mae Aquash sites at Dickshovel.com, you will begin to truly appreciate the direness of the situation, even 25 years after Anna Mae's death. Peace be with you.

Amazon.com

At 57, with heart disease and a bad case of wanderlust, Gary Paulsen decided to get himself the motorcycle of his dreams and take it to Alaska from his home in New Mexico. "The bike held me like a hand, caught me and took me with it so that the engine seemed to be my engine, the wheels my wheels," he writes. "It was singular, visceral, unlike any other motorcycle I had ever ridden. In some way it brought me out of myself, out ahead of myself, into myself, into the core of what I was, what I needed to live. And I knew, my core knew that I would never be the same again, could never be the same."

Paulsen writes in a blaze of macho invective, about men who like drinkin' and butcherin' and guns and "poker with no-limits stakes, or stakes high enough to make you intensely focus on everything there is--and there is everything--in the game." But when he's writing about the spicy characters he's encountered in his wide-ranging travels around America, this short memoir, for all its exaggerated manliness, turns out to be quite funny. --Maria Dolan

Customer Reviews:

Author takes to the Open Road.......2006-07-06

A great book in the genre of the open road as the author takes his Harley from New Mexico to Alaska

A poor job by Gary Paulsen.......2003-03-02

If you're looking for this book, it has been newly reprinted (word for word) under the title, _Zero to Sixty: The Motorcycle Journey of a Lifetime_.
I love many of Gary Paulsen's books. I've heard Gary discuss his books at a bookstore appearance; Gary appears to be a very genuine, intelligent, and caring man and author.
BUT, this book seems to have been cobbled together to meet a contractual obligation. Not only is the book short, but the print line spacing is expanded to "fluff" the text. Typical books have 28 to 32 lines of text per page; this book has 24. The title doesn't even match: the journey isn't a "pilgrimage," since the length of trip is more important than the destination. While the book is in part about Gary Paulsen's relationship with motorcycles and journeys, it isn't about "men and motorcycles." There's some glorification of how a Harley, different from any other motorcycle, "brought me out of myself, out ahead of myself, into myself, into the core of what I was, what I needed to live," but no thought about WHY the Harley brand does this for Gary -- or why other motorcyclists feel that other brands fit THEIR soul. (See _The Perfect Vehicle: What It is about Motorcycles_ for Melissa Holbrook Pierson's take on her relationship with her Moto Guzzi.)
_Pilgrimage_ contains some interesting insights into Gary Paulsen's life, and has some beautifully written passages: but that's what you might expect in a long magazine interview.
The profanity is inappropriate and very stilted. Further, the profanity suddenly and almost totally stops halfway through the book at the start of chapter five -- almost as if an editor said, "Gary, you've got to throw some profanity into the first half of the book. After all, it is a 'Harley book.'" Who knows -- maybe the same editor later said, "hey, let's put out the same book under a different title and not tell anyone."
Borrow this book if you must read it -- it's a very quick read. But DON'T give up on Gary Paulsen if this is your first book of his -- he's an excellent writer -- just not here -- and perhaps not in his other directly autobiographical books.

its an ok read.....there are many that are better though.......2002-11-26

A very fast read, a few hours for a slow reader. If you are looking for an inspiring book to get you out on the road in your fifties it might do it for you. Mostly he talks of his life before this ride he takes with a friend to Alaska during a month long trip. About the only thing memorable about his trip was rain and more rain and the lousy road condition on the Alaska highway. A bunch of poor stories about growing up and about the times he did the Alaskan Ididrod with team of dogs and a sled. He should have written a story about that he seemed more knowledgeable. Not really a profound writer with deep articulated insight. Blue collar over 60 harley riders might like and relate. It was just ok.

From a rider's perspective..........2002-09-03

Gary Paulsen is admittedly patently insane, but that shouldn't stop you from reading this book. Alcoholic parents turned him homeless at age 14, so he eked out a bare existence doing any thing that paid, from fence posting to tarring roofs and digging septic systems, cutting trees in snow, picking crops with migrants, etc.
You might ask, why do you care about this guy's life? Because while the book's title suggests a road journey, the subtitle suggests otherwise: "a memoir about men and motorcycles." But this book is not about either; there is only one bike involved and one guy's story. Since I don't believe in false advertising, I would change that subtitle to "a memoir about myself." And this is what we get. We get an award-winning book author who makes no compromises with his life, who clocked up 10,000 miles on the Alaskan Highway astride his Harley the moment he laid $19K on her and just weeks after doctors told him he had heart disease. And that's nothing compared to the 20,000 miles he claims he's done as a real sled-dog musher and Iditarod finisher.
Paulsen's writing style is direct, in-your-face, colloquial. This explains why his books are big sellers in the "young adult" market. He's never eloquent, but then you don't have to be when you can write something like this: "To seek. Not to find, not to end but to always seek a beginning."
Paulsen is like so many riders out there scribbling on the slab: a pilgrimage is not about traveling to any holy place since the holy place is found in the traveling itself.
At only 179 pages, Steel Ride is a fast read and despite the journey to Alaska, the book doesn't exactly inspire trekking there because we hardly get out of Paulsen's own head trip. For every mile we go forward we get two miles back into his personal history. But it's a fascinating history and a kind of life better heard than lived.
He pleads with the reader about hurrying up to Alaska by any means possible "before it's too late, before the jaws of life clamp down on your neck." Now there's some good advice.

The book I could put down and may not finish.......2001-01-14

This book is nothing but a rant with a great deal of lewd, foul language and situations. It includes items from the authors life, such as stories about high stakes poker games, barely-stand-up-drunkeness, more foul language, and more sexual situations and fantasies. Not the book I intended to read by the cover and search criteria. I had hoped to find a book that would express in words what it is like to RIDE a motorcycle. Not to the store. Not on a good weekend with perfect weather. But a book about the open road and how a mtorocycle moves a person to peace and change in their lives. I do not know if I will be able to finish it due to the language and situations it describes. NOT A BOOK TO SHARE WITH SOMEONE INTERESTED IN "THE QUEST" or a kid.

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