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What If I Had Never Tried It: The Autobiography | 
 enlarge | Author: Valentino Rossi
Publisher: Motorbooks
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $15.09
You Save: $9.86 (40%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 239833
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1
ISBN: 0760326827
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.75092
EAN: 9780760326824
ASIN: 0760326827
Publication Date: April 9, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
What If I had Never Tried It is the first autobiography of arguably the world's greatest motorcycle road racing champion, Valentino Rossi. Certainly he is the greatest in modern times and similarly the best loved. This is the official, personal story: fast paced yet insightful.
Rossi’s record in the motorcycle road racing World Championship is supreme. First in the ultra-competitive 125 class starting in 1996; then in the 250 class only to graduate shortly thereafter to the big league of the 500s. In 2002 the premier class switched direction moving from 500 cc two-strokes to 990 cc four-strokes from then on to be known as MotoGP. Rossi rides for Honda and wins. He wins on a Honda the next year and then switches to Yamaha, to every race fans’ surprise, and wins against all odds. He wins again in 2005. No one is close. No one is faster. And all at speeds which approach 200 mph.
Both on and off-track, on the ubiquitous TV screen or walking in the street, Rossi is idolized as though he were a rock star. From his native Italy to California, from Philips Island to Laguna Seca, he has raised the limits, reshaped the frontiers of the sport and set new trends. Rossi has become the 21st Century face of motorcycle road racing. Yet he remains faithful to himself?one moment the intelligent, articulate interviewee; the next a jokester; the next the single-minded, focused, strategic racer with split-second skills the rest of us can only dream of.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
 A Mixed Bag for Rossi fans July 30, 2008
If you are a Vale Rossi fan you may not want to read this book as after you read it you may no longer be a fan.
The book is not well written. It skips and the time and subject jumps it takes are wholly nonsensical. Some of the content is plainly repeated and some portions seem to be stuck in just to make page limits. It should make light and speedy reading but were I not stuck at LGA for six hours I might not have ever made it through the book as there is nothing compelling about it.
I could almost deal with that but Rossi, who has long been one of my heros, really comes across as a jerk. He calls his dad and mom by their first names as if they really are not related to him. He regales us with his exploits terrorizing other motorists in his home city. He freely admits to grossly mistreating people - and especially the Japanese - for his own entertainment. He dotes on his tribe which seems to exist only to compensate for his own lack of social comfort. Not once does he even allude to any romantic interest which makes you wonder about some stories told. All the other riders are wrong and he is always right no matter what the topic or corner. Even the one photo he has of Jeremy Burgess his crew chief has only Rossi in focus which is but one of many very egotistical points of the book.
In some respects I wish I had never read this book. I have in my son's room an autographed and framed photo of Rossi that he signed at Laguna Seca a few years ago. I loved the most recent race at Laguna Seca when he proved that he is really the world's best motorcycle racer and that he is not one to sit on his laurels. Having read this book I find it hard to reconcile the Rossi in my heart and now the Rossi I have in my mind.
 Insight into the greatest rider we've ever seen July 25, 2008
The only downfall of this book is the language barrier. It makes for a bit of tough reading at points. But if you're a motorcycle racing fan then this is a must read. Insight into the greatest rider we've ever seen, and he's still under 30! 7 World Championships and counting. This takes you through his childhood up until his last title in 2005 with Yamaha.
 Ug. He shouldn't have tried it. June 4, 2008
This book is a LONG read. I don't know if the translation got lost, but it was painful. I don't know if Rossi actually penned the verse, but it comes across as poorly written and not at all thought out.
His stories are all over the place, and he tends to say the same thing over and over again, but in different ways.
On the plus side, it does help explain a bit about Rossi, and what he's about.
 Awesome June 3, 2008
This guy is the best rider in the world and his story is very interesting.
A typical "as told to" book May 12, 2008
In America there's not much coverage of Moto GP, so I didn't know that Valentino Rossi is one of the highest-paid athletes on the planet and a national hero in Italy. I began to watch Moto GP on satellite TV in Thailand about three years ago and was captivated by Rossi. He used to stand on the podium with a little smile on his face, as if to say, "What fools these mortals be!" He hasn't been winning so much lately, but he did two weeks ago in an awesome display of excellence.
It's hard to imagine just how competitive Moto GP is; tons of money are involved and every one of the riders is incredibly talented. We're talking speeds of more than 200 mph on two wheels. Rossi has been World Champion seven times, which should give you an idea of his skill and determination, especially when you realize how many times he has crashed or fallen off the bike. Success never came all that easy.
The book is a typical "as told to" effort by Enrico Borghi, a motorcycle journalist, and translated by Gabriele Marcotti. It is probably as close to Rossi's own beliefs as possible, but it's not great literature. A lot of time is spent on why he races bikes instead of cars (except for his adventures in rally racing, one of the most difficult competitions in the world), why he was happy to leave Honda, and how many friends from his village he is still very close to. I could have done with a bit less self-justification, but he claims to have been persecuted by the press all along, and this is his chance to speak his piece.
Rossi is a fascinating person, a gorgeous man if ever there was one, and if you are at all interested in him or in motorsport you will enjoy this book.
The only other thing I've been able to find about Rossi was an interview in a British man's magazine that said he likes Dire Straits. Hey, Vale! I like Dire Straits, too.
James Ashley Shea
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