It can take a while to warm to Jim Rogers. First you have to push past his enthusiasm for quoting Confucius and Mao and then you have to get beyond his fondness for recalling personal firsts in China ('It was my first time...' or 'I remember the first time...'). Then there are the Red Guard references and exclamation marks.
But once you make the effort A Bull in China is a surprising range of company research for the lay speculator with a few dollars to risk.
Rogers is the co-founder of the private Quantum Fund, and is regularly referred to as an investment guru. His book is an elementary textbook for the novice investor with an eye to capitalising on the seismic changes occurring on the mainland. It is directed at an American audience and written as a series of starting points rather than a list of top tips and company recommendations.
He does not say which stocks he has bought into but if he were to have a mantra, it would be to 'get out of the dollar, teach your children Chinese and buy commodities'.
Nevertheless, readers should feel free to skip the introduction where Rogers takes a trip down memory lane - he has covered a lot of territory with a motorbike and a Mercedes - and cut to his informative sections on share types and stock and currency reforms.
Despite his motivational speaker tone, Singapore-based Rogers has a more low-key approach to personal investing. His aim is to buy cheap and remain patient and, because his sights are set on the longer term, he identifies potential threats to stability. He gives a concise, common sense analysis of the country's challenges, ranging from the ambiguities of Taiwan to the perils of excessive liquidity.