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Title: The Way of the Scout by Tom, Jr. Brown ISBN: 0-425-15910-8 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: July, 1997 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99

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Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (8 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: essential reading
Comment: This book is especially pertinent in the wake of the Attack on America. America is and has been very asleep and very unaware. Trained in the ways of the Mohark Scout and Warrior, Tom Brown Jr. literally teaches us how to increase our awareness and how to pay attention to what is happening all around us. This book will show the way on how we will win this new War.

Rating: 5
Summary: All these skills are very attainable
Comment: Like most of Tom Brown's books (especially The Journey, The Vision, and The Quest), there is a wealth of information between the lines. While The Way Of The Scout is not a blow-by-blow how-to book like Awakening Spirits was, it gives insights on the world that is the scout's. The skills are within access of anyone who wants to learn them, but more importantly, the mentality of the scout is the true changer of people.

The scout always put those other than him/herself first. This also extends to the environment, the surroundings. Will taking something from the land in the end benefit it? How can I help those who are depending on me? The scout was a supreme naturalist, healer, tracker, hunter, and protector. How many non-scouts can say that?

Anyone reading this can become a scout. It's also a level I hope to attain one day, and am planning on attending the Scout class offered by Tom Brown's school in the near future.

Rating: 2
Summary: disappointing
Comment: This book is categorized under religion/spirituality and the cover tells us that Brown "shares timeless secrets of self-discovery". It should be categorized as adventure. I was looking for a challenging book but found the book simplistic, suitable for reading on an airplane trip and not remotely in the category of Casteneda's books (to which Brown's works have been compared).

Attempts at profundity occur but are not followed up with anything meaningful to back them up beyond endlessly detailed exploits that do not explore a foundation for living differently. Characters are simplistically portrayed as open books before the razor sharp gaze of the Scout. This book is too in love with the hi-jinx that certain skills make possible and not with the spiritual concepts that alter the view of the world. Once the view is attained the skills become un-necessary, they are training aides on the way to a transformation of being, not ends in themselves.

It's enjoyable to sit with friends and swap stories from the teenage years, each one trying to outdo the exploits of the others and all having fun in the process. Brown claims to offer more but doesn't deliver.

Brown speaks of principles to live by then contradicts them in his accounts. Repeatedly he says the right things - that one should never injury or destroy, that one should be humble, that one should never assume. But this is followed by exploits in which there is way too much delight in the gratuitous humiliation of others and a feeling of superiority that reduces others to pathetic creatures under the gaze of the all-knowing superior being. When Brown does things that he thinks might be in error, he rationalizes them away or finds that Grandfather sees that what he did was right after all. Doubt, if momentarily present, is quickly put to rest. This book shows no inkling of human psychological frailty or depth. Straw men pop up continually but soon everything is clear to our hero and events fall into place, with some unexpected but easily cleared hurdles, just as he would have them. Does a Scout make any serious mistakes?

I've no doubt of Brown's good intentions; to help others to see life differently and become aware of the real world of which most are so unconscious. I have no doubt of his skill. But he speaks of never assuming and never harming. Then, he substitutes the beer of a known guzzler with the same beer can filled with toxic waste. He watches as the victim drinks from the can but assures us that he doesn't swallow. Did he assume he wouldn't? How did he know he wouldn't in the face of clear evidence that the man guzzled beer? There is too much of this in the book. I sense too much contempt for others who are ignorant of the Way of the Scout, too much pride and self justification. This is no different from the computer hacker whose undeniable skills lead him to adventures in which he alone is the judge of what should be done. Deliver us from those who might pursue the Way of the Scout with bad intent. I haven't read his other books so perhaps this one departs from the deeper reflection that I would need to see in order to believe that practicing Way of the Scout holds any hope for a better world in the future.