Avg. Customer Rating:(based on 70 reviews) Sales Rank: 14193 Category: Book
Author:Tom Brown Publisher:Berkley Studio:Berkley Manufacturer:Berkley Label:Berkley Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published) Media: Paperback Number Of Items: 1 Pages: 240 Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3 Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.7
Timeless book and skills January 6, 2009 I have purchased this book several times over the years, most recently sent to my grandson, Airborne, fighting in the high Hindu Kush mountains of northwestern Afghanistan...where reading the ground can save your life. He reccomends the book highly and hopes to, one day, meet Tom Brown, Jr. Brown has taught Spec Ops also. I also keep in my library his "Vision" and "Grandfather", among others. The ancient skills he teaches are entwined with ancient spiritual wisdom, a valuable combination. For those unfamiliar with Brown's life work and the ways of the ancient Apache - as 'bequeathed' to Brown by Grandfather (Stalking Wolf) - there are several YouTube clips. Any skill learned can be valuable. The skills Brown teaches can save your life.
Tom Brown, The Tacker December 30, 2008 The Tracker is a great book that any one can enjoy. Tom Brown tels many wonderful stories from his childhood. However, I would recommend reading some of Mr. Browns field guides before reading any of his actual books. The field guides introduce you to his life and his ideas in a very smooth way. Once you understand those things, then you will enjoy this book, and others that he has written much better. Despite this, The Tacker is still a wonderful book that I believe every person should read.
I rarely give a book five stars, this one deserves it December 22, 2008 I haven't yet finished reading this book but I read it every night. I am about 3/4 of the way through. If you are interested in Tom Brown then this is the book to start with. It tells the story of how he met Stalking Wolf as a child and then growing up he goes through all the lessons he learned and adventures he had in the woods. Some people say Grandfather is a fictitious character, and since there is no evidence he ever existed it is quite possible, although I prefer to give Tom the benefit of the doubt and take him on his word. And yeah maybe he did invent a sort of an imaginary teacher as he grew up in the Wilderness of the Pine Barrens getting to know Nature and learning all the skills that he possesses today. I personally am inclined to believe him and it is very likely Grandfather did actually exist. Even if Grandfather is imaginary the Philosophy contained in this book is awesome and Tom is a very wise man indeed. He inspires me. At any rate this book is a masterpiece and could only have been written by someone with a very deep and intimate knowledge of Nature and also of Spirituality. I rarely give a book five stars, this one deserves all of them.
The tracker December 12, 2008 I read this book many , many years ago in grade school. It's a life changing book. It changes the way you think about the wilderness. It's a great story about Tom Browns education in the art of tracking and we get to follow him along thru his adventures. It's made all my time outdoors more interesting.
The Tracker August 21, 2008 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book reads like a young boy's fantasy of living free, unencumbered by parental supervision, in a dense forest wilderness. In this case, that wilderness is the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. This is an incredible tale of a boy, his friend and the old Apache wiseman who teaches the two boys how to survive in the wild without modern conveniences, how to interpret the patterns of nature, and how to read the tracks, signs and traces that animals and men leave as they move within nature.
I don't doubt that Tom Brown is a wilderness survival expert (they are not that rare) or that he has extraordinary tracking skills. These achievements only require time and dedication. The level of skill Tom Brown displays as an adult could certainly be achieved by adulthood by any young boy with the intensity of obsession with wilderness survival and tracking and with the opportunities and freedom it appears Brown may have had as a child.
Stalking Wolf (the old Apache), if he existed, gave Brown a pre-scientific, mystical point of view towards nature, and Brown never misses an opportunity to show himself superior to those who don't share his viewpoint. A tone of arrogance and contempt for those outside his religion pervades the book, and he has fashioned his biography in a way to suggest his life has transcendent meaning that the more mundane lives of others cannot have. There are so many things wrong with this as a biographical memoir, a full discussion would extend this review beyond the length amazon accepts.
Brown has had 30 years to answer skeptical objections to the details of the narrative (first published in 1978), and I don't know that he hasn't already done so. It wouldn't be difficult for him to satisfy some of the doubts. The boyhood friend, Rick, certainly has a full name and attended schools in the same district as Brown. If he has died, he is buried somewhere. Stalking Wolf is Rick's grandfather (p. 5) so he is traceable in conjunction with Rick. And so on and so forth.
I would have loved this book as a boy. As an adult I distrust the simplicty and tone of it.
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