ecology

Let me start by saying I love all of Tom Brown's books! He writes just the way he wants,its the American way. The survival information within this book is great, if not for a little time consuming to retrieve. Outdoor Survival Skills by Larry D.Olsen is more to the point,better yet, get yourself a copy of all of "The Woodsmaster" videos by Dr.Ron Hood. I could not figure out how to do my bow-drill fires all these years untill I got them. Ron Hood presents survival info with a sense of humor and a grain of salt.I wish he was my uncle. .....Back to Tom Brown Jr.s Book.While I complain about the books content and arrangement, let me also say the book is a "must have" because I have found that it does take information presented by different people to sink into numbskulls like myself,and others. On 4-2-99 made my first bow-drill fire!ooooo-baby! Peace and God Speed to all.

This book teaches you about all that you need to know about outdoor survival. but, a book that was better than this was outdoor survival skills by Larry Dean Olsen. There was much more information in this book and it taught me a lot of more seful things that you could use in the wilderness which i have tested and they work. I would refer this book to the people that go to look at Tom Browns book.

This book is what it claims to be, i.e., a wilderness survival book. It teaches basic survival techniques such as locating water, building a fire and shelter, and "living off the land."

What this book is NOT is a book for nature lovers. Personally, I don't want to know 100 different gruesome ways to trap an animal, or how to build a thatch hut that will last 6 months, or how to make hide clothing accessories...all this in my, possibly, 1-2 day "survival situation"!?! Honestly, how many people get lost in the woods each year? Can't be that many (or for too long). I feel like Tom and his tracker school disciples DON'T WANT to be found, should they get lost. They want as much time as possible to test their perfectly honed survival skills, hopefully getting ample chance to eat leaves, bark, insects and trapped animals, not to mention building grass huts and stuffing their clothes with leaves. His book could have been called "Learn How to Treat the Wilderness as if it Were One Big Supermarket." Or "Nature Jocks."

Common sense is a far better survival tool than all the pages in this book: be prepared for the worst if you are going deep into the wilderness (but how many people actually do this) and learn a few basic survival techniques from a Boy Scout Guidebook. Better yet, don't treat Nature as your playground. Just take a walk in the woods, listening, watching, enjoying. Don't stop to identify each plant you could eat, or what animal track you passing over. Just breath in what Mother Nature has to offer. Leave your enormous buck knife and ample cordage at home.

The tracker school mentality is more about using nature's woods and dales as a place to roll around in the mud, practice kendo and make silly tools and living shelters. Just take a damn walk. Why complicate things?