Recomended Reading...

[ntrog8r]

There's a lot of info out there, and we've all gone searching for more. With the collective experience on this forum, we may have readjust about everything there is out there. So let's share our collective knowledge! What I'm asking for:

 

1) The best book you've ever read that you'd recommend to a Scout, meaning it's something they'd enjoy - so no Of Mice and Men, please (include age recommendations as needed).

2) The best book about Scouting you'd recommend to an adult. This could be a "how-to", the 1910 handbook, fiction, etc.

3) The best book you'd recommend to a Scoutmaster.

 

Please provide a BRIEF description and reason for your recommendation. My three recommendations follow.

[ntrog8r]

For Scouts:

The Runaway Robot by Lester del Rey.

A true classic that covers the story of a boy and his domestic robot. Their adventures cover Mars and Jupiters moons on their journey to Earth. This was my first Sci-Fi read and I still love the story. Exciting, filled with adventure, and deals with friendship, hardship, and loyalty whats not to love! Recommended age: Bear and up.

 

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.

Im sure everyone is familiar with this book about a young man who survives a plane crash in the wilderness with his wits and a hatchet, while dealing with the emotional strains of divorce. What a fantastic read everyone in our house loved it. Recommended reading age: 11 and up.

 

For adults:

Spirit of Adventure by Alvin Townley

Travelling around the globe and having the adventure of a lifetime, Townley finds young Eagle Scouts everywhere, continuing their life of adventure and service. They are in Afghanistan providing medical care, in Australia saving coral reefs, competing at the Super Bowl and the Olympics, in Africa and inner-city streets, they are everywhere and are making a difference right now, today. I learned a lot from this book. How former Scouts see their future in the world, the kind of things they hold on to, and some they dont. This book also opened LOTS of discussions with my own (17yo) son about Scouting, dreams, and the future.

 

For Scoutmasters:

Sneakiest Uses for Everyday Things: How to Make a Boomerang with a Business Card by Cy Tymony

Filled with great ideas you can do to dazzle your Scouts or projects they can work on themselves. Tremendous resource when applied with creativity to your Troop.

 

[FScouter]

I'd recommend most of the Jack London short stories especially The Law of Life, A Piece of Steak, To Build a Fire, To the Man on Trail. All have to do with survival. Read one while huddling in your wilderness survival hovel.

 

Also Steinbecks Travels with Charley, and of course Of Mice and Men.

 

[Eagle92]

All four books in John Christopher's White Mountains trilogy ( yes 4 books in trilogy, don't ask). Remember reading that in Boys Life as a CS.

 

Also the book about the Scout who hikes from Agentina to NYC.

[CalicoPenn]

1) My Side of the Mountain - story of a Scout-age boy that heads into the mountains of NY to live on his own.

 

2) The Fieldbook

 

3) Who Moved My Cheese - a short management book on dealing with change

[prairie]

I will second: 1) My Side of the Mountain - story of a Scout-age boy that heads into the mountains of NY to live on his own

 

2:The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Adventures of Huck Finn by Samuel Langhorne Clemens aka Mark Twain. Also a great oppertunity to talk about how some words that used to be common are now considdered hate speech.

[OldGreyEagle]

I love the classics, and for good reason, they are such Classics. That being said, the Leatherstocking Tales takes a look at a virtuous charactor throughout his entire life and mixes in quite the adventure as well. I read then in junior High

 

Demian by Hermann Hesse was quite the comfort to me in High School, I thought I was the only one who felt the way I did and when I read Demian, I could just see Hesse as an older German man sitting in the corner of my room talking directly to me and it gacve me comfort. I then went on to read Narcissus and Goldmund, quite the literal book if one is in the seminary when one reads it. I read the rest of Hesse, which would have to be a matter of personal taste, although the sequence in Steppenwolf where Harry goes in the door marked "For Mad Men only" is spectacular.

 

For adults, The Red and the Black by Stendhal gives a riveting course on the importance of appearance for appearance sake. It also gave me the answer as to why anyone would be against democracy, something I couldnt understand until I read the book

[nighttime]

My Side of the Mountain is great. I remember that book. It's a good read. Thanks for the recommendations

[CA_Scouter]

The Ascent of Denali, the personal diary of Hudson Stuck, written in the english of the day ( 1910 I believe ) , gives a very detailed account of the ascent but also the provisioning, equipment, etc...

 

Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer, if you can get past the parts where he glorifies himself and whines about his family you can get a picture of how McCandless made mistakes and poor decisions i.e. how he was UNprepared.

 

I always liked the Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway, especially how the young boy interacts with the old man.

 

 

[ntrog8r]

Great suggestions so far - My sidfe of the Mountain is a great book for younger Scouts!

 

Surely there must be more from this group? For all you out there with years in the program, what do you suggest? Keep them coming and let's see what we think are thebest books out there.

[Knot Head]

1) My Side of the Mountain. I loved it as a kid & enjoyed it again as a grown up kid. I read it about every other year.

 

2) The army field manual? I don't have a really good idea for this one other than the BSA publications.

 

3) The One minute Scoutmaster or maybe the Book of Virtues.

[boomerscout]

1) Two Hands and a Knife by W Miller. A young man is stranded for a year in the wilderness with no supplies or kit other than a knife

 

2) any book explaining the patrol method

 

3) any AMA recommended book on project management

[DeanRx]

For Scouts - "The Dangerous Book for Boys" - scouting needs to be the adventure these pages talk about

 

For Scouting adults - "Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv - while it draws a few far fetched conclusions, the overall hypothesis that kids (both genders) need free-play in nature as a supliment to well-rounded growth is well supported. We as parents need to be reminded that kids in the forest are not going to hurt themselves, are not going to die, and left to their own devices will likely learn more than we can teach them with programs structured down to every minute of the day.

 

For a Cubmaster / Scoutmaster - "Managing to Have Fun" (sorry forgot the author) - talks about management strategies that incorporate humor and positive reinforcement in the group dynamic. How to motivate people to get things down and have fun while doing it.

 

These are all pretty simple reads - nothing too complex or deep, but they all give real world examples one can easily put into action.

[SSScout]

For the Scout: Hatchet by Paulson, yes.

And... Diary of an Early American Boy by Eric Sloan. A reprint of a real Colonial era diary, illustrated and annotated by Sloan, who is a historian of old tools and skills and no mean artist. What I didn't learn about hand tools from MY father, I learned from Sloan's books.

 

For the Scoutmaster. Baden=Powell's Aids to Scoutmastership. A real challenge to the modern Scoutmaster.

 

Any adult? Any of Mr. Samuel Clemens work.