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I actually really think, that one of the problems Rebol has, especially 
for beginners and people from other languages, is that it's hard 
to have a small model in the head of how things work  and why, so 
that out of a small amount of knowledge most stuff can be infered, 
at least sometimes it's not too consistent. (I know belongs a bit 
into the steep vs. shallow vs. deep learning curve topic)

More and more I think that was is not obvious is no longer obvious 
once it is obvious

There is an 'active' LISP tutorial that would be a good model for 
a 'Rebol for newbies'

I would like to use the approach taken in the 2.3 "Official Guide" 
book to introduce unit testing in Rebol for TDD "from-the-get-go"

In Smaltlalk we used to count on newbies exploring in a workspace: 
we reaped a culture where people thoght the point of O-O was to write 
subclasses and create deep hierarchies like, say, Collection.  What 
was obvious was just wrong.  Messages were the point, not classes, 
let alone sub-classing.  Am I wrong to suggest to anyone new: "buy 
as used copy of "The Official Guide" " ?  For Oz, which is so much 
like Rebol, I do not hesitate to recommend Peter Van Roy's CTM from 
MIT Press.  Scheme has 'Little Schemer' and 'Simply Scheme'   The 
latter would be my model for an interactive tutorial in which you 
LEARN.  Smalltalk was supposed to be about how we model things ( 
how we learn how things interact )

I think it fair to say that it failed.  Classes were not the point. 
 Objects were not the point.  Things went wrong early on in abandoning 
the Actor Model in early 70's     I am hoping Rebol3  is getting 
it right ;-)   ( Io, the language, is quite inspiring ( www.iolanguage.com 
) but I still think Oz is a great intro to Rebol (they, too, lack 
an effective learning tool to "think in Oz " )

todun, I would work on learning about the design of REBOL, since 
this is one of the primary features; It's generally well designed, 
very deep and ignores conventions of other languages in that it was 
not designed to be a "satellite language" for java or some such. 
It was developed on its own merits by a person who is very difficult 
to outsmart. I've used it for a decade and there are still concepts 
in it that are beyond my intellectual reach. Once you get the basic 
design, the rest comes on its own.

To everyone:

What characterize a good learning book? Do you prefer thick books 
with deep explanation and many examples, or do you prefer the thin 
book with the essentials? Look at your collection of technical book; 
about computer languages, OSs, databases or what you have. Which 
ones do you like, and which ones is no-good?