reviews
Jan 29, 2012
Greg
rated it: 
The tale of a man who dared to live in his parents backyard and eat dinner with them, and then lived to write about it. Compelling.
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Jan 29, 2012
Jessica
rated it: 
I first read Walden in perhaps the most ideal set of circumstances possible -- for an entire semester my first year of college, in a highly popular seminar made up of 20 first year students and a brilliant professor of intellectual history. All of the students had been chosen at random from among those interested in the course, and we felt lucky to have been selected. Each class, the professor would ask us to do a close reading of the next chapter, plus re-read all the preceding chapters, and th
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Jan 29, 2012
James
rated it: 
I often credit this book with my philosophical awakening. Thoreau presents a criticism of modern life, technology, economy, and wasteful culture from the perspective of one who has simplified his life and experienced something much closer to real independence than any other modern man. Some have criticized him for not being truly and completely independent - he lived on Emerson's property, he visited friends for the occasional dinner, he washed his clothes at his mother's house - but I think the
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Jan 05, 2012
Jacquelyn
rated it:
I didn't think I would enjoy reading this. I did, though, and I'm sure glad I picked it up. Written in a very articulate manner, the paper is enjoyable, convincing, inspiring and stimulating all at once. Thoreau's strong moral convictions and high respect for the individual are evident in each line. Some of my favorites are:
"Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison."
"The progress from an absolute to a limit More...
"Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison."
"The progress from an absolute to a limit More...
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Dec 17, 2009
Elizabeth
rated it: 
Walden: I take issue with a wealthy man living in a shack for a period and pretending that living one mile from town and having his mother do his laundry qualifies him to advise mankind to "sell your clothes and keep your thoughts."
An experiment in simplicity, getting close to nature, I'm all for it. But when your experiment ends in a renewal of your previous lifestyle, how can you advise others to make changes that would leave them in the position permanently?
An experiment in simplicity, getting close to nature, I'm all for it. But when your experiment ends in a renewal of your previous lifestyle, how can you advise others to make changes that would leave them in the position permanently?
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Apr 26, 2011
Milo
rated it:
I actually got to visit Thoreau's cabin for my brother's birthday this April. Despite it being below freezing the mosquito's had already started to breed. When we approached the pond we were engulfed in a cloud of them. I could almost hear them singing with delight as they began to feast. Almost...
perhaps intermittently between screams. (As a side note I would like to say that I am terrified of bugs. Especially the flying ones that like to bite) In denial of the adject horror I was experie More...
perhaps intermittently between screams. (As a side note I would like to say that I am terrified of bugs. Especially the flying ones that like to bite) In denial of the adject horror I was experie More...
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Jan 05, 2012
Ex
rated it:
A thought provoking book that invokes the paradox of American political history and it's long preoccupation with the triad of freedom/slavery/taxation and an interesting read in the time of the Tea Party.
On the one hand, Thoreau has clearly identified two of the great evils of American political history, slavery and, here in the guise of the Mexican American War, expansionist warfare. His desire to sever himself from any complicity in these wrongs is laudable, as is his willingness to seek More...
On the one hand, Thoreau has clearly identified two of the great evils of American political history, slavery and, here in the guise of the Mexican American War, expansionist warfare. His desire to sever himself from any complicity in these wrongs is laudable, as is his willingness to seek More...
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Jan 05, 2012
Chris
rated it:
(This is a long post which can also be found here: http://publiusnapkin.wordpress.com/2009/...)
I had meant to read up on Thoreau for quite some time now, and took the opportunity yesterday to read the Project Gutenberg text of Civil Disobedience on my Kindle. I found the essay well-conceived, enjoyable, and dripping with an arrogance that only comes with a supreme confidence in one’s intellect, moral standing, and social status. That said, while I was impressed by Thoreau’s well-articulated resp More...
I had meant to read up on Thoreau for quite some time now, and took the opportunity yesterday to read the Project Gutenberg text of Civil Disobedience on my Kindle. I found the essay well-conceived, enjoyable, and dripping with an arrogance that only comes with a supreme confidence in one’s intellect, moral standing, and social status. That said, while I was impressed by Thoreau’s well-articulated resp More...
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Jan 29, 2012
David
rated it:
Here's the thing: I like what Thoreau did here, and I agree with many of his philosophical points, and I hate giving up on books. That said, dude was pompous and long-winded. I've been trying to read this for about a month, but it has become that archetypal High School Summer Reading Book. You know, the one that you hate but is looming over you from the moment you get out of school until you finally look up the spark notes the morning of the first day that fall before the bus comes. I stopped re
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(2 people liked it)
Jan 29, 2012
Jessica
rated it:
I really had no clue what to expect when I picked this book up. I had never read it, and was only introduced to Thoreau through a grad course reading requirement of his. I fell in love then and this book continued that love. While many of his ideas are now cliche, to think that he was speaking them at a time when it was unheard of is incredible to me. There were many "ah ha" moments, when I realized things about everyday life that had not been clear to me before. Ideas about living sim
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Jan 05, 2012
Jeremy
rated it:
I wonder what Thoreau would think of the Tea Party.
Thoreau rejects government of most types and fails to pay taxes as a protest mainly against slavery and the Mexican War (from what I gather), which indeed are noble reasons to reject supporting a compulsory tax. If more people had been like Thoreau, slavery would have been abolished decades earlier than it was. That being said, I think Thoreau would have disdained the Tea Party movement since it seems to only be about angry people More...
Thoreau rejects government of most types and fails to pay taxes as a protest mainly against slavery and the Mexican War (from what I gather), which indeed are noble reasons to reject supporting a compulsory tax. If more people had been like Thoreau, slavery would have been abolished decades earlier than it was. That being said, I think Thoreau would have disdained the Tea Party movement since it seems to only be about angry people More...
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Jan 29, 2012
Emily
rated it:
A professor of mine once said that all human thought since Socrates is mere footnotes to his ideas. Having all but minored in leftist political history from the American Civil War to the present, Thoreau's writings would strike me as unoriginal did I not know that everything I've read before now has simply been the footnotes.
I felt some degree of ideological stimulation and an immense sense of reverence when considering his political theories. I felt a chill while imagining Gandhi' More...
I felt some degree of ideological stimulation and an immense sense of reverence when considering his political theories. I felt a chill while imagining Gandhi' More...
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Jan 29, 2012
Briana
rated it: 
I don't think I like Thoreau very much.
But I shall withhold judgment for now...
*EDIT*
Four essays later...I have decided that I don't like Thoreau very much.
I read in a book that Thoreau actually didn't really go off and live by himself for two years...what he actually did was sit around in a little house in the woods by himself, and then come back to his house and society, just like any normal person...sort of like a little kid with a backyard fort?
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But I shall withhold judgment for now...
*EDIT*
Four essays later...I have decided that I don't like Thoreau very much.
I read in a book that Thoreau actually didn't really go off and live by himself for two years...what he actually did was sit around in a little house in the woods by himself, and then come back to his house and society, just like any normal person...sort of like a little kid with a backyard fort?
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 05, 2012
Amy
rated it:
My students and I were talking in class about how Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi were both influenced by Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" essay. The question arose in class as to whether there might be a person alive now that would have a dynamic personality and ability to speak out for racial discrimination beyond the black and white problem. 2 of my students are Hispanic and are constantly looked down upon as if they must be an illegal immigrant because of their accent and
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Jan 29, 2012
Joe
rated it:
Thoreau attempts to provide humanity with a manifesto for justifying anti-social behavior. This book falls into the category of "unproductive things unhappy people praise to feel better about their inability to accomplish anything." You know the guy who sits in his parents' basement on his computer bitterly blogging about how awful the world is as he orders a pizza delivery? That's Henry David Thoreau.
In Walden, Thoreau recounts his stories after becoming fed up with all More...
In Walden, Thoreau recounts his stories after becoming fed up with all More...
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Jan 29, 2012
BJ Rose
rated it:
Thoreau said, "A written word is the choicest of relics." As someone who loves to read, I agree completely.
There were some real gems in this book - the sections on 'Sound' and 'Solitude' may end up being my favorite part of the book, since I also love watching & listening to nature. And he spent a very interesting 4 pages describing a war between red ants & black ants! But then he followed that up with a long, boring description of Walden Pond, how its shoreline is made of More...
There were some real gems in this book - the sections on 'Sound' and 'Solitude' may end up being my favorite part of the book, since I also love watching & listening to nature. And he spent a very interesting 4 pages describing a war between red ants & black ants! But then he followed that up with a long, boring description of Walden Pond, how its shoreline is made of More...
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Jun 09, 2008
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to
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Jan 04, 2009
Jesse
rated it:
This is about the "Civil Disobedience" essay, not Walden, which I read a few years ago.
I've wanted to read "Civil Disobedience" for a long time, especially when I found out that Mahatma Gandhi was influenced by it. However, after reading the opening: "That government is best which governs not at all;", I could not help wonder if Thoreau realized that he would probably no have been able to write this essay without government, which provides schools that tea More...
I've wanted to read "Civil Disobedience" for a long time, especially when I found out that Mahatma Gandhi was influenced by it. However, after reading the opening: "That government is best which governs not at all;", I could not help wonder if Thoreau realized that he would probably no have been able to write this essay without government, which provides schools that tea More...
Oct 16, 2011
Tomdoerr
rated it:
Walden is not what you would call a 'page turner'. It is not like The Lost Hero, or Kula's R-rated Vietnam book. Unfortunately, that's probably why it's my reading CHALLENGE. However, I do like some things about it.
When I read Sherlock Holmes last year, I loved the fantastic characters and the overly complex, yet right-under-your-nose mysteries. Again, this book is not like that, yet I love the way that both authors use 19th century English in its best form. To entertain.
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When I read Sherlock Holmes last year, I loved the fantastic characters and the overly complex, yet right-under-your-nose mysteries. Again, this book is not like that, yet I love the way that both authors use 19th century English in its best form. To entertain.
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Aug 11, 2010
Shirley
rated it:
I learned that "I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well".
I also liked this paragraph regarding God and Mother Nature: "I have ocasional visits in the long winter evnings, when the snow falls fast and the wind howls in the wood, from an old settler and original propiertor, who is reported to have dug Walden Pond, and stoned it, and fringed it with pine woods; who tells me stories of old time and of new eternity; and between More...
I also liked this paragraph regarding God and Mother Nature: "I have ocasional visits in the long winter evnings, when the snow falls fast and the wind howls in the wood, from an old settler and original propiertor, who is reported to have dug Walden Pond, and stoned it, and fringed it with pine woods; who tells me stories of old time and of new eternity; and between More...
Jan 29, 2012
Walden is a classic of course. I'm just in the beginning pages and finding it a strange mixture of very well-turned and memorable epigrams, along with a sort of self-pitying and lonely tone of thought. It may take me a while to get through this since I usually stop after a page or two either to relish an excellent turn of expression, or to restrain my desire to throw the book across the room and say "grow up".
Mar 07, 2011
Scott
rated it:
Walden was a hopelessly selfish journey into navel-gazing, 19th century style from a sort of 1845 version of Jack Kerouac, minus the wanderlust and panache. As such, the book elicits a mixture of allure and contempt for his chosen lifestyle and attitudes. And...honestly that kind of means he hit the mark intentionally or unintentionally.
Therein lies the balance and the lie of self-actualization. Even at our most independent, our most free-wheeling, isn't there someone to whom we More...
Therein lies the balance and the lie of self-actualization. Even at our most independent, our most free-wheeling, isn't there someone to whom we More...
Feb 07, 2011
Caleb
rated it:
Didn't actually finish it, read a lot of pages of Walden but decided to not finish it and read Civil Disobedience instead.
Ok, so what I like about this book is that it talks about nature, I love nature and boy does he talk about nature! Nature nature nature! It gets to be a little much for me, I'm obviously not as much of an enthusiast (that may not be a strong enough word) as Thoreau. What I also like is the philosophical aspect of Walden. One such way is in the "Economy" chapter More...
Ok, so what I like about this book is that it talks about nature, I love nature and boy does he talk about nature! Nature nature nature! It gets to be a little much for me, I'm obviously not as much of an enthusiast (that may not be a strong enough word) as Thoreau. What I also like is the philosophical aspect of Walden. One such way is in the "Economy" chapter More...
Feb 07, 2009
A great deal has been said about Walden by a great many persons. It is possible to imagine that Thoreau is an idealist or a utopian. It is possible to imagine that he is a social critic. Or that he is a proponent of some particular set of principles by which one might live. Even a survivalist. Generally he is very easy to misunderstand, in part because he is more radical than most persons, I think, would find comfortable. In particular, Thoreau does not seem to have any discernible positive proj
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Sep 12, 2011
I think a lot of Thoreau's ideas, although my irrational, idealistic side agrees with them, are just that - irrational and idealistic. Isn't it sad that those words are automatically pejorative in American society? Just something to think about. Unexpectedly, at least for me, Thoreau's ideas on faith, society, and interpersonal relationships were extremely insightful here. Despite the account's shortcomings, I still feel motivated to go build myself a cottage in the woods of New England and live
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Jan 05, 2012
James
rated it:
I would love to have met this man in person. What a brilliant wit and iron nerve to say what he did, when he did, and how he did, to who he did. For the contemporary patriot who doesn't quite know where he stands, this work will test his devotion, and force an analysis of his political thinking.
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Oct 14, 2010
Amy
rated it:
I am grateful that Thoreau went to the woods, that he tried to find an authentic and meaningful life, and most of all that he wrote about it. Profound, funny, and difficult, Walden should be read, reread and every word savored. He mixes metaphors all the time but pulls it off within the scope of his vision. I haven't yet typed up my favorite quotes (something I like to do with all the books I read), but this one may end up being 10-15 pages.
While Walden feels literally like a walk t More...
While Walden feels literally like a walk t More...
Sep 13, 2010
Caitlin
rated it:
I have always found "Walden" a little dry to read. It is an interesting case about a man who wanted to live up to his principles, but he did not live purely in nature. The essay is a struggle with his philosophy, and his ability to carry it out. "Civil Disobedience" is a stronger essay. He discusses the neccesity to stand up to an unjust government and inspired the like of Tolstoy, who then inspired Ghandi. However, his attempts to carry this out failed too... while jailed fo
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Feb 13, 2009
John
rated it:
In his "Conclusion" chapter of Walden, Thoreau says, "I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws will be expanded, and interpreted i
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Jan 29, 2012
Shelley
rated it:
My 3-star rating is sort of an average of the two:
2 for Walden (I really don't care how deep the pond is...)
4 for Civil Disobedience (much more to the point, very short)
2 for Walden (I really don't care how deep the pond is...)
4 for Civil Disobedience (much more to the point, very short)
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