Walden or, Life in the Woods in Around the World in 80 Books

Mar 13, 2018 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it really liked it

Shelves: simplicity, the-classics-club, nature

I’ve been listening to this book for a month, and I’ve wavered widely between loving it and hating it. Parts of it, the parts about simplicity and ecology, are deep and profound. Parts of it, the parts where Thoreau explores nature, are lyrical. Parts of it, the parts where the author throws out cultural stereotypes of his time, are disappointing. Parts of it, the parts where the author goes on and on and in which one wishes Thoreau had followed his own advice about brevity and simplicity, are e ...more

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Jul 30, 2025 Antonio Gallo rated it it was amazing

"Walden" è un libro che ha avuto un impatto significativo sulla cultura americana e sulla letteratura del XIX secolo. Thoreau, infatti, è considerato uno dei fondatori del movimento del trascendentalismo, un movimento filosofico e letterario che promuoveva l'idea della spiritualità della natura e della libertà individuale.

Thoreau credeva che l'uomo dovesse essere in grado di vivere in autonomia, senza subire le costrizioni della società e del sistema economico. La sua esperienza di vita nel bosc ...more

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Feb 11, 2023 Erica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 2023

Last time I read this I was in my teens. My views on life have changed drastically and I think my take towards this book has changed a lot too. I came at it this time with more background knowledge on Thoreau and more framework for the time he lived it. My first time through I highlighted a lot of the great and famous quotable snipets. The time though, though I have lost my highlighted copy, those same quotes stand out like sore thumbs, but more to me now stands out Thoreau the snobbish, the man Last time I read this I was in my teens. My views on life have changed drastically and I think my take towards this book has changed a lot too. I came at it this time with more background knowledge on Thoreau and more framework for the time he lived it. My first time through I highlighted a lot of the great and famous quotable snipets. The time though, though I have lost my highlighted copy, those same quotes stand out like sore thumbs, but more to me now stands out Thoreau the snobbish, the man who is telling people how to properly live their lives, and what types of books they should read and doing so in a way that feels downcutting. And at the same time as telling them to march to the beat of their own drum, is also telling them, that if they aren't living life simply and reading the best (by his definition) books, and if they are participating too much in the ills and pretenses of society, then they aren't doing it right. There is obviously of lot of beauty here, a lot of great nature writing, ways of looking at nature that were newish to his time (Humboldt may have started this tradition...as Thoreau wrote with Humbolt's books on this desk). But there is also, to me, this sense that he is some lost, post-scholar, who goes to the woods, and partakes of nature as a privileged soul, sitting down into his meager cottage and thumbing his nose at society, all the while, inserting himself into this other society (farmers/people who already live on the outskirts of town life), while not acknowledging that this other society even exists. Like he is the first to settle down into it and exhale its virtues. I am not sure that I would like him as a personality. I do love a lot of his sentence/paragraph level thoughts on nature. I am not sure that I love him on an entire philosophy level.

A thought that came to me as I read this, is if this guys lived in the 2020s, he would be the guy who sold all his stuff to live the "van life". Life simplified down into all his belongings put into a van, traveling and seeing the world and posting it all on Instagram, and telling people to do the same, and giving you the sense, that if you don't do this too, you aren't really living. Privileged and lacking a sense of what it is to really live, because as much as they present to the world that they are cultured, they are not settling down into society, they are just passing though and acting like passing though is living a native life.

But I did enjoy reading it again. The sentiment that stuck with me most--

“I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out the window in disgust.”

As one who has so many rocks as minerals around my house, and living in the dustiest house we have every had, needing a new duct system, I couldn't feel more the same. I am tired of all the dust and constantly think of throwing it all away, just to simplify my life. This is certainly a quote that wouldn't have stuck out to me at all the first time through, but which hits home hard now. I wouldn't mind giving it all up and living in a van frankly. ...more

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Nov 04, 2018 Mike rated it really liked it

Shelves: want-to-re-read

I didn’t expect this to be a book straight up about mindfulness simply without the current “it’s what’s cool” phrasing. The book is easily summarized - I went to the words, payed attention to my peas, and the feel of the water and air on my skin and tried to soak in life. And that was enough.

Even so, i really enjoyed the read...and am reminded that I really miss loon song! Time for another summer on the Maine lakes.

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