Incredible book. Having never read Walden before, I assumed I knew what it was about. And I was wrong. A combination of stoicism with naturalism/environmentalism--Thoreau's philosophy of life is simple and elegant yet very difficult to put into practice: 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, discover that I had not lived. ( )

Review of just Walden:

"There's no doubt about it, Henry David Thoreau was a very interesting man. An artist, a philosopher, an intellectual. I mean, he went into the woods and lived in a cabin for two years. He built the cabin himself. He just said "screw you, society" and left for a while, then came back and wrote a beautiful tome about it.

He goes into excruciating detail about nature many, many times. Sometimes it's pretty, sometimes it's just painful. He also goes into great detail about accounts and history and numbers and a bunch of stuff that I don't really care about, but he found important. He finds a lot of things very important, but he finds a lot of other things very unimportant. At times I would nod my head in agreement, but other times screw up my face in disbelief.

Thoreau's a little full of it. But he's also pretty cool."

Reading Thoreau's writings is an inspiring experience. "Walden and Other Writings" collects Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, The Journal and, of course, Walden. I highly recommend this edition for those who look forward to discover Thoreau's wisdom and to those who enjoy the wit and reflection of this wonderful author. ( )

This book is crap. Thoreau's "simple life" is utterly unsustainable en masse, and mostly depends on freeloading off others. Even Thoreau himself was unable to live by his own philosophy entirely; spending a majority of his time at his nearby relative's homes. "Simplify!", indeed! Simplify your own life and skip this book. ( )

Thoreau's contribution to American letters was not fully appreciated in his time nor even today. Hawthorne and others found him a bore and one of my college friends kind of gagged when I said I was reading Walden and his other writings collected in this book. Yes, Thoreau is not easy reading. But when he is not waxing poetic or citing Greek mythology or Indian Vedas, he's imparting a timeless wisdom and psychologically astute vision for productive living. He's funny, and cantankerous, and his close observations of nature can be beautifully written. I think Walden is a deserved American classic. Thoreau was a truly original thinker and his continuing influence is undeniable. It's a challenging read but you could do worse than learn from this brilliant, anti-authoritarian yet gentle soul. ( )