Walden (1854)

This book connects to my human experience immeasurably. If you grew up in a conservative Christian environment the book will perhaps lead to a born-again experience and a baptism and resurrection to new life apart form popular forms of American religion. Thoreau's relationship with the divine is beyond the piety of any Christian I've met and the his wisdom pours out everywhere, like a new Jesus preaching the kingdom of heaven to come on earth. A man of deep spiritual insight into the natural world of all sorts of animals, especially of human animals, Thoreau recounts the insights he learned while living in the woods for a short time and rejecting common social conventions. Spirituality here is connected to the earth from whence it was created. Nothing is free of criticism, especially not even the pro-next, anti-this, life Christian religion. If you like this book, you might want to get a hold of "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" by the same author. ( )

"I am not responsible for the successful working of the machinery of society." ( )

602

I love this book and have read it many times, I don't believe that any other book I've read has had as much influence over me. I remember reading it for the first time and just feeling that I knew exactly that what Thoreau was saying was true. A real minimalist before his time, not just for his economy however he knew how to spend the time that he had gained, luckily he realized this early in life as he didn't have nearly enough time. ( )

I do not propose to write an ode to dejection,
but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning,
standing on his roost,
if only to wake my neighbors up.
- Henry D. Thoreau


I'm not a professional, but to me, it was a great work of literature and I enjoyed it's subtle language. It's not an easy work to read and it may feel boring at times when Thoreau goes on to sketch the very fine detail of all phenomena, but there is some beauty to that same fine grained penning.

I personally love the idea of living in nature, so perhaps I felt quite acquainted with Thoreau.

I picked the book up after watching 'Into The Wild', a movie on life of Christopher McCandless, who reads this book throughout and is heavily inspired by it. ( )