Reviews

Kävelemisen taito by Henry David Thoreau

pellesmith's review against another edition

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challenging inspiring reflective

3.75

maexboi's review against another edition

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2.0

Thoreau is in love with nature. He likes climbing trees, he likes walking through swamps, he likes going West (oh boy how he loves going West!), he likes to get up early and walk for 4 hours somewhere without a clue where he is going, he likes dark colored skin, he likes pigeons, he likes everything that is wild and free! Be like Thoreau and go West and climb a tree or something!

For real, this was broing, repetitive and even quite often contradictory. I get it, civilization is bad and so on, but why can't we talk about different realities without proclaiming one as the ideal one and the other as people just being forced to live a certain way. I know the idea of divergent ways of life can be difficult to grasp, but I believe it would have helped the point he is making, or at least it could have made it more suitable for our present times.

zombiefied35's review against another edition

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reflective

5.0

The edition that I actually read is not currently on storygraph. This was the most relatable thing i’ve ever read. Love it

narodnokolo's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

3.5

_mallc_'s review against another edition

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3.0

Not bad, has some really good bits.

tomuytt's review against another edition

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3.0

My review on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/review/RTST6FZDBAE07?ref_=pe_620760_65501210

ben_smitty's review against another edition

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4.0

Fun short read. Hard to follow at times, but brilliant in talking about the importance of nature and how it is disappearing because of civilization. The book was a plea for men and women to go back to the wild, where they are truly free.

daytonm's review against another edition

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4.0

I know Thoreau's faults as I know my own--his sanctimony, his arrogance, his hypocrisies. Most troublesome is his contradictory stance toward Native Americans, at times admiring, almost envious, and at other times erasing them, claiming the right of the colonizer.

But at the core of "Walking" is the very antithesis of the colonial mentality, a plea for wildness over dominance, immersion over alienation, "a Dismal Swamp" over "the most beautiful garden." I pray the environmental movement never loses this soul--the conviction that there is a better way of being in this world, that the necessary rejection of our industrial excesses is not a sacrifice but a return to and embrace of the bounties that surround us.

krismoon's review against another edition

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4.0

I’d teeter between thinking, “Wow, HDT was really insightful,” and “Man, HDT is so white.”

I’d love to go on long walks like he did, and I wonder if it isn’t akin to meditation. But alas, I have a job and a dream that requires production, and miles of mind-walking with my ass firmly planted in my chair. Maybe one day, though. I still have some hope for myself.