Reviews - Walden | The StoryGraph

1.58k reviews for:

It is really hard to rate this book! I didn't love his rants and his arrogant tone but there are definitely some great nuggets in there to ponder. There were many times when I was ready to be done with it, but then other times when I was fully engaged and even when I didn't agree with all the thoughts, it did make me think. I was also also a little bored with the second half of the book where he spends a lot more time describing things in detail. Overall, I would give it a higher rating as a recommended reading because there is some great wisdom and thought in there and it made for an amazing discussion at book club, but as far as my enjoyment I had to rate it lower even though I'm still glad I read it!

dree's review against another edition

4.0

inspiring reflective slow-paced

michaelmay's review against another edition

3.0

I showed up for the nature writing and thoroughly enjoyed those parts of the book. The rest is Thoreau's opinion and commentary on society and I was less into that.

Even his opinions that I agree with (the importance of contentment, for example) he expresses is such judgmental terms and his logic and analogies don't always track, so that I was irritated even while appreciating his overall point.

sw2802's review against another edition

0.25

reflective slow-paced

dystopiablues's review against another edition

4.5

challenging inspiring reflective slow-paced

farhadd's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 10%

The way it is written with big words. Everything goes over my head. This book could have been written with easy to grasp words.

zachgood6's review against another edition

2.0

This was a tough read. I had high hopes because I heard this is one of the best nature memoirs out there, and maybe it is, but not to me. I felt like I was reading an incredibly detailed journal of an old man that I became less and less interested in.
The only good part of the book was the conclusion.