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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
challenging
reflective
I can kinda see why this is considered a classic, but I can also very clearly see why I avoided this book for the past 10 years. It's a very dry read and very hard for me to get into. I persevered and got through it this time, though (unlike when it was assigned for a class in college back in 2015)!
This book took me months to get through. It was my bedtime reading since I never became super engrossed in the story. It was overall an enjoyable read. Thoreau paints a beautiful picture.
Difficult read as a non native English speaker (and reader). Sometimes he lost track of the narrative he was telling, but interesting stuff and agree with his view on the world.
Very quotable, but I did feel like I ‘had’ to finish it rather than wanting to finish it.
Some of my favorite lines (not word for word)
-‘as if you could kill time without damaging eternity’
-‘“Let not to get a living be thy trade, but thy sport. Enjoy the land, but own it not’
-“However mean your life is, meet and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault finder will find faults even in paradise
-there is such incredible novelty in the world, and yet we tolerate such incredible dullness
Some of my favorite lines (not word for word)
-‘as if you could kill time without damaging eternity’
-‘“Let not to get a living be thy trade, but thy sport. Enjoy the land, but own it not’
-“However mean your life is, meet and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault finder will find faults even in paradise
-there is such incredible novelty in the world, and yet we tolerate such incredible dullness
Got very slow paced, many repetitions, it got complicated and my English wasn't good enough at that time. Will revisit someday for sure!
I understand that this book has historic literary significance, but nowadays it just seems overrated and underwhelming. Thoreau comes off as self-congratulatory and self-involved. The messages and contents, though doubtless revolutionary in their impacts at the time of publication, come off as trite nowadays. There are some great quotes, but better to read those quotes than the whole book
I remember not liking this book as a kid and being bored when visiting the pond on a field trip. Fast forward 30 or so years later and I found it much more enjoyable. Having some extra spare time, I read much of it by a local swimming hole and also while away at a silent meditation retreat with a pond. I also continued to encounter quotes and mentions of Walden while reading several unrelated books in parallel which goes to show how influential this book really is. It can be hard to get through some of the chapters which some may describe as boring, but that is kind of the point. If we slow down and just notice things, boredom is really just something we create as there is always something worth paying attention to.
I didn't actually finish this book, I've just had it as "currently reading" for 4 months because I started it but couldn't bring myself to finish it. I mean, I have like 5 books total in my apartment and all the free time in the world, if I can't make myself finish this I must really not like it. Which I don't.
i couldn’t get through the pond chapter and gave it up, might try to read again later but overall a bit too slow for me, although there is some nice stuff in there
I wasn't expecting to love this as much as I did, but wow. The "Spring" chapter is amazing. There's something weirdly captivating about the boring bits (ice melting!) too.