Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
Listen, I have hermit tendencies and think minimalism is neat too, but this guy was a thoroughly unpleasant, sanctimonious ass with a superiority complex and incongruent ideas about cleanliness and what it means to be "civilised."
Being poor is somehow a good wholesome choice that people should be making, and having furniture is a moral failing, but mostly because he doesn't want to dust it??? Hunting is also a great pastime that should be part of "a man's education", but he doesn't want to eat meat or fish because it's "dirty". So I guess he's just in favour of killing animals for sport. He does, however, feed mice in his own house, like that's more hygienic than eating fish.
And don't even get me started on his ridiculously contradictory views on Native Americans being "uncivilised savages" and insisting that "being civilised" is a good thing, and then immediately going on about how Native Americans were, actually, properly clothed for the seasons and lived in well-insulated homes that just happened to not be built the way white people did things. So even though white people were constantly freezing, he still thought building uninsulated wooden huts was the right way to do it because it was "civilised", whatever the hell that means.
He had some glorified idea of what the ideal ascetic existence should look like, which was easily achievable, according to him, by being "simple", solitary and uneducated. He is the only illuminated being with an education that has achieved this state of mental transcendence, apparently. Him and Diogenes, with whom he shares a whole bunch of character flaws.
Instead of seeking solitude for its own sake, like [a:Rainer Maria Rilke|7906|Rainer Maria Rilke|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1620155315p2/7906.jpg], this guy wanted to be alone out of misanthropy and a really off-putting sense of superiority. I get that this book has that one pretty quote people love to take out of context and repeat ad infinitum, but this man was awful.
Being poor is somehow a good wholesome choice that people should be making, and having furniture is a moral failing, but mostly because he doesn't want to dust it??? Hunting is also a great pastime that should be part of "a man's education", but he doesn't want to eat meat or fish because it's "dirty". So I guess he's just in favour of killing animals for sport. He does, however, feed mice in his own house, like that's more hygienic than eating fish.
And don't even get me started on his ridiculously contradictory views on Native Americans being "uncivilised savages" and insisting that "being civilised" is a good thing, and then immediately going on about how Native Americans were, actually, properly clothed for the seasons and lived in well-insulated homes that just happened to not be built the way white people did things. So even though white people were constantly freezing, he still thought building uninsulated wooden huts was the right way to do it because it was "civilised", whatever the hell that means.
He had some glorified idea of what the ideal ascetic existence should look like, which was easily achievable, according to him, by being "simple", solitary and uneducated. He is the only illuminated being with an education that has achieved this state of mental transcendence, apparently. Him and Diogenes, with whom he shares a whole bunch of character flaws.
Instead of seeking solitude for its own sake, like [a:Rainer Maria Rilke|7906|Rainer Maria Rilke|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1620155315p2/7906.jpg], this guy wanted to be alone out of misanthropy and a really off-putting sense of superiority. I get that this book has that one pretty quote people love to take out of context and repeat ad infinitum, but this man was awful.
Muy interesante y divertido en algunos momentos, tiene una muy buena introducción a la vida de Thoreau, y el primer capítulo: Economía, fue mí favorito, después del 50% se hace más pesado de leer y no me interesó tanto sus descripciones del lugar, me pasa con libros así que se centran en el lugar en Estados Unidos y no logro generar interés en ello
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
Some brilliant passages and philosophy intermixed with the best sleeping aid money can buy.
Starts off well. It has a lot of promise. But it soon becomes too dry for even the most patient readers. A year ago I would have finished this book out of pure will, but I've recently decided that unless I'm thoroughly enjoying a book, I will have no guilt putting it down and finding something else that actually engages me. This one stopped engaging me about 1/3 of the way in. I'm sure you can find an abridged version of the few gems inside this one.