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darbyshirew's review against another edition
2.0
My favorite part of this book was the inscription from a person who owned my copy before me:
"Phil—
My best childhood memories come from summer vacations on the beach! I hope you can remember some while reading this book!
Love,
Tom"
lol
"Phil—
My best childhood memories come from summer vacations on the beach! I hope you can remember some while reading this book!
Love,
Tom"
lol
pjv1013's review against another edition
4.0
A pouco mais de um mês de visitar o Cape Cod (Massachusetts) li este clássico da literatura de viagens que corresponde a um cojunto de textos escritos em 1849 por Henry David Thoreau. Um texto informativo mas também um texto enriquecedor do leitor enquanto curioso por um território.
ameeth's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
I couldn't pass up the opportunity to read this collection while on my first visit to Cape Cod, nearly 175 years after Thoreau's ventures. The world (and the cape) has changed in many ways since his time, so it was interesting to step into the past and compare/contrast our experiences.
Here, Thoreau struck me as a methodical, nerdy, observant, dark but funny guy who really loved to walk. I most enjoyed his pontifications on the natural elements, and man's relationship to the sea; I found those observations relatable, affecting, and relevant as ever. Personally, I could have done without his elongated sections on botany, etymology, and pre-colonial history.
Here, Thoreau struck me as a methodical, nerdy, observant, dark but funny guy who really loved to walk. I most enjoyed his pontifications on the natural elements, and man's relationship to the sea; I found those observations relatable, affecting, and relevant as ever. Personally, I could have done without his elongated sections on botany, etymology, and pre-colonial history.
jasonwith_y's review against another edition
4.0
I won this book in last Christmas' Yankee swap and began reading it the summer on the Cape. I began at Kalmus beach, read the largest chunk at Nausett beach, and finished it – inappropriately enough – at the 31st street beach in Chicago on Lake Michigan.
Like the ebb and flow of the ocean-side tide, Thoreau meanders through history, local culture, botany, and metaphysics as he describes 3 trips he took to the as yet underdeveloped Cape. While parts were slow (how many scientific names do we really need for beach grass), just as my boredom crescendoed I'd be surprised by an aphorism that I'd think on for days to come. Eventually, I started reading with a highlighter in hand.
If you're fond of sand dunes...and lighthouses, wit, shipwrecks, mediations on the human condition (a la Walden), fire and brimstone preachers, and salty air, it's worth picking this up one summer-- or better yet-- autumn on the seashore.
Like the ebb and flow of the ocean-side tide, Thoreau meanders through history, local culture, botany, and metaphysics as he describes 3 trips he took to the as yet underdeveloped Cape. While parts were slow (how many scientific names do we really need for beach grass), just as my boredom crescendoed I'd be surprised by an aphorism that I'd think on for days to come. Eventually, I started reading with a highlighter in hand.
If you're fond of sand dunes...and lighthouses, wit, shipwrecks, mediations on the human condition (a la Walden), fire and brimstone preachers, and salty air, it's worth picking this up one summer-- or better yet-- autumn on the seashore.
duffypratt's review against another edition
2.0
I think I might not be cut out for travel/nature books. Thoreau's writing is brilliant, and, having grown up on Long Island, I love the beach and ocean. So this should be a very good fit for me. And yet I found it sometimes inspiring, and at other times a bit of a chore.
I'd like to think that the repetitions in the book are meant to echo the rolling and crashing of the waves. But instead, I tend to think that the book is just not as tight as it could have been, and is just somewhat repetitive. There are some great things in here: the Shipwreck, the description of the Lighthouse, and the Oysterman come immediately to mind. And I'm impressed at how much walking Thoreau did, and how much he got out of his walks. It makes me think that there's something to the meditative aspect of long walks. But that doesn't mean I want to read about every detail, even when the writing is brilliant.
One thing that comes across pretty strongly is how much louder our world is than Thoreau's was. He constantly impresses the reader with the roar of the surf. I've lived by the ocean, and I don't often find it a roar at all. Usually, its quite soothing. Of course, I've also lived in apartments just above Broadway in New York, and in other cities. And we now live with constant noise and music, so the presence of the ocean noise doesn't interrupt silence any more. We don't have that much quiet time in our lives at all anymore, and most people shun silence. For a naturalist like Thoreau, my guess is that silence was more the norm, and the incessant sound of the ocean made a big impression on him.
At the close of the book Thoreau dismisses barrier beaches as being nothing more than a sandbar. The barrier beaches are what I grew up with. The Long Island beaches, the Jersey shore, Assateague Island, the Outer Banks. I love them all, and I can't abide someone dismissing them. Think of an island that continually gets wiped out at one side by the surf, and renewed at the other end, an island where the land is never sure, even though the island persists. And then think that an ecosystem grew up to thrive in just such an environment, with all sorts of life specifically adapted to just this kind of ceaseless change. And Thoreau simply dismisses this different wonder, I guess because its not his native Massachusetts, or because his long walks hadn't really taken him there. I'm actually a bit surprised at this kind of provincialism from him.
The other laugh I had at Thoreau's expense is his prediction at the end of the book that Cape Cod would never become a fashionable resort area. Oh, if the Kennedy's had only known.
I liked this considerably more than A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (which felt more like several months), but nowhere as near as much as Walden. My guess is, if there were no TV, if I hadn't grown up near the beach, and if this were the only way to vicariously experience it, I would be much more impressed with this book. As it is, I found the writing remarkable, the subject matter intrinsically interesting, but the book as a whole rather dull.
I'd like to think that the repetitions in the book are meant to echo the rolling and crashing of the waves. But instead, I tend to think that the book is just not as tight as it could have been, and is just somewhat repetitive. There are some great things in here: the Shipwreck, the description of the Lighthouse, and the Oysterman come immediately to mind. And I'm impressed at how much walking Thoreau did, and how much he got out of his walks. It makes me think that there's something to the meditative aspect of long walks. But that doesn't mean I want to read about every detail, even when the writing is brilliant.
One thing that comes across pretty strongly is how much louder our world is than Thoreau's was. He constantly impresses the reader with the roar of the surf. I've lived by the ocean, and I don't often find it a roar at all. Usually, its quite soothing. Of course, I've also lived in apartments just above Broadway in New York, and in other cities. And we now live with constant noise and music, so the presence of the ocean noise doesn't interrupt silence any more. We don't have that much quiet time in our lives at all anymore, and most people shun silence. For a naturalist like Thoreau, my guess is that silence was more the norm, and the incessant sound of the ocean made a big impression on him.
At the close of the book Thoreau dismisses barrier beaches as being nothing more than a sandbar. The barrier beaches are what I grew up with. The Long Island beaches, the Jersey shore, Assateague Island, the Outer Banks. I love them all, and I can't abide someone dismissing them. Think of an island that continually gets wiped out at one side by the surf, and renewed at the other end, an island where the land is never sure, even though the island persists. And then think that an ecosystem grew up to thrive in just such an environment, with all sorts of life specifically adapted to just this kind of ceaseless change. And Thoreau simply dismisses this different wonder, I guess because its not his native Massachusetts, or because his long walks hadn't really taken him there. I'm actually a bit surprised at this kind of provincialism from him.
The other laugh I had at Thoreau's expense is his prediction at the end of the book that Cape Cod would never become a fashionable resort area. Oh, if the Kennedy's had only known.
I liked this considerably more than A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (which felt more like several months), but nowhere as near as much as Walden. My guess is, if there were no TV, if I hadn't grown up near the beach, and if this were the only way to vicariously experience it, I would be much more impressed with this book. As it is, I found the writing remarkable, the subject matter intrinsically interesting, but the book as a whole rather dull.
cdcsmith's review against another edition
4.0
Technically speaking, I read this book under a different name. The book I grabbed from a library sale was modified for readers of English as a second language. Certain words were bolded and explained for the reader, but it is the same book.
I spent summers in Provincetown from roughly 1969 until 1987. My grandparents lived there. I love this area of the world so it was extremely interesting to read about Thoreau walking 30 miles of beach, some of which I've walked on too.
Things have changed. A lot. But then things have changed a lot since 1987. Provincetown is almost unrecognizable to me now. I loved hearing about his take on it.
I spent summers in Provincetown from roughly 1969 until 1987. My grandparents lived there. I love this area of the world so it was extremely interesting to read about Thoreau walking 30 miles of beach, some of which I've walked on too.
Things have changed. A lot. But then things have changed a lot since 1987. Provincetown is almost unrecognizable to me now. I loved hearing about his take on it.
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