Take a photo of a barcode or cover
ashie64's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
I really enjoyed this book! It's been fun reading through journal entries, getting more of a sense of who Thoreau was as a person in this book, both through his words and descriptions from his travel companions, and what he found interesting along with of course the insightful paragraphs of him writing philosophically about his encounters. It's also a fascinating read from a historical standpoint- getting through each trip and actually feeling the difference that Thoreau is describing about his three trips into the woods over several years. Thoreau was watching the Maine woods be colonized before his eyes, and had quite a bit to say about it. A good book to take your time with.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Racial slurs, and Colonisation
brendapike's review against another edition
3.0
I started reading this when we climbed Mount Katahdin this summer, and as a travelogue, I found it fascinating. Despite growing up in Maine, I don't know much about it during that time period, and reading about how unsettled some of these now-familiar places were is intriguing.
However, I don't know how far to trust Thoreau. He seems to be the sort of person who exaggerates his own accomplishments and the faults of those around him. And I think he also intentionally exaggerates the wildness of the area. For instance, when going up Katahdin, he specifically approaches it from the side without the easier road, and throughout his travels he avoids other white men whenever possible. And he represents Sangerville in 1853 as being far more unpopulated than it actually was. At least two of my great-great-grandparents were born in Wellington (just two towns over) a decade before, indicating the presence of families there and not just hunters and lumbermen.
It's when he moves away from the travelogue and starts editorializing that I actually hate him. His disparaging comments about Indians in general and the guides he hired specifically were the worst. For someone who supposedly idolized nature, he certainly didn’t appreciate how closely Indians lived to it. He actually says at one point: “What a coarse and imperfect use Indians and hunters make of Nature! No wonder that their race is so soon exterminated.”
Also, Thoreau—who once accidentally burned down 300 acres of Concord woods—regularly makes bonfires in the middle of the forest ten feet wide that flame up beyond the treetops, and talks about how the amount of wood he used for one night's campfire could keep a poor city family with an airtight stove in wood for the whole winter. But he bemoans the white pine and moose killed by others as a waste. I guess, to him, anything not in the service of beauty is a waste. He actually says at one point: "It is the poet who makes the truest use of the pine." He even talks about the frequent fires in Maine, "which we hear so much about on smoky days in Massachusetts," caused perhaps by the lumbermen regularly not putting out their fires, but he makes no connection between that and himself.
I should like Thoreau—I imagine we have many of the same ideals—but I can't bring myself to it. He reminds me too much of Collin Beaver ("No Impact Man"). Lots of grandstanding, much of it completely unrealistic. Lot of reflexive admiration for things that he sees as being more "authentic" than his own environment. Not much understanding of other people. His trips through Maine smack of the slum tourism that privileged Americans today do in third-world countries. You'll notice that when he spent his year in the woods, it wasn't in Maine, but in what was essentially a park in his own hometown.
However, I don't know how far to trust Thoreau. He seems to be the sort of person who exaggerates his own accomplishments and the faults of those around him. And I think he also intentionally exaggerates the wildness of the area. For instance, when going up Katahdin, he specifically approaches it from the side without the easier road, and throughout his travels he avoids other white men whenever possible. And he represents Sangerville in 1853 as being far more unpopulated than it actually was. At least two of my great-great-grandparents were born in Wellington (just two towns over) a decade before, indicating the presence of families there and not just hunters and lumbermen.
It's when he moves away from the travelogue and starts editorializing that I actually hate him. His disparaging comments about Indians in general and the guides he hired specifically were the worst. For someone who supposedly idolized nature, he certainly didn’t appreciate how closely Indians lived to it. He actually says at one point: “What a coarse and imperfect use Indians and hunters make of Nature! No wonder that their race is so soon exterminated.”
Also, Thoreau—who once accidentally burned down 300 acres of Concord woods—regularly makes bonfires in the middle of the forest ten feet wide that flame up beyond the treetops, and talks about how the amount of wood he used for one night's campfire could keep a poor city family with an airtight stove in wood for the whole winter. But he bemoans the white pine and moose killed by others as a waste. I guess, to him, anything not in the service of beauty is a waste. He actually says at one point: "It is the poet who makes the truest use of the pine." He even talks about the frequent fires in Maine, "which we hear so much about on smoky days in Massachusetts," caused perhaps by the lumbermen regularly not putting out their fires, but he makes no connection between that and himself.
I should like Thoreau—I imagine we have many of the same ideals—but I can't bring myself to it. He reminds me too much of Collin Beaver ("No Impact Man"). Lots of grandstanding, much of it completely unrealistic. Lot of reflexive admiration for things that he sees as being more "authentic" than his own environment. Not much understanding of other people. His trips through Maine smack of the slum tourism that privileged Americans today do in third-world countries. You'll notice that when he spent his year in the woods, it wasn't in Maine, but in what was essentially a park in his own hometown.
jesseisjay's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
3.75
rponzo's review against another edition
3.0
This book covers three trips to Maine in the 1840s and 1850s. The first piece is about going to “Mt. Ktaadn”. He describes the journey, which is interesting enough, but there is not a lot of plot. They venture further and further into the wild, after a few remote farms, it is just logging camps which operate in the winter. One crazy thing is that there was a plethora of butter and the hiking crew rubbed it into their boots every night.
The next piece is a river trip, canoes, fishing, fires. here are still Indians in the region, but they are the remnants of the native civilization and Mr. Thoureau could not be accused of romanticizing them. He is not the tree hugger you would think, as much as he enjoys nature, and doesn’t really like to hunt, he certainly eats meat and likes to build roaring fires. It makes me consider my camping and hiking adventures. I think that since life in the 1840s were closer to camping life than now, why would you really want to rough it? There was no running water at Walden, so isn’t the lifestyle primitive enough? This is when I realize nothing ever changes and grumpy humans are always complaining about cities, no matter what the century.
By the last part, I was kind of losing interest and skipped on ahead to Walden, always enjoyable and quite amusing at points.
The next piece is a river trip, canoes, fishing, fires. here are still Indians in the region, but they are the remnants of the native civilization and Mr. Thoureau could not be accused of romanticizing them. He is not the tree hugger you would think, as much as he enjoys nature, and doesn’t really like to hunt, he certainly eats meat and likes to build roaring fires. It makes me consider my camping and hiking adventures. I think that since life in the 1840s were closer to camping life than now, why would you really want to rough it? There was no running water at Walden, so isn’t the lifestyle primitive enough? This is when I realize nothing ever changes and grumpy humans are always complaining about cities, no matter what the century.
By the last part, I was kind of losing interest and skipped on ahead to Walden, always enjoyable and quite amusing at points.
st_urmer's review against another edition
5.0
Wonderful travelogue detailing Thoreau's three trips through the wilds of Maine in the mid-19th century. "What is it to be admitted to a museum, to see a myriad of particular things, compared with being shown some star's surface, some hard matter in its home!" What is remarkable to me is how a lot of the landscape he travelled through remains remarkably intact, heavy logging notwithstanding. The brook trout are still "bright fluviatile flowers"; the call of the loon remains "a very wild sound, quite in keeping with the place and the circumstances of the traveler, and very unlike the sound of a bird" and indeed I share the author's sentiment that "I could lie awake for hours listening to it, it is so thrilling." I have "heard the wood-thrush sing, as if no higher civilization could be attainted." Thoreau reminds us that wild places should be treasured and protected. "Strange that so few ever come to the woods to see how the pine lives and grows and spires, lifting its evergreen arms to the light, - to see its perfect success; but most are content to behold it in the shape of many broad boards brought to market, and deem that its true success! But the pine is no more lumber than man is, and to be made into boards and houses is no more its true and highest use than the truest use of a man is to be cut down and made into manure. there is a higher law affecting our relation to pines as well as to men."
whatshereadyesterday's review against another edition
5.0
Where "Walden" is Thoreau is far more alone in his thoughts and musings, it seems Maine, and its literary extension is very much Thoreau's reactions to the world around him. I feel I know him even better through his enthusiasm for plants and his ecstasy for nature and there are no better character sketches than that of Joe Polis and their unlikely friendship. Movie pitch?
elisew's review against another edition
2.5
Some good insights, and beautiful nature writing, but nothing that super captivated my attention.
justycrusty's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.25