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A review by eitakbackwards
Walking by Henry David Thoreau
4.0
This is probably my favourite essay of his (although Walden is my fave of all his writing so far) I listened to this on librivox (could the team lmk if audiobooks count in our reading challenge??) It was beautiful to listen to at a time like this. Thoreau walked every single day around Concord- (sometimes for 30 miles) where he lived in the woods a couple of miles from the town.
This essay is a celebration of nature and the beauty of walking which in itself is a wonderful concept but it is also a (sometimes sarcastic) relevant commentary on society, materialism, environmentalism, solitude and the simple life.
'Think of a man’s swinging dumb-bells for his health, when those springs are bubbling up in far-off pastures unsought by him!'
I think if I disagreed with his views, I'd hate his writing because he is very self-assured and judgemental at times (this is true for all his wiritings.) Here he meanders through his thoughts as if wandering the paths of a forest.
"In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to Society. But it sometimes happens that I cannot easily shake off the village. The thought of some work will run in my head and I am not where my body is--I am out of my senses. In my walks I would fain return to my senses. What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods?"
His ideas are very remiciscent of mindfulness- not the commercialised type but the ability to engage completely with nature, which for Thoreau is surely the truest thing to exist.
Would give a lot to be walking through a wilderness now with hills and deer and green-no city for miles around. Would recommend listening to this whilst on a walk in nature if at all possible :)
This essay is a celebration of nature and the beauty of walking which in itself is a wonderful concept but it is also a (sometimes sarcastic) relevant commentary on society, materialism, environmentalism, solitude and the simple life.
'Think of a man’s swinging dumb-bells for his health, when those springs are bubbling up in far-off pastures unsought by him!'
I think if I disagreed with his views, I'd hate his writing because he is very self-assured and judgemental at times (this is true for all his wiritings.) Here he meanders through his thoughts as if wandering the paths of a forest.
"In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to Society. But it sometimes happens that I cannot easily shake off the village. The thought of some work will run in my head and I am not where my body is--I am out of my senses. In my walks I would fain return to my senses. What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods?"
His ideas are very remiciscent of mindfulness- not the commercialised type but the ability to engage completely with nature, which for Thoreau is surely the truest thing to exist.
Would give a lot to be walking through a wilderness now with hills and deer and green-no city for miles around. Would recommend listening to this whilst on a walk in nature if at all possible :)