booktalkwithkarla 's review for:

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

4.25

challenging informative slow-paced

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Lines and scenes from Walden, a memoir, are referenced frequently in contemporary writing. This knowledge motivated me to want to read Henry David Thoreau’s classic work to experience the joy of reading it and to understand the many references. Thoreau spends two years on Walden Pond and writes about those two years in Walden. His cabin is on the edge of the pond which is named for an old squaw, in an Indian fable, who escaped when “the hill shook and suddenly sank.” Or was it named for a person or the rocks that line it creating a walled-in pond? The options add to the mystery of the place.

Thoreau’s writing is lyrical and full of detail and story. I enjoyed much of it, even when I failed to comprehend what he was saying. As a transcendentalist, Thoreau appreciates nature and has many questions about man and his lack of reverence. His faith in God as creator is clear. While reading The Ponds chapter this obvious truth occurred to me. There’s so much going on in nature of which I am unaware. Thoreau‘s description of each pond and the trees around it, his experience year after year, and the significant changes that he observes are phenomenal and mind boggling. 

Reading this once is not enough. I am glad to have read it beginning to end the first time and look forward to re-reading parts or full essays again. I recommend this book for all readers who want to make connections to the source material used in other writing. It is also enjoyable read on its own merit and to consider nature as described by an observant master writer.