henry_eyrich 's review for:

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

3.0

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This is the oldest book I have ever read. I was not really expecting to like this book going into it since it is not typically what I read or the genre I primarily read. Once I got past the insanely long first chapter, I slowly got more and more drawn into this book as I got more used to Thoreau's writing style. I will say that I did not like the way he wrote this book. Thoreau over detailed many of the chapters in this book to the point where passages were boring to read because they were so repetitive. Most of the topics that thoreau discussed I agreed with as he strived to live on simple means and not go chasing those expensive items that might make us happy but generally don't. I have always been a fan of minimalism and Frugality both which were big topics in this book. I don't think Thoreau could have lived any more beneath his needs than he did. But there were things I did not agree with like Thoreau not eating meat and been a vegetarian. I feel that this is the kind of book where i only picked up about 5% of the knowledge in it and that if I ever do read this book again i will pick up more valuable knowledge and information with each read through. I think that most people should read this book as it gives you a very unique glance at a unique type of life style and all the things that come along with it. This book was better than i thought but the last 25% of the book was a little bit of a struggle with me. the topics that Thoreau was writing about seemed less interesting to me like i dont really care what a pond is like in winter and then in spring and I dont want to read 40 pages about it.... But overall i did enjoy this book and was glad i read it.