Henry David Thoreau: Walden

Walden. It’s one of the books that need the right time to be read and took eons otherwise. So what’s it about?

Self-Reliance and human development. Mostly through simple living and solitude. Rethinking common moral assumptions.

Good points. Sometimes excellently written. But if you can paraphrase the whole book with three sentences why write around four-hundred pages about it? Now I know lots about animals and geography around Lake Walden, most of that knowledge is of course dated nowadays (and wouldn’t be of use even otherwise).

While reading the book never forget that the self-reliant dweller lived two miles from civilization and got a food basket each weekend from his mum. Wilderness indeed.

Still the idea of a simple lifestyle has its merits.  Paired with the will to give most commitments freedom might truly await.

I never knew, and never shall know, a worse man than myself.
Walden, Henry David Thoureau