dates estimated
I think when people think of me and my book choices, they assume Walden is at the top of my list. They're only kinda right.

PT: Rory Gilmore reading challenge, books that have been on my TBR for too long, ecology/natural sciences books, books from the 1800s (1854), naturalist authors, Boston (:/)

WIL
1) ahahaahahaha. Quippy!

2) tax arrest. I mean, I shouldn't laugh, but oh my god. The causal side mention of Thoreau going to jail for tax evasion siegowhodisho. I had to pause the audiobook I wheezed so loud and for so long I missed like fifteen seconds. https://historyofmassachusetts.org/henry-david-thoreau-arrested-for-nonpayment-of-poll-tax/

3) Nature of Boston. Incidentally, I read this while actively avoiding writing a paper in which I had to research the nature of Boston. This was not particularly helpful in my quest for procrastination, but I respect the naturalist perspective! This guy really likes talking about wildlife, huh?

4) I was obsessively trying to type Thoreau as I read and NOW I'm obsessing over this page that calls him an INFP! Of all things! https://www.personality-database.com/profile/6248/henry-david-thoreau-writers-literature-classic-mbti-personality-type HE'S AN ISTP FOLKS.

5) Right, okay, should prob comment on more of the actual content and structure now. It gets the job done well enough, but man oh man would this be a rough read for modern classrooms. It spends a lot of time meandering through concepts, and students don't have the time for that nowadays. To its credit, it does provide an interesting look at the sensibilities of readers in the 1850s.


WIDL
1) brain rot books AKA pretentious academics. Call me a hedonist, but I take issue with Thoreau's attack on the more modern books of his time. Take a chill pill bro. Let people read whatever they want to. So what if it's not all exclusively educational in the traditional sense? So what if it allows for a bit of fun and entertainment? Maybe humans aren't meant to be treated like information machines.

Neutral ground:
1) *sigh* I'm so sick of reading about Boston. I stg it's following me. Everywhere I turn it's Boston, Boston, Boston.

Uff. It took me over 11 months to get through this one. Parts of it were interesting, but I feel like the themes that are upheld as inspiration for modern minimalism/environmentalism ect is like one chapter in a book that is mostly some old white dude being pretentious.

I found some parts interesting but overall it was not worth the agony of actually reading Thoreau's endless opinions. The parts I found most engaging were actually the natural history tidbits. I love that there is such vivid descriptions of a lake 150 years ago and recordings of when the ice when out in 1846-1852 or whatever. That excites me. The run-on sentences that make slim to no sense definitely don't. I guess the only real advantage to reading this is I can now probably almost match Thoreau's arrogant tone when I inform people that yes, I have indeed read Walden. That, and it functioned incredibly well to put me to sleep more times than I can count.

TLDR: It's cool that books from 1850 exist but I don't recommend reading them for fun.

I WANT TO DO THAT TOO

Naturally, I've read excerpts from Walden many times, but thought that it was time to actually sit down and read the whole thing. What a mistake.

I may be labeled as a heretic and expelled from Massachusetts, but... meh. There are some enjoyable moments and lovely descriptions of nature, but for the most part I just found the whole thing too self-congratulatory to stomach.

In a twist of good timing, I mentioned this to a friend who had very recently read a piece in the New Yorker that does a MUCH better job explaining my reaction to this book than I could:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/pond-scum

I had been so timid in daring to admit I wasn't perfectly enthralled with Walden that I can't share what a relief it was to, after finishing the work, go back and read that article and laugh/nod/cheer each step of the way.

I'd avoided Walden for years. Thoreau's prose has been too flowery for me to be patient with, and his outlook reeked of the intellectual roots of being a hipster. Having finally finished the memoir, I will now concede that he does give an interesting perspective, especially as a person that exists in a future that would probably be a dystopia to good ol' Thor.

There's not much I can add, nor will I contribute to too much more of the ink that's already been spilt over Walden. The fact that he was rejecting modern society in 1847 seems both quaint and prescient at the same time. The hypocrisy of "self-reliance" while his endeavor was being financed by his industrialist friend, as well as relying on domestic labor for his meals. His prose is typical of that of the mid-19th century - at a time when reading was the broadest form of entertainment, authors lay on the metaphor and florid language as if it's going out-of-style. At least Dickens had the excuse of being paid by the word, Thoreau just writes this way because he's suffering from a bout of thesauritus and, I suspect, harboring a superiority complex and a good deal of contempt for hoi polloi that naturally comes with being a Grecian weeb.

But at least it sounds nice being read aloud.

DNF

All good things are wild and free. Yes, I’m a modern day Thoreau

*ugh*
Had to read it for school...
...wanted to take my own life... in the woods.

Oh fuck off, Thoreau.

You were ~a total mountain man hippie living off the land~ that was in reality your bro Ralph Waldo Emerson’s backyard WHILE YOUR MOM DID YOUR LAUNDRY AND YOUR FRIENDS CAME OVER FOR TEA.

HOKAY. Uh huh. Sure, Jan.