I can only hope my diary makes as little sense as this, to someone, someday.

Thoreau is such a moralistic prick.

As a transcendentalist myself, I can admire Thoreau’s commitment to the bit. But I feel that in the process of trying to reduce life down to its essential parts, he’s almost completely missed the point of his own philosophy: that it exists for imperfect humans. I also sense a little narcissistic flair. He imagines that none among his company are inspired to poetry but him. He makes endless sweeping judgements about how everyone sucks. Maybe his contemporaries were a bit overglued to the endless to-do list of life, but instead of joyfully taking hold of his own desire for mindfulness and simplicity, he takes this opportunity to unleash contemptuous judgement on everyone around him who chooses to sleep on a mattress instead of the ground.

There’s nothing these ancient white men love more than stating their own opinion as though its an oracle. Not to say he isn’t a genius writer…. He’s just a dick. And I laughed out loud hearing his take on England.

“God himself culminates in the present moment”….”grow wild according to thy nature”

Unbelievable. I have always been very much in love with transcendentalist though and this epic of two years in the woods just captures it beautifully. The beginning and ends of this book really draw you in and leave you enamored with the beauty of natural life. I felt the middle section dragged a little with lengthy descriptions of just trees, birds, and ice, but overall a fantastic read.

Couldn't really get into it. It was a little too detailed and ponderous in parts, and I found myself just wanting things to move on. There are some great gems amongst the prose, but I decided to stop reading as I didn't want to have to wade through the rest of it to find the gold nuggets.

I really enjoyed and felt challenged by *some* parts of this long, boring, soliloquy of judgement.

Thoreau sa rozhodol stráviť dva roky pri jazere Walden v absolútnom súznení s prírodou.
V knihe krásne a detailne opisuje okolie svojho príbytku počas striedajúcich sa ročných období, prezrádza praktické informácie k prežitu v divočine a prelína ich prúdmi filozofických myšlienok o vzťahu človeka k prírode, k spoločnosti a k samému sebe. Toto nadčasové dielo odporúčam každému, kto hľadá vytrhnutie z konzumného života a inšpiráciu pre jeho zmenu. <3

Maybe I’m just too dense to fully appreciate such a work, but I found this book to be “mid”. The storytelling was filled with tranquilly beautiful imagery, but also often went entirely over my head and had me using the dictionary multiple times per page (and even after doing so, still not understanding what was being said or why). I also struggled with Thoreau going too into detail about things that didn’t matter nor captured my attention. Some of the core philosophies and learnings were definitely hidden gems but the fluff surrounding them was unnecessarily.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

I mean, I guess this is required reading, just because it's Thoreau's Walden. We like to think that he was doing something spiritual with his life, communing with nature and whatnot. But in reality, he lived only a mile from town, which he frequently visited. At times, he waxes poetic about the birds and the flowers and the ice on the pond. But he was quite practical in his Walden experiment (he only lived there for two years). He lists the precise costs of building his house; talks about how much money he has saved by being a minimalist (Marie Kondo would love this guy); and boasts about how much better his life is than others' because of his restraint - even though he left that life in the end to reclaim his place in civilized society.

Others have written about nature much more lovingly. Start here:

Annie Dillard
Barbara Kingsolver
Aldo Leopold
John Muir

This one was quite thought-provoking, but I can't say that I enjoyed it. Thoreau has some very good points about life and simplicity, and human nature, but his tone was so superior, that I had a hard time sympathizing with his point of view. At other times, he seemed to contradict himself. I could write out a full opinionated review of his ideas, but overall, I'll just say that the book is definitely worth reading, but I didn't love any part of it.

First finished book of 2024 and I want to make a habit out of writing my thoughts about books I read.

I liked this book - but reading it wasn't enjoyable, mostly because it is for an assignment.
Yet it spoke to me at different times and the conclusion makes me hopeful, but not naïve: there is more day to dawn // the sun is but a morning sun.