Walden

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: Walden is an absolute great book. I would recommend that everyone read it. It is a deep book,but you quickly adjust.

Rating:
Summary: down to earth and back to nature
Review: Walden is a wonderful book from which I obtained many hours of enjoyable reading. Though its tone is generally serious, it can at times be light. When he does slip in some humor it comes at an unexpected time and caught me off guard giving me a good laugh. I found many of his ideas very thought provoking. His account of how he built his cabin and his remarks about food and shelter were for me fascinating. I found it a very warm and friendly book with much to think about and obtained from it many referrals to complement my reading list. I Thoreau-ly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: One Great Book
Review: I truly admire Thoreau's courage to be a pioneer in his time. He proved his point to be true that life can be perfected through simplicity and by using nature as an example. But his excessive detail that goes on for pages describing the shape of a pond may bore some readers.

Rating:
Summary: An good work
Review: This one is long and boring. It was hard to get through, and it is largely repetative. Thoreau, considered the first enviromentalist, writes about his 2 year experiences in Walden Woods, on the pond. Thoreau stresses simplicity and individualism, as most transcendentalist,the latest philisophical literary movement,did. The well read reader should read this one to say that they have read Walden.

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful and owning great meaning, a must read
Review: Walden, just the name brings immediate thoughts and images. A wonderful read which makes you think, and reaffirms the important things in life. If this book doesn't change you, your probably dead already. Should be required reading.

Rating:
Summary: A book of true personal value.
Review: Walden is really an exposition of Thoreau's way of viewing life. Thoreau says there is more to life than posessions and money, that, as difficult as it is to accumulate posessions and to earn wealth, it is much much more difficult to rid one's self of them! A statement/concept that is worthy of contemplation.

Walden will take you away in to your own "walden", if that is where you would like to be, and, if so, then you, as I, will enjoy the book very much. I rated it as a four star (out of five), only, because I could not choose 4.5 stars. On my personal scale, in order to receive a 5 star rating, a book has to move me with the intensity of a paradigm shift. It has to offer up concepts that, following a thorough consideration, change my present view of life, world. etc.... Thoreau's Walden comes close on this measure, but falls just a little short.

His On civil disobedience, is another work that I reccomend with high regard, slightly more so, even. than Walden.

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful Exploration into Personal Satisfaction
Review: Walden invites us to re-examine and weigh our priorities in life. It maximizes the value of our present experience, emphasizes the richness of nature, and diminishes the value and rationality of our struggle for material success. The book is filled with quotes and ideas that inspire a renewed energy and fresh approach to life. It awakens a sense of appreciation for simple pleasures. It promotes a perspective that reflects a more innocent set of values -- that challenge the world's judgement of a man by the money he earns, the car he drives and the possessions he amasses.

In an era where excess spells success, it is calming and thought provoking to read about the Thorough's two years in the woods. It strikes a chord of things that we have known all along but have perhaps forgotten. The sights, sounds, and experiences of nature and the scenery provides us with a sensory scale to weigh our priorities and pursue new directions in our lives.

Can we attain personal satisfaction and hapiness by simplifying our lives? This book inspires us to try.

Rating:
Summary: The "bible" of the frugal living movement
Review: I loved to read Walden and it made me think alot about frugality and what I really need. In fact, it started my own very special adventure into frugality. For anyone interested in the "historical background" of frugality (if there is such) read it. A must have for the frugal person.

Rating:
Summary: Simplicity after all
Review: When I read Walden never imagine me looking into my deepeast voice inside me. Never before I took a break to hear the sounds of my soul and to look at me like i did after i read the words and the phrases that like poems Thoreau give us. Money, love, freedom and silence are some of the topics and sublime instants that I would never unrespect in my life again. After all, thats the legacy we got from our parents and the most important gift we'll leave to the new generations around this new world that start with the century 2

Rating:
Summary: Reflective, yet limited
Review: Thoreau was a reflective man. He asked pertinent questions, but just didn't go far enough in his search. As a pagan, he was unaware of the realities of Jesus Christ. In spite of his limited vision, he had some profound observations at times. One of my favorites is:

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple-tree or an oak. Should he turn his spring into summer?"