Rating: 
Summary: Tedious
Review: There was plenty of good, profound philosophy in this book. Thoreau made many wise observations and commentaries throughout the book. Unfortunately, these were all buried under heaps of gibberish. "Blah blah I used X many nails to build my house blah blah the ground here is soft blah blah...." and so on. I couldn't care less about the wildlife, or the ecological systems of Walden pond; if I had wanted that I would have read a science book. I wonder if Thoreau liked the sound of his own voice. But one thing's certain: he liked the look of his own writing. This book was 3 parts filler for every part philosophy, and that's being generous to Henry David.
Rating:
Summary: It stands by itself
Review: I found myself, overall, agreeing with one of the reviewers when he stated specifically that "Walden" is not a book to be read purely for enjoyment, it is not a thrilling read or even a very deep one in general but then one must remember in which time we live and the style used by Thoreau is one of the mid 19th Century which was prone to the type of writing he uses. Anyone who has read other novels of the time or rather written in that period will find similar styles eg James Fenimoore Cooper, Charles Dickens etc. In addition this is not a novel but rather a retelling of experiences of one man in his own adventure as he would put it.That is not to say that Thoreau does not illuminate or at times give remarkable insights especially when it came to some of the people he met who had fascinating ways of life eg the woodcutter. The book varies from downright mundane and tedious to being very insightful and beautiful. Its amazing how someone can do this as he writes, verging from one extreme to the other. But then it was written from journal notes as he lived his life in the woods over two years experience and during that time a person changes as he adapts to his new way of life. At first its very exciting and new, any new experience is always full of a kind of life shock whether it be painful or joyful, the thinking mind, the mind absorbed in everyday "safe" tasks which define the "normal" life are absent in this new environment which requires new creative energies to survive, after a while this way of life becomes the accepted one and starts to be drained of the vitality it possessed at the beginning as one is fully acclimatised to it and it becomes the norm, after this stage comes the usual safety associated with the walls created to keep life ordinary rather than really being alive. This is hard to do when living in the woods by yourself where you need constant awareness to survive unless its a little too close to civilisation which provides the safety net which Thoreau always had available to him. But still during the period where he was very much alive and aware, life is lived without need for too much unnecessary thought, and this is the place from where insights and great creativity burst forth. If one wants to know what it is like to be really truly alive in the moment and you are afraid to try it yourself and would rather read about it then try the books "Abstract Wild" by Jack Turner or "Grizzly Years" by Peacock. Am I wrong to criticise Thoreau so much ? Yes and no, eg Yes:see the comments by John Ralston Saul on exactly this aspect of Thoreau's writing, No: look at your own life or mine for example, in each case we do not escape this ordinary life we ourselves create. For the purely lived life expressed in poetry look at the poems by Basho, no clearer or more beautiful expression of life has yet been written. I say written not lived, lived can't be written down in full only a brief glimpse or shadow of it is possible even with Basho. As regards what is said it often betrays Thoreau's astonishingly well read mind, quotes from the Baghvad Gita or other Hindu texts surprise because in Throeau's day very few people would ever have bothered to read the Indian works, the average American thought his own life and European works to be far superior. Thoreau often quotes Latin, often without reference, and the notes at the end of the book are very helpful. Thoreau's experience becomes the one Americans want to live at least without being in too much danger as he would have been in the true wild still available at that time in the lives of say the trappers or mountain men of the Rockies or any native American. As such it is an in between way of living wild. So Thoreau's work is definitely worth reading even for only the historical value or the literature it represents. It stands by itself.
Rating: 
Summary: Consider the source
Review: I am always curious to see other opinions about books that have had a profound impact on my life. Seeing some of the one-star ratings for WALDEN surprised me. But as I read them, I could see: First, that apparently two readers decided to skew the results and write several reviews (lacking Thoreau's sylistic flair, or any flair at all, they use pretty much the same words); and, second, that potential-buyers should consider the source of these criticisms. Do we wonder why Thoreau's intellectual grace eludes them? I think not. WALDEN gives us glimmers of American creativity at a time when this is all-too hard to find. Read de Tocqueville, sure, but read Emerson and Thoreau as ballast.
Rating:
Summary: Boring...........
Review: I don't know how people can call this book a brilliant "American classic." I rarely enjoyed reading this book, and it took me quite a while to finish because I could never bring myself to sit down and read it. Once in a while, Thoreau offers some nice insight, but the majority of this book just describes his mundane daily activities, and then he goes off on a tangent seemingly trying to find something "deep" in it. Thoreau shows his writing ability to be very established, as he can go off for pages about the most petty things, but often it seemed he was just trying to show off his Latin or his knowledge of the Vedas. He found the need to write every Latin quote in both Latin AND English. I did read the English version for a reason. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, unless they are reallly bored.
Rating:
Summary: Why we dwell in nature
Review: "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 grew up in New England near Walden Pond and first read Thoreau's Walden in college. It has had a profound influence upon my life over the thirty years since then. One of the great tragedies of life in our time is that many people spend their lives working like slaves to accumulate wealth which is spent on things they don't need. And in the course of this pursuit of wealth, vast tracts of time are lost at great expense. Why? Some people may never have the epiphany that the pursuit of material wealth and the search for meaning are entirely separate and wealth doesn't guarantee that you live your life well or nobly or meaningfully. Thoreau knew this. He considered the townspeople of Concord to be slaves to their farms and herds and fields and houses. In the woods Thoreau became totally immersed in the process of living each day: he watched red and black ants fight an epic battle, which he described as having great depths of Homeric valor. He observed the color of the pickerel in Walden and the color of the ice in winter. And listened with disdain to the sound of the Fitchburg railroad as it whistled in the distance. He was a purely self-reliant human being having built his own cabin by hand and planting his own fields. This great American naturalist could look at a stand of trees and tell by observation the forces of nature it had experienced. Thoreau is profoundly wise and if you read Walden earnestly, it will change your life. I know that after I had read it, I was never the same person. Give it a chance to do the same for you. You may become transcendental, if you read it sincerely. And understand the importance of marching to the tune of a different drummer.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting But Dull At Times
Review: Walden was a fascinating read; at times thoroughly enjoyable, and at other times, extremely boring. Meticulously written, Thoreau omitted no detail while writing this book (exact measurements and precise calculations litter his accounts), and after nearly 300 pages of painstaking precision, it can leave one physically drained. Don't get me wrong though, throughout a lot of the book, Thoreau had some genuinely interesting things to say about life, such as living without material possessions and superfluous and excessive items such as clothing, housing and belongings, and I also found Thoreau's experiment of living in almost complete isolation truly inspiring and at times exciting. In "Walden," Thoreau writes about many things that are still done today, such as the observation of insects and the construction of a house. In conclusion, I found "Walden" an interesting read, that everyone should at least just look through, since it is a classic, but I found it at times to be very dull.
Rating:
Summary: America's Finest Naturalist Philosopher
Review: I congratulate and credit my high school Literature teacher for first englightening me to Thoreau and Walden, and I have enjoyed both regularly ever since. I was disappointed to see the negative reviews, but I was not at all surprised. Thoreau is for the rare individual, as he was a rare individual himself. Few will be able to appreciate his keenness of thought, his breadth of perspective, his striving for some measures of worthy improvement while remaining content. Thoreau has been unserviceably miscategorized by subsequent generations. For example, he is really neither a transcendentalist nor the progenitor of the modern "civil disobedience" tactic (read his essay by the same name, and note that Thoreau himself was jailed and accepted that consequence). Thoreau was first a naturalist and observer and second a philosopher and writer. This should aid you in gauging whether Walden will be an interesting read to you. Thoreau is challenging for idealists, because he strove to experience and practice his ideals and was at liberty to do this (he had no dependents). Finally, Thoreau is an adept writer, and his natural flow of literary devices are satisfying for even the subtlest reader. Walden is one of the crowning works of America's finest literary, intellectual, and philosophical offerings.
Rating:
Summary: THANKS TO THE NEGATIVE REVIEWERS FOR RECOMENDING THIS BOOK
Review: I checked out this book on rob pirsigs recom.. (ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE). i havent read the book yet, but based on the negative reviews i just read, my guess is that i'll find substantial value in this book. the reason being that they sound exactly like the mushy-brained, non-substantive, non-qualitative thinkersi generally disagree with distropically. may they keep their ephemeral existencies hidden from me in their world of non-life. as dave matthews says, "get alive", and cease critisizing someone who had the gut to try for something better.
Rating: 
Summary: Worst book I've ever read.
Review: For those of you have never read Walden, I suggest that you abstain entirely from the book, for the rest of your life, if possible. I have always had my doubts about works by the Transcendentalists, and they were confirmed, upon reading this "American classic." This was just a plain piece of literary failure, and it was evident, as seen through Thoreau's own words. The man was full of contradictions, and in Walden, he was very successful in refuting what he just said a few pages before. He also seemed rather fascinated by Eastern traditions and spiritual writings, which, by the way, he often misquoted. Not only that, he exhibited, throughout his work, a subtle arrogance, in the sense that his words often suggested his supposed superiority, as though the readers should do nothing else other than heed his wise counsel. This proved to be quite unnecessary, after seeing it over and over again ad nauseum. In short, Walden does not merit the honorary title of an "American classic," as there are other works by other authors that should deserve more praise than the ones lauded on Walden.
Rating:
Summary: It hurts to read
Review: Why would any one want to read this book on their own accord? I found it to be the worst book in history. It's nothing more than a bunch of jumbled up statements that say one thing and deny it the next. He just repeated everything and since he couldn't make it in society, he moved to the woods. Is this supposed to show us how we are to live our lives, because if it is, shoot me now. He seemed to hate everyone and live with the animals and the pond. No one really cares what he ate or what he did for fun (if he can call it that), or how he failed in everything. If he wanted to find out who he was, he should've become a buddhist monk or something. I've seen someone else who left society and moved to the woods, and he is locked away for a long time for sending people bombs in the mail.
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