Rating: 
Summary: Living deliberately stinks
Review: DO NOT READ THIS BOOK AT ALL COSTS. THOREAU IS A RANTING FOOL. Take, for example, the sentance "I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when nobody calls." There is nothing profound about this sentance, it just doesn't make sense. Some people just can't deal with the fact that this guy is a lunatic.
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Summary: A Philosopher Sage Amongst the Americans
Review: Anyone who prefers Emerson above Thoreau surely does so with a view to increasing his own popularity. Thoreau is too outspoken to be liked by everyone--indeed, to identify more with him is a kind of social suicide. But then, Thoreau was ever convinced that he was not here to please anybody, but rather to be authentically what he was.To find a modern man who so thoroughly embodies the wisdom of antiquity is as rare as "the tooth of a dragon, or the hair of a phoenix." Henry David Thoreau is such a man. More than a mere combination of past, present and future, he brings together the most mundane, prosaic and ordinary considerations of daily life with the loftiest and noble thoughts of mankind. Furthermore, he perceives the spiritual aspirations and practices of east and west as one coherent whole. He was well acquainted with the classics of both hemispheres--The Tao de Ching, The Bhagavad-gita, Vedic writings, The Iliad and more--and here, distilled for us common folk, is that wisdom as seen from the viewpoint of a modern man. Bertrand Russell has given what would seem the crown laurel to Thoreau calling him "a pure romantic"--in contrast to the weak romanticism of Victor Hugo, or the rather soft variety found in Emerson. During his lifetime, 700 or so of the 1,000 copies he had printed of his first book,"A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" wound up in his parents' attic, ostensibly making him a failure as a writer. Walden was also not a big seller during his lifetime. Since then he has become a literary god, and without doubt one of the most influential writers of the past 200 years. It was Thoreau's tract entitled Civil Disobedience, written because of his objection to paying tax to the American government--a so-called democracy involved in slave trade, westward expansion, displacement of indigenous population and imperialistic annexation of Mexico--that gave fuel to human rights movements in the 20th Century. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. based their efforts on this small but amazingly powerful essay, which only goes to show that Confucius--one of Thoreau's favorite sage authors--was right; the thought of an intelligent man sitting in his room can kill a king and destroy his country. And so it was that slavery was abolished in the United States, India attained home rule and racial integration in the U.S. progressed. Since the industrial revolution in the 18th Century, the central goal of western technological society has been economic growth. And to achieve an economic growth that is endless, corporations in the latter half of the 20th century have encouraged consumption that is mindless. But by the dawn of the 21st century, this central project has proven to be obsolete, for nature cannot sustain endless economic growth, and neither can the people in general. Nature has rebelled by refusing to absorb the transgressions against her dignity (pollution), and humanity has expressed insurgence through psychological and physical disease. Dr. Willis Harman has discussed the matter in detail in his book, "Global Mind Change" but, though more than a decade has passed since its publication, the important and timely points that it makes have yet to be assimilated by the public. Thoreau, however, was already tuned in to this problem way back in the 1840's. Astrologers attribute an overlap of a little more than 200 years between astrological ages, and this puts Thoreau in with the new Aquarians. His observations--on economy, simplicity, learning, human nature, participation mystique when close to nature and the close proximity of God--are unpresuming, candid and at times downright hilarious. I say Henry David Thoreau is a philosopher sage amongst the American transcendentalists, and a man who was not unconcerned about his less educated or enlightened fellows. He took tremendous pains to share himself, through his writings, with us, and there are many innovations of his that are already being practiced by posterity. Not the least of these is the growing awareness that ADULT EDUCATION for men and women can be a lifelong pursuit. I agree with Dr. Harman that this is on its way to becoming the new central project of western society, known as it is presently by the name, The Personal Growth Movement. In Walden the mature seeker will find lucid clues as to what the Aquarian Age is all about, its characteristics and even the means of cultivating the new consciousness. But this is not a book for people who like easy reading. Henry would demand of you that you read it with the same diligence and deliberation as it was written. It took him five years of refinement before he was satisfied with the manuscript. Walden will provide you and your descendants with many more years of pleasure and enlightenment than that.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful book
Review: After reading this I wondered did the Unabomber have the book "Walden" in mind when he decided to retreat from society into a Montana Cabin? His disobedience wasn't too civil was it? Unfortunately I think Ted Kacinsky is our Postmodern version of Thoreau taking extreme measures. But I rate this book much higher than his Anti-technology Manifesto. This book gives the disenfranschised, the outcast or someone whose just had enough of society and work a different alternative rather than "Going Postal" and making the 6 o'clock news. If anything, this book gave me compassion for people caught up in the materialism and clutter in their lives.
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Summary: Walden is simply a masterpiece
Review: Thoreau's Walden is the most thought provoking book I have ever read. From the first page to the last chapter Thoreau makes the reader analyze ones mindset and become entanced in the delicate words of Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau was and is the only true individualist and I strongly concur with his idea that the individual is more important then any society or nation for that matter.
Rating: 
Summary: Walden, a life in the wods?
Review: This was a well written essay of life in the wilderness. If only all of it were true. Thoreau was actually visited quite frequently by his mother and friends. They provided food and company for the lonely Thoreau. I have spent many months in the woods and only wish I could create the adventure Thoreau supposedly had.
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Summary: Walden makes you think!
Review: To really get everything that is in the book out, it must be read slowly. It is an interesting look at one man's attempt to view the world in a different way than his contemporaries. It has changed my life in that Walden made me see the error of spending my life working for no other reason than to acquire more possessions. It can also give you a greater appreciation of nature. This should be required reading.
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Summary: Reflecting Pond
Review: Walden, what is it? Is it a book on nature, a book on ecology, a book on human nature, a prescient description of the struggle between modern civilization and the land that nurtured it, a critique of mankind, a string of quotable gems, an account of a mind, or, like Star Wars, a way of slipping a deep and human spirituality into someone else's mind without their recognizing it? It depends on who is doing the reading and when. Read it for any of these purposes, and it will not disappoint. If you've never read it, read it. If you read it for class years ago and hated it, read it again. This may be the most subtle, multi-layered and carefully worked piece of literature you'll ever find. By keeping the down-to-earth tone (no doubt in reaction to the high-flying prose of his friend, R.W. Emerson) Thoreau pulls a Columbo, and fools us into thinking he's writing simply about observing nature, living in a cabin, or sounding a pond. Somehow by the end of Walden, however, you may find it is your self he has sounded. People have accused Thoreau of despising mankind, but read deeper and you will discover he loved people well enough to chide us, show us our faults (admitting he's as bad as the worst of us), and give to all of us this wonderful gift, a book you could base your life on. There is more day to dawn, he reminds us at the end: the sun is but a morning star.
Rating: 
Summary: Exploring the Life of Thoreau on Walden Pond
Review: From The Pond in Winter, I discovered Thoreau's symbol of Walden and his inner eye which dominate this entire chapter. Thoreau, as a surveyor, measures Walden Pond with tools, with his literary genius and muses on the enterprise that comes from the industry of ice-cutting in the Winter. Thoreau stresses Nature and how wonderful he awakes to Nature and daylight; he had a question during the night and felt that Nature answered it with the dawn and the glorious world of creation. In one of his most memorable descriptions, Thoreau says about the Pond, Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. Thoreau talks about his successful strategy in surveying the Pond and tells us that he was thankful that the Pond was made deep and pure for a symbol. While men believe in the infinite some ponds will be thought to be bottomless. He talks about the formation of puddles on the Pond and how he could see a double shadow of himself, one standing on the head of the other, one on the ice, and the other on the trees or hillside. He creates a metaphor with this description, one of Thoreau on the Earth and another of his transcendence into the ice of Walden Pond. Joyce Carol Oates prefaces this book with an introduction that ends with her saying that the universe is wider than our views of it. In Walden Pond, we can broaden our view and transcend into the earth's beauty with Thoreau.
Rating:
Summary: Walden
Review: Thoreau wrote a scathing and humerous critique of his neighbors. His comments about living in the moment, jumping off the rat race of working ever harder to accumulate more toys, about just plain walking about with open eyes, applies equally in our day. He bi-sected human frailty with a very sharp knife. Some of his writing uses terms and analogy unfamiliar in our daily use. But persevere and you will surely gain a new perspective on life.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended
Review: In an age containing cartoons like South Park, movies like Pulp Fiction and popular music that lacks originality, books like Walden are so wonderful to read. We are very much in the dark ages culturally where profit and quantity are more important than quality.
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