Reviews - Walden: And, Civil Disobedience

The “Civil Disobedience” essay at the end of the book is great. It’s easy to figure out why it inspired figures like Gandhi or Martín Luther King. As for Walden, I found it a little presumptuous, specially considering most of the conditions Thoureau wrote about are invented (as said in the prologue). Moreover, being poor is different than pretending you’re poor. The second, as in Thoureau’s case, may lead to a flawed analysis about poverty. With that being said, I think Walden has some valuable stuff: his perspectives on work exploitation are interesting, and sadly still apply to our society.

holtfan's review against another edition

1.0

I had to read this book for school...it was torture. Thoreau never shuts up, never makes sense, and is so full of himself if you poked him he might take off.
Maybe I'm being a bit much, this book is after all a classic, but I personally found very little to like about it. Mostly, because I found Theoreau incredibly concieted.

mckenzie22's review against another edition

2.0

Walden is probably one of the most well known philosophical, life-lessons books out there, but I didn't enjoy it as much as a lot of other reviewers seemed to. It feels like the kind of book you could have taken the most famous, meaningful quotes and skipped the three-page descriptions of an ant war and squirrels that take Thoreau's nuts. There is definitely some great description, and some great messages, but I wasn't a fan of all the fluff and how boring most of the book was. Additionally, Thoreau is a pretty pretentious guy, and doesn't even take into account other people's lifestyles and points of view. He always talks as if he's better than everyone else and knows best. If I hadn't had to read it for school, I think I might have liked it better, but for me, for now, Walden gets two stars. This edition included Civil Disobidience as well, which fell along the same lines of having interesting parts, but being mostly boring and fluffy.

POPSUGAR 2021: A book set mostly or entirely outdoors. (I mean, the guy was living in the woods the whole time.)

ktv's review against another edition

(Only read civil disobedience and the pond in winter for ap Lang. The former was a little hard to understand but it was ok. The latter was more straight forward and not too bad)

heat_her's review against another edition

5.0

This is one of my favorite books, and I try to read it every Spring.

Read my mini-review: http://btweenthecovers.com/2011/06/17/mini-reviews/

simonipatel's review against another edition

4.0

challenging hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

carolinevs's review against another edition

4.0

challenging inspiring reflective slow-paced

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