Hey All,

if I was going to read just one thing by Thoreau ... what should it be?  Shoudl I go for Walden,

or a collection of short stories or ?

thanks!

MysticFoxTrot

Walden is the only work of his I've read.  It was kind of difficult to get into.  And stay into.  And finish.  But it was thought provoking & now I'm glad I slogged through it.

Rose:  There is a lovely little book entitled The River, by Henry David Thoreau.  It contains selections from the Journal, arranged with notes by Dudley C. Lunt.  It's all about the Concord River, season by season, beginning in April and continuing through March.  And it has some lovely illustrations by Henry Bugbee Kane.  You might find it easier to read than The Journal itself, and it would give a good taste of Thoreau.   Thoreau wrote: "The river is my own highway, the only wild and unfenced part of the world hereabouts."  May 30, 1852.

The only other writer I can think of who wrote so evocatively about a body of water is Rachel Carson, in her The Sea Around Us.

Your other Thoreay choices would be The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, and The Concord and the Merrimack.  I'd be curious to hear what you settle on.

The best Thoreau book by far is Walden...you'll find dozens of his famous quotes... his philosophy on life...and some beautiful descriptions of nature

What about Civil Disobedience ?  Very influential on Gandhi and Martin Luther King, and quite capable of making a reader squirm even today - if one isn't prepared to back up one's principles with action.

oops