Classic books I've somehow missed. Advice

[Amor de Cosmos]

Walden — Henry David Thoreau

I'd never heard of this until I arrived in Canada at 22 years of age. I was astonished as almost everyone I met here seemed familiar with it. Whether they'd actually read it or not was a different matter. In any case It was clearly an essential part of the counter-cultural canon. This astonished me as I considered myself disturbingly, if not tragically, hip back then and believed I had at least passing familiarity with all the required icons. Looking back I suspect Walden just didn't travel, kind of like the Weathermen or peyote. Here in BC people were building geodesic domes out in the bush, no one from Stevenage or Notting Hill could really relate to that.

So I'm wondering whether I missed out. These days the reflective pastorality of a rural pond seems like a good place to be, it seems to be whispering to me. On the other hand it's four hundred pages long. I could digest at least four classic noirs in the time it'll take to read Walden but should I? Any advice gratefully received.

And has anyone here actually read it?

[Sits]

I’ve often wondered about that book too as it’s prominent in Wherever You Are, There You Go which is the only meditation/mindfulness book I’ve ever read. Well, listened to actually.

This is definitely not the year for me to try; my goldfish-like attention span is even worse than usual.

[Gangster Octopus]

I only know it from Doonesbury...

[ursus arctos]

Amor, I read Walden in my teens and then made a pilgrimage to the pond soon after I arrived for uni.

It seemed profound at the time, and definitely was part of the canon you describe, but I don't remember anything from it in particular and would be hard pressed to recommend it. That said, I'm pretty sure that there are free copies on the web, and you should be able to tell quite quickly if you will get anything out of it.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I should probably do that. At this stage of my life I wouldn't expect — nor am I looking for — profundity, more a literary companion for the place I'm in emotionally.

[Edit] The other thing I wonder, and ursus implies, is that — like On the Road and others — it might be a book that changes your life at eighteen, but means nothing at twenty-eight and beyond. I guess I'll have to find out.

[Sam]

I've read about Walden but haven't actually read it. At university, in whichever module it was where we read Rip van Winkle and some bits of Leaves of Grass.

For me the biggest disconnect between never having even heard of something and then discovering it to be absolutely massive was The Little Prince, which was as familiar to me as the solid surface of Jupiter until I moved to Argentina at the age of 26 and kept being told 'you look like el principito!' I actually thought they meant Prince William at first, because at the time he wasn't bald and I thought maybe they're so unaccustomed to seeing blond people that they think we all look alike. Then on one of my first dates with my girlfriend we went to a tango class where the teacher said it to me, and we were chatting about it afterwards and she told me it was a book. The book is big here partly because Argentines adopt any successful foreigner they feel any sort of claim to, and Antoine de Saint-Exupery was one of the founders of what is today their national airline. He really did lead a fascinating life. But I was astonished to idly look it up one day and find that not counting religious sacred books like the Bible and the Qur'an, and books published pre-19th century for which sales figures aren't so reliable, it's the second biggest-selling book of all time (behind A Tale of Two Cities). I've still never read it, though there is an animated film of it which my girlfriend took me to see a few years ago which I enjoyed.

I don't tend to worry massively about classics I've not read, though. There are some I'd vaguely like to get round to at some point but (especially now I'm making more of an effort to follow what's going on in publishing today) there is so much fucking brilliant contemporary stuff being published as well. I do want to read some more Greek myth stuff, though, having recently read A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. That's an area which I've really barely scratched the surface of beyond the rather dry children's versions I had access to as a kid, and it's clear that in many ways getting more conversant with that stuff will open up a whole load of interpretations of things I read and watch that are being written and made now (David Simon has said a lot about how The Wire is infused with Greek mythology, for example).

[ad hoc]

I should probably do that. At this stage of my life I wouldn't expect — nor am I looking for — profundity, more a literary companion for the place I'm in emotionally.

[Edit] The other thing I wonder, and ursus implies, is that — like On the Road and others — it might be a book that changes your life at eighteen, but means nothing at twenty-eight and beyond. I guess I'll have to find out.

I think Walden is more likely the kind of book that changes your life at 35. I've never read that Norwegian book about a bloke analysing his every thought (the name of which escapes me), but that sounds like the closest in style to Walden that I can think of. It's good, Walden, but to an extent it is of its time and place. It's slightly too arcadian for me, though I did enjoy it as a sort of exercise in study (as opposed to something I became involved in, if that makes sense)

[Patrick Thistle]

The Little Prince is a great book. It's melancholic though. Don't read it if you're feeling a bit sad.

[laverte]

I've never read that Norwegian book about a bloke analysing his every thought (the name of which escapes me)

It’s My Struggle, i believe. Not sure what the German translation is.

[WOM]

Ahahahaha.

[Nefertiti2]

I like Walden. Don’t know what Edition you’re looking at that has 400 pages . In standard paperback I’d have reckoned half that.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Penguin standard paperback has 336 pages. I got 400 from a reference in another source.

to an extent it is of its time and place. It's slightly too arcadian for me, though I did enjoy it as a sort of exercise in study (as opposed to something I became involved in, if that makes sense)

I think I understand, it's neither a practical handbook, nor a call to action. I think it's arcadian qualities might be what appeals. I'm drawn to writing and thinking of that kind these days.

[sw2borshch]

My only experience of Thoreau is a Mad Magazine Fold-In that suggested he had been Thoreauly boring American high school students for over a century.

[Benjm]

Thoreau is high on the list of writers I've most heard mentioned without ever reading anything by them beyond short quotations accompanying those mentions.

Wasn't 'getting your head together in the country' quite a thing with jaded rockers back in the late '60s/early '70s? The thread has given me a bit of a Roxy Music Street Life earworm too.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Oh absolutely, particularly over here. This is probably the epitome of the trend locally:

[Amor de Cosmos]

Well I'm ten pages into Walden and have already come across one memorable line "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." Which I'd known forever, but had either forgotten or never knew was Thoreau.

[Hot Pepsi]

The key to Thoreau is to not worry so much about the particulars of he actually did or thought on a specific subject, but to admire his approach. He questioned assumptions and received wisdom about what constitutes progress. That has universal value.

I like Kerouac in small doses, but I have read On the Road. In a grad school class on philosophy and “cult novels” of the 20th century.

[Mr Cogito]

Maybe it was just where I was from, in every sense, but Walden didn't really feature. I did however feel like I had to struggle through both Jonathan Livingstone Seagull and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as a late teenager, both of which I found inexplicable as recommended books and thoroughly tedious as well as completely alien to my life and those times. Which was just about when punk came along and stuck a finger up at a lot of those "hippy" ideals. Wish I'd read Thoreau then instead.

On Kerouac, I had already come across and fallen in love with a lesser known book of his called Maggie Cassidy, and so took On The Road with me on my first trip away from home by myself, aged 18 (InterRailing), and half admired the energy but also thought that's a fair bit of codswallop packaged up there. Good exhibition at the British Library a few years ago though on him and it, including the single roll of paper that he wrote it all on - if I remember correctly.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I did however feel like I had to struggle through both Jonathan Livingstone Seagull and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as a late teenager, both of which I found inexplicable as recommended books and thoroughly tedious as well as completely alien to my life and those times.

I'd have trouble finding any equivalence between Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle. I'd agree the latter is tedious but at least erudite. The former was cod-philosophy for fourteen year-olds.

[Sporting]

I enjoyed Zen at the time.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Me too... sort of. But it did read like a riff on a doctoral dissertation, which it was I think.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

We're currently reading 'The Overstory' by Richard Powers in our book group. When I say 'read', I mean 'intend to purchase some time this week'. A fair few of the group have commented that it heavily references Thoreau, and a couple have decided to read 'Walden' in parallel.

[San Bernardhinault]

Jonathan Livingston Seagull was at least short. I think I read it one afternoon visiting a colleague of my dad. But I don't remember having strong feelings about it, which made it surprising that other people loved it so much.

Zen, though, I read because I felt I had to, as someone who thought he was going to be hippyish as a 16 year old. I don't think I understood any of it, and it went on forever.

On The Road I read like Mr Cogito, on one of my first trips on my own, Interrailing around Europe, as an 18 year old. It worked for callow, young me. I totally got it. When I tried re-reading it 10 years later having remembered it as one of the best and most profound things I'd ever read, I discovered it was unreadable toss. There's definitely an age and mentality for it, and even mid-20s and slightly cynical is too late.

[San Bernardhinault]

And I never read Thoreau and can't imagine myself doing so, even though Walden Pond is only a short drive away

[Mr Cogito]

I'd have trouble finding any equivalence between Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle. I'd agree the latter is tedious but at least erudite. The former was cod-philosophy for fourteen year-olds.

I think I was looking for equivalent "meaningful" texts comparable to Walden for a British teenager in the 70s, those two seemed to be everywhere but some filter or other just blocked out Thoreau.