If you’re getting tired of the busy city life and hustling all day, this 150 year old classic holds some timeless advice. Even a simple life can be challenging and rewarding.A life in solitude doesn’t need to be lonely.Here are the 3 I found most important to remember: It’s filled with rich details and a few lessons about a good life. Ralph Waldo Emerson allowed his mentee and friend to live on the woodland he owned so Thoreau could write his first book.īesides being really productive, the experience turned out to hold so many lessons for Thoreau that he decided to publish the full story as a separate book about nine years later.

Thoreau took a two-year retreat starting in September 1845, which he spent in a little cabin he built himself by Walden Pond in Massachusetts. Through the summary I could at least get a glimpse of it through a modern lens. I know it’s a sacrilege I haven’t read this classic yet, but after seeing it was over 200 pages of dense, old English style writing, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get through it entirely this busy week. I’m really glad I found Walden on Blinkist. This beautiful edition of Walden, published in honor of the bicentennial of Thoreau’s birth, is more accessible and relevant than ever in an age of technological change and ecological crisis.Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account*:

Bill McKibben provides a newly revised introduction and helpful annotations that place Thoreau firmly in his role as cultural and spiritual seer. “We need to understand that when Thoreau sat in the dooryard of his cabin ‘from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around or flitted noiseless through the house,’ he was offering counsel and example exactly suited for our perilous moment in time.”įirst published in 1854, Henry David Thoreau’s groundbreaking book has influenced generations of readers and continues to inspire and inform anyone with an open mind, a love of nature, and a longing for simplicity and contemplation. In honor of the bicentennial of Henry David Thoreau’s birth, this edition of Walden features an introduction and annotations by renowned environmentalist Bill McKibben

Henry thoreau walden