When I was in a hospital for 6 months, all I did was read this book by Henry David Thoreau. I longed to get outside and walk in the forest and smell the fresh dung of deer, stings of arachnoids and odor of skunks.

I couldn’t figure out the cryptic meaning the book posits at all. It’s my own belief that nature might be a “woman” and Walking might be copulation but he also mentions porcupines in it, so at times I am left clueless. Most of the animals he mentions are now extinct, he was writing in 1825 after Charles Robert Darwin (English naturalist) dropped him off in Maine. I’m not sure if Thoreau was ‘lost’ and couldn’t get back to NYC or if he was just going around in circles.

If you’re a zoologist, it might be worth your while to try to guess what animals he writes about. Most of the forests he mentions are now developed or industrial swathes of land, forming bland suburban zones and polluting factories.

Henry David Thoreau lived on the largest island of Elba where he was killed by the USA government for not paying his taxes on rum.

A good read for people of any weight.

Moby-Dick or, The Whale (Penguin Classics)
Rating: 5 / 5

Required reading for freshmen entering SUNY Geneseo in preparation for an Adirondack Adventure. Bought this version after inadvertantly getting an abridged Walking.
Rating: 5 / 5

This is one of Thoreau’s best essays. But you can find it free in about fifty places on the internet.
Rating: 5 / 5