the corner office

I've intended to write more book reviews, and written none, but mention of Dartmoor is a good prompt for me to write this, which isn't a review, as much as a set-up, or a pre-review.

I bought my copy of Walden - part of a compilation ("... And Other Writings") in the US in 1999. I remember seeing it in a bookshop and buying it, intentionally, and thinking it appropriate to be buying it there, but I have no memory of how I knew about Thoreau, or Walden. I wasn't particularly literarily minded and my only guess is that I'd seen mention of it in a movie, or perhaps online (although even then, what manner of "online" would have led me to Walden in the late 90s, I couldn't say). Either way, I started reading it at the time, didn't get far, and it's sat on a bookshelf ever since, untouched, faithfully waiting for me to return to it (or at least, as faithfully as an inanimate, slowly-decaying block of paper can be. I digress).

We spent last Christmas in Dartmoor, and by the end of the year, I was exhausted. My stated intention for the holiday was to spend as much time as possible sitting in an armchair at a window with a view of the moors, with a blanket over my knees and a book at my side. Some of my old books had been on my mind, and I'd be spending a week sitting and staring at Nature, and being all contemplative and stuff, and it seemed like the perfect time and place to revisit Walden. I went hunting through the bookshelves, found my old copy, and stuck it in my bag.

Searching online, I see there are various books called "Walden and Other Writings", each with a slightly different collection of Thoreau's "other writings". The version I have is a Bantam Classics paperback, with an introduction written by Joseph Wood Krutch - a writer and naturalist in his own right, I've since discovered.

The introduction is well written, a helpful biography as well as explanation of Thoreau's philosophy. An engaging read - I got to the second page before I called my eldest over and read out part of the introduction, including this line:

They lived in an age of increasing complexity and great hope; we in an age of still greater complexity and growing despair.

"Sounds about right," he said. "It was written in 1962" was my reply. If Krutch had considered the early sixties to be a time of complexity and growing despair, what might he have made of now?

I kept reading, but progress was slow: it turned out that the view from the window was part moors, part courtyard backed by a hedge and a large, tree-filled garden, the courtyard with a collection of bird feeders, restocked each day. I spent more time with three bird books (one of them mine - a wild-card Christmas present, gratefully received, I hasten to add) than I did with Thoreau. He might have approved, though probably not the window and blanket over my knees bit.

And then we came home, and the book became my "bedtime reading", which usually means a few pages every night or few (and as opposed to "train reading", which is invariably flat-out reading until I'm done), and I eventually finished it some time later.

For some books, bedtime reading is best. The pace is slower, meaning more time to digest, more opportunity to think as I drift off at night, more inclination to go back and re-read bits, and generally savour the book. And savour it, I did. It took me almost a quarter of century to finally read Walden (and the other writings), but I'm glad I finally did.

I won't be writing much more about it now, apart from listing the contents, and I'll link these when (if) I manage more respectable reviews.

• A Week On the Concord and Merrimack Rivers - a travelogue (and a fair amount of Thoreau-esque rambling)
• Civil Disobedience - on refusing to support the US government (or pay taxes) on account of slavery in the South and the US war with Mexico
• Walden - building and living in a cabin in the woods (simplicity)
• Life Without Principle - an essay on life, and meaning, and greed
• The Maine Woods - another pair of travelogues (and a reflection on the ugliness of hunting)
• Cape Cod - a travelogue (and surprisingly funny in places)
• The Journal - excerpts from Thoreau's journals - reflections, observations, sketches