I should have read this long ago, being one of the most important works of American literature and philosophy. But anything abstract repels me, and the word 'transcendentalism' makes me run for this hills, and that is often used in connection with Thoreau. I did enjoy this, but Thoreau sounds like an absolute charlatan, a dreamer of a man who can fool himself completely, he'd be great fun to be around. the thrust of the book is Thoreau's self reliance and simple life in nature, unsullied by civilisation and mammon, but the reality is he was living in a bustling community, eating ad his friends' houses, taking his laundry home to his Mum and had a housekeeper. Not at all the rugged individualism surrounded by nature of a Grizzly Adams, more of a bohemian student life, shirking real work to draw butterflies and potter around a pond. I don't mean that to be disapproving, that sounds ideal to me. just a reminder though that anyone's dream of splendid isolation and self-reliance is a mirage - we are all dependent on others and life alone would be hard, short and unbearable.
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