It is nothing new to quote Henry David Thoreau when talking about the simplified life or living with less. What’s new — exemplified in this practical, self-help interpretation of the nineteenth-century Transcendentalist — is taking Thoreau’s writing and life wisdom, piece by piece, to show how he can be almost a life coach for the ills that plague us now.
After an introduction that sets the scene of our “unprecedented times”; and an opening chapter introducing Thoreau the person, what he was all about, and why his popularity has grown since his lifetime; author Jen McGivney offers five more chapters organized around what she calls “Walden Principles.” These are accurate to the sources of those great books you may never have gotten around to reading, such as Walden and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, and the pivotal essays on walking and civil disobedience.
The Walden Principles are Know the True Cost of Things, Create Space between You and the World, Embrace Your Inner Misfit, Know What You Work For, and Spend Life Lavishly.
The result is a graceful introduction of essential themes from one of the best American writers, whose wisdom turns to the spiritual seemingly without effort and certainly without religious entanglement. I would go so far as to say, Thoreau would read this book and think, she gets me.
