WALDEN by Henry David Thoreau

One of the things I wanted to do this Summer was to read some classics. I picked this one up at Barnes & Noble. Then I began reading it, putting it down when a more compelling book found its way into my hands, picked it up again and and so forth all summer. I finally decided to finish it today come hell or high Walden water.

I can see why it may have fascinated people of that era when it was published because it was outside the norm of what people were striving to do which was get out of the woods! To live in a more comfortable and sophisticated world where one could enjoy prosperity and lots of food at the table. To be in society and surround one's self with others of the same feathers.

Yet here was Thoreau who longed to be in solitude and was the happiest there where gossip was something he could do without or walk into town for  it if the need arose in him to suffer its appeal. But only for a short span as if to drink at a well of superficial knowledge then turn around and go back to one's own mind where questions and answers are forever battling within and the Universe is pondered continually. Simplicity was its own reward.

My goal in reading this particular classic was to have in hand an orange marker and highlight things that would tell me of the man who wrote the lines within. What was is character? Who was he inside? What made him tick? What fascinated him and why did he go to the woods?

I did find that I may have understood him more fully and I did find out about all the animals he came to know and the kind of visitors that he liked most who would come to his cabin to exchange minds.

Some books you read again, like A Prayer For Owen Meany, but I wouldn't read this one again. Perhaps a nap would be more satisfying.

The Story of EDGAR SAWTELLE by David Wroblewski

A friend handed me this book and I could not put it down. The author weaves a detailed story about a young boy, his dog and the life he lives in his unspoken world with his mother, father and uncle. This family is from a long line of dog breeders and they raise and train what they call Sawtelle Dogs. This novel takes you into the mind of Edgar and what it is like to live on this farm outside a small town during times when things were simpler but tragedy finds your door anyway.

If you are born with no voice are you heard?

I have to admit that the ending was far from satisfying. It basically stops in on itself and leaves you nowhere. It's the only thing I would change.

But I liked how the author described things in such detail and I learned from it. You could see the opened windows in the house which caught the warm summer breezes blowing the curtains out like a skirt. Feel the sweltering heat in the upper room of the barn where the dogs were kenneled. See the sun rising early in the morning when chores began and coffee was then sipped. Hear the night noises as you lay in a small bed upstairs thinking and trying to make sense of life.

So even though the ending left me hanging as over a cavern with invisible steps to take over it, caught in mid stride, it was still a great read and I think you will enjoy it. You can make up whatever ends soothes you.