Modern Day Walden

[nomadicandfree]

I think some of people in the permaculture movement would qualify and share many of Thoreau's views. Some examples would be Joel Salatin, Sepp Holzer and Geof Lawton who are both published and well documented.

 

[HumbleBeginnings]

The book that influenced me the most to break out of the normal and pursue adventure was "The Voyage of the Northern Magic" by Diane Stuemer.

https://www.amazon.com/Voyage-North...&sr=8-1&keywords=voyage+of+the+northern+magic

It put the seed in me that my life could be something different from what the majority of our society deems as required. Degree, job, house, 401k, "success."

 

[Victor]

The closest I got to reading something that fits is Zen and Motorcycle Maintenance.
I read a bit of Karoak but wasn't ready to commit.
Cormac McCarthy writes great novels. The Road - post apocalyptical. All the pretty horses - a romance from texas through mexico. All the pretty horses is part of a trilogy.

Otherwise and a bit off the original topic I like some of the following. Of the eastern persuasion, I've always loved Siddhartha by Herman Hess. Buddha was quite the traveler metaphysically and otherwise. Bodhidharma? The book is of sermons. I like to read it when I feel out of sorts. It's some of the sermon that is attributed to the guy that brought Buddhism from India to china - then it traveled to Korea and japan. I also like Rummi the Sufi poet. You guys who enjoy the desert would probably enjoy the poetry of Rummi.

I may read some of the books you have listed. I like this thread.

 

[hugemoth]

I recommend Thoreau's essay "Walking". Don't hear it mentioned very often but its a great read.

 

[Schwoebs]

Craig Childs.  The Secret Knowledge of Water is a good one for desert dwellers.

 

[wasanah2]

I read McPhee's _The Pine Barrens_ in college and thought it was way better than _Walden._  In fact, the more I think of it, I didn't like _Walden_  mainly because HDT had a safety net.  He didn't HAVE to do it; he wanted to do it, and I didn't see him as being a super righteous person as he did for going through with his personal challenge.  He did his lifestyle for a time and then when the time was up, he left.  If it was so great, why not continue and live out life and die there?

I was on the debate team in High School and our theme for the year was Pollution (okay I'm dating myself in the early 70s) and we were all reading _Walden_ in our AP English classes.  Someone wrote on the debate meeting blackboard, "Walden Pond is Polluted."

You had to be there.

 

[ronzey2+]

Iii

 

[ronzey2+]

I am walking Rene around Walden pond, it's an overcast fall afternoon, and the stormy weather has driven seagulls from Boston harbour inland , Rene made a flying leap trying to grab one of those birds ! Well, it's a 30 ft steep embankment, and the water temperature is barley above 32 degrees, down went that flying dog!He disappeared into the frigid
Watery

abyss, I thought he was a gonner,but just then up came some bubbles, followed by a very animated poodle.By the way we were going to name her phydo,but a friend said that's not a French namy! It is when you spell it Phydeaux !

 

[ronzey2+]

Desert Solitaire is a great read.  also Thousand Mile Summer by Colin Fletcher.  highdesertranger

Enjoying nature alone varies a lot ,from person to person .When it's my choice it's solitude ,when not ,isolationism,!  When i experience something profound in the wilderness ,sharing that with that special someone is exponentially more significant ! RON C.

 

[amygdala1]

What a great thread! Thanks for all the suggestions, have quite a few on hold at the library as I am not on the road yet and haven't taken a liking to reading on a device, likely to change once I'm out there and dealing with space issues.

I'd like to add memoirs about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), the Appalachian Trial (AT), or the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Stories about why someone chooses to take on that challenge; the subsequent experiences they have because they are away from mainstream culture and out in nature; the people they meet and the joy they find is similar to why folks become nomads. Very inspirational and fuels my commitment to pulling the trigger in a few years' time.

 

[LERCA]

Hate to pop the Thoreau balloon but he lived near town and his mother did his laundry and made him muffins. Do as I say not as I do I suppose.

 

[maki2]

We need a sticky on this
I actually prefer my books in book form

Yes but book form has changed, it not longer has to be on printed onto paper to read the words the author wrote. It is all about the words, it is not all  about the paper they were printed on or the cardboard that made the covers of the book. Those materials have a shelf life. But thanks to people who scan old books into digital form many books that were published years ago with it being very difficult to find a copy can now be read for free by anyone who has a computer device and an internet connection to download a free digital image copy of the book. Not quite the same experience but better than never being able to read the words or see the illustrations.

Now a new revolution is happening. People who write can self publish their books on places such as Amazon. It used to be that the chance to get a book published was slim to none and going through the process of getting rejected crashed the hopes and dreams of many very talented people just when they were getting started on the path of writing. It cost a small fortune to self publish printed text on paper. But publishing a digital form is very easy as there is also free software being created by groups of individuals. No need to buy expensive software, no need to be rejected because of intense competition for the very small number of new authors the book publishers were willing to accept each year. But you do have to do your own marketing or join with a small group of other self published authors who share in the work of marketing.

I do love reading, I love printed books, I love old books but I am not a Ludite or a snob. A book is still a book no matter if it is on paper or displayed on a screen or even if the words are read out loud in audio form. The words and/or images created by the author/artist are what makes a book, not the format in which it is presented.

 

[user 22017]

I do love reading, I love printed books, I love old books but I am not a Ludite or a snob. A book is still a book no matter if it is on paper or displayed on a screen or even if the words are read out loud in audio form. The words and/or images created by the author/artist are what makes a book, not the format in which it is presented.

For whatever reasons, most people prefer reading from books, as opposed to digital versions. Some people concentrate better using a book, because they aren't distracted by social media. Some have trouble reading from a screen. Lots of studies have been done.

Even though I do almost all my reading on my PC, I'm looking forward to reading books on the road.

This is a wonderful thread, BTW. Excellent suggestions for reading while traveling.

 

[maki2]

I can no longer comfortably read the print in paperback books or even some hardback books. I had retinal damage happen a few years ago.

But here is where E-books can shine. Many of them are free. I like the website archive.org for looking for older materials that are out of print, no longer under copyright etc. When I just went there and entered "On Walden Pond" a whole lot of materials showed up. Not just the writings of Thoreau himself but also from other people who are discussing his writing. Such as the Thoreau Society Bulletin, not from long ago but from a current group's publications where they are discussing the philosophy. Plus various biographies on him and even a collection of essays from the collection of writers in Concord during that era. He was not writing into a vacuum, he belonged to a "tribe" of contemporaries, like minded people who also wrote on the subject and got together and discussed things. Philosophical thinking was very much in vogue during that era.

https://archive.org/search.php?query=on walden pond&sin=TXT

 

[KJ1H]

I started reading "Ghost Rider" by Neil Peart (drummer of Rush) shortly before he died. As a fellow motorcyclist I found it particularly inspiring, but I think any modern nomad can appreciate his tales of life on the road whether you prefer two wheels or four.

 

[amygdala1]

I recently found this gem in a thrift store, published in 1979:

A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins

Full of stories about meeting people and forming community, the restorative aspects of nature, and getting reacquainted with one's inner voice. Highly recommended.

 

[nature lover]

Because of my brain damage (yea really - everyone knew it) I can't read very well but I can get books from the National Library for the blind and vision impaired. They provide the digital machine and you can download thousands of books from their library. I love the nature books. Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold and the complete writings of John Muir. These classics are a must read for any outdoors person. I have often fantasized about illustrating Muir's work with pics of the flora and fauna he refers to. But that's a huge job for someone else. Amygdala 1 mentioned Jenkins "Walk across America". Great read. I think he is the one who followed it up with "Walk Across China". Good book but not a walk I would like to take now. The hardest part of giving up the sticks and bricks was given up my books - I had nearly 8,000. (one of the many reasons she left me after 40 years of marriage) I am down to 100 that I just cant get rid of in the van and 500 nature books in storage for the nature center I am opening in KY (moving the library and artifact collection from Lancaster Pa nature center that I closed in Oct. - that's my major reason for moving to KY. Sorry if I went to far with my personal story but books are my life (next to nature). I don't think I noticed this thread before but I just subscribed - keep it coming.

 

[nature lover]

I just went back and read the whole thread. That was like a family reunion, so many of the authors and books mentioned are my old friends. Some of the posters names I did not see in recent posts. I hope most of you are still out there and come back with more suggestions. I could go on and on and on but for your sake I'll stop there.

 

[Goalgirl]

Sigurg Olson was a modern day Thoreau for sure.    I would recommend "Listening Point".    Here is the blurb for the book : 

[font=Arial, sans-serif]Many people have a special place where they go to experience nature. Perhaps it is a cabin, or a campsite, or a favorite hiking trail. For Sigurd Olson it was a bare glaciated spit of rock in the magnificent Quetico-Superior country of northern Minnesota. He called it his Listening Point, and it is at the center of his book of the same name.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Listening Point is Olson's second book, with over 40,000 copies sold in hardcover. Strikingly illustrated with drawings by Francis Lee Jaques, this book tells the story of Olson's Listening Point from his first night sleeping there under the stars to the eventual building of a cabin. "From this one place I would explore the entire north and all life, including my own", he writes. "For me it would be a listening-post from which I might even hear the music of the spheres".[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Through deeply personal stories, Olson brings life in the woods alive. He traces the history of a fallen leaf, explains the power of a canoe paddle cutting through the water, and the magic of listening to the rain pour on his tent flaps.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]"Listening Point is dedicated to recapturing this almost forgotten sense of wonder and learning from rocks and trees and all the life that is found there, truths that can encompass all", he writes. "Through a vein of rose quartz at its tip can be read the geological history of the planet, from an old pine stump the ecological succession of the plant kingdom, from an Indian legend the story of the dreams of all mankind".[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Considered by some to contain Olson's most vivid and moving passages, Listening Point is the nature lover's companion for hearing the depth and beauty of the great outdoors.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]"With a poet's lyric voice, a guide's authority and a warrior's commitment to his beloved canoe country wilderness, Sig Olson became the 'Voice of the North' to a generation of readers. He stands comfortably among the pantheon of great American nature writers -- Thoreau and Muir, Burroughs and Krutch, Leopold, Eiseley and Teale; but like one of his great sentinel pines, he also stands alone". Douglas Wood, author of Old Turtle
[/font]
And here is a good website to learn more about the man (disclaimer, Northland College is my alma mater ) : 

https://www.northland.edu/centers/soei/sigurd-legacy/#sigurdtimelinehttps://www.northland.edu/centers/soei/sigurd-legacy/

 

[crofter]

The Last Road Trip by Gareth Crocker.  -c

Description: link to book seller catalog.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/25067056-the-last-road-trip