On Reading

These are some interesting points from Henry David Thoreau's essay about 'Reading' found in his book Walden that I have collated and commented on.

Thoreau’s residence near the shores of Walden Pond afforded him a place more conducive to serious reading than that of a university. To consecrate our mornings to the pages of a book, Thoreau specifically added that it must be in the pages of a classic book or the best there is in literature. He even expresses disgust on how people chose to devalue their mornings by doing house chores or working.

Thoreau emphasized the nature of classics by stating, “For what are classics but the noblest thoughts of man?”. Adding further, “they are the only oracles which are not decayed… we might as well omit to study nature because she is old. Reading well is a noble intellectual exercise.”

Thoreau made it clear that books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written. To read deliberately, it behooves us to engage in a noble exercise comparable to that of an athlete’s training – intense focus and commitment.

“A written word is the choicest of relics… not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips.” The second part of the sentence is very insightful. Thoreau was able to conjure up a fresh view or perspective on reading books. This made me see books or any written word as phenomenal. It stands true that the authors of the oldest and best books exerted an influence on mankind more than the kings and emperors were able to do. Thoreau has repeatedly expressed his admiration to the authors of old by describing the works thereof as “heroic literary labors of the ancients”.

He also implicated how people stopped short with what can be considered as elementary reading. The kind of reading that could only go as far as to equip us to do our daily business and not get cheated. A means to get by. A mere tool.

Thoreau then urged us by saying, “having learned our letters, we should read the best that is in literature.” To go on reading books that are over our head and not be satisfied with the wisdom of one good book.

Since most men have little to no interest in the classics, as a result, there’s no depth to our communications, and thus, we ended up having feeble intellects. Thoreau went on to explain or rather described his observation of the people, who’s supposedly a college bred, do not have the slightest interest in English classics, a language which all can read and speak fairly well. You might imagine how tragic one feels after enjoying a classic book, finds that he has no one he could speak to about it, and thus, forced to keep quiet. Such is the case in Thoreau’s town in Concord, but I would argue that it is the case even in our present time.

People in his day, and nowadays if I might add, were more eager to acquire money rather than seek wisdom in written words. Thoreau even confessed that he was not able to find any distinction between people who were illiterate, to those who know how to read merely. He strongly declared that men were under-bred and low-lived and illiterate. And then goes on by stating that there’s not much difference between men who were illiterate (who cannot read), and men who can read but very much far from being well-read.

Thoreau went on to illustrate that books contains words addressed to our present conditions which provide us perspective we didn’t know then. They contain words uttered effortlessly by authors, which for us, seemed unutterable. We find the questions that confounded us, already answered by these wise men who took notice of their own thoughts and experiences.

All the complexities and questions that have occurred to us, as what Thoreau has pointed out, have occurred as well to these wise men; not a single one was overlooked; and each according to their own abilities, intellect, and experiences have answered them, so that we only need to look back and read their accounts. Viewed in this light, we can say that books can save us.

Thoreau once again urged his readers to cultivate themselves “as the nobleman of cultivated taste surround himself with whatever conduces to his culture, genius, learning, wit, books, paintings, statuary, music, philosophical instruments and the like.” What’s more valuable than a man having thoroughly cultivated himself for his own good and the good of the people around him.

Apparently, reading gets you thinking. I think Thoreau mastered the art of thinking, seeing how he never failed to put much greater light on the very nature of reading even calling it a "noble intellectual exercise".

I’ll end this by quoting Mortimer Adler, author of the book, “How to Read a Book” in which he said, “All great writers were great readers.”