Why I read the book: I enjoyed Thoreau's The Maine Woods and since I read that book, I’ve intended to read this one. I recently read Uncommon Carriers, by John McPhee, in one chapter of which he chronicles his own voyage in Thoreau’s wake. It prompted my interest.

What I liked about the book: Thoreau’s tale of the trip itself was interesting, and the bits about the history of the region were very good. He passes the sites of several Indian wars and tells about the earliest settlers.

What I didn’t like about the book: The tangents were, almost without fail, very loosely connected to the trip and, for the most part, dry. At times, Thoreau’s language got so “poetic” and convoluted that I lost all track of what he was talking about and just muddled on until he got back to the boat.

The most interesting quotes:

— Thoreau on religion (he read extensively on all religions and seemed to consider himself most closely aligned with Hinduism): Most people with whom I talk, men and women even of some originality and genius, have their scheme of the universe all cut and dried … Some, to me, seemingly very unimportant and unsubstantial things and relations, are for them everlastingly settled, — as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the like. These are like everlasting hills to them. But in all my wanderings I never came across the least vestige of authority for these things … The wisest man preaches no doctrines; he has no scheme; he sees no rafter, not even a cobweb, against the heavens. It is a clear sky.

— On reading: Certainly, we do not need to be soothed and entertained always like children. He who resorts to the easy novel, because he is languid, does no better than if he took a nap.

— On success: All good abides with him who waiteth wisely; we shall sooner overtake the dawn by remaining here than by hurrying over the hills of the west. Be assured that every man’s success is in proportion to his average ability … We know not yet what we have done, still less what we are doing. Wait till evening, and other parts of our day’s work will shine than we had thought at noon, and we shall discover the real purport of our toil.

— On time: The age of the world is great enough for our imaginations … And yet the lives of but sixty old women, such as live under the hill, say of a century each, strung together, are sufficient to reach over the whole ground. Taking hold of hands they would span the interval from Eve to my own mother. A respectable tea-party merely, — whose gossip would be Universal History. The fourth old woman from myself suckled Columbus, — the ninth was nurse to the Norman Conqueror, — the nineteenth was the Virgin Mary, — the twenty-fourth the Cumaean Sibyl, — the thirtieth was at the Trojan war and Helen her name, — the thirty-eighth was Queen Semiramis, — the sixtieth was Eve the mother of mankind. So much for the

“Old woman that lives under the hill,
And if she’s not gone she lives there still.”

Recommendation: I can’t recommend this unless you are a particular fan of Thoreau’s. I enjoyed Walden and The Maine Woods, but not this. I gave it a 5 because it was too much poetic philosophy and I am not a poet. I still intend to someday read his remaining book, Cape Cod, but probably not right away.