Walden book club questions

1. 1.

   Thoreau famously defines the cost of something as the life required to earn it. Apply that definition to a significant purchase or financial commitment in your own life. Does it change how you evaluate it?

2. 2.

   Walden is in some ways a performance: Thoreau's mother did his laundry and he often ate dinner in Concord. Does this undermine the experiment, or does it not matter?

3. 3.

   Thoreau argues that most people live in quiet desperation without examining whether their lives are what they actually want. What would it mean to genuinely examine this in your own situation?

4. 4.

   The chapter on solitude argues that being alone is not the same as being lonely. How do you distinguish between productive solitude and isolation in your own experience?

5. 5.

   Thoreau's economics were only possible because he was a young, healthy, unmarried man with no dependents. How much does that constrain the generalizability of his conclusions?

6. 6.

   Walden has been adopted by very different political traditions — back-to-the-land movements, libertarians, environmentalists. What does the text's malleability say about its strengths and weaknesses as an argument?

7. 7.

   Thoreau reads Homer and other classics in the woods and argues for the importance of serious, difficult reading. Is the kind of reading he describes still possible, and if not, why not?

8. 8.

   The book is organized by the seasons of a year. How does the seasonal structure affect how you read the book's argument about deliberate living and inner transformation?

9. 9.

   Thoreau says he went to the woods 'to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.' What would the contemporary equivalent of this experiment look like for you?

10. 10.

    Walden was not a commercial success when published in 1854. Its current status as a classic emerged gradually over the following century. What does its delayed recognition say about the relationship between its message and its moment?

11. 11.

    Thoreau is an individualist who rarely discusses community, family, or civic obligation as goods in themselves. Is this a strength or a weakness of his argument?

12. 12.

    The natural observations in Walden — the behavior of animals, the formation of ice, the succession of plants — are scientifically detailed. Does the naturalist dimension of the book add to or complicate its philosophical message?

How to run the discussion

• Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
• Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
• Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
• Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.