CL ~ Reading the Classics #7: Henry Thoreau

Thank you to everyone who responded to me with suggestions on future swaps for Reading the Classics. It is really good to know what you want to read, so this month I have taken one of your suggestions.

Our author this month is Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau was a writer, poet, philosopher and naturalist, working in the United States in the period leading up to and during the Civil War. He is best known for 'Walden', but his writings cover a broad range of topics. For this swap, you can choose something he has written or, in an effort to broaden it even further, you can choose something written about him, such as a biography.

How it works

For those of you who are new to the Classics swaps, each swap will ask you to read one book which you haven't read from a specific author. If you have read everything that author has written, then you can go back and re-read your favourite, but the idea is to read those classics which you might not have read before. Once you have read the book, you need to write a letter to your partner about it. In line with all of the other Carpe Librum swaps, I am going to give you a series of questions to guide you in what to write, but it isn't essential. But please write at least one A4 page.

1. What was the story about? Did you know the story before you read it?
2. Did you like the book? What did you like about it?
3. What, if anything, did you dislike or find difficult about it?
4. Why do you think this author/book is a classic?
5. Would you read any more by this author?
6. Have you seen any films/TV series/other adaptations of this book? If so, how did they compare?
7. How is this book relevant today, if at all?

So choose a book by or about Henry David Thoreau. You can see his bibliography here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HenryDavidThoreau

You will have 4 weeks from end of sign up to get this swap out, but of course, you can start reading straight away.

If you have any wishes for further authors, please do let me know, or if you want to revisit one of the authors we might already have done, then we should be able to arrange that as well.