Hi, this is AJ again. Welcome to the next lesson. This week's lesson is called "Walden." And we're going to talk about a book with the same name, Walden,

<p><br></p> <p>Walden Main Text</p> <p>Hi, this is AJ again. Welcome to the next lesson. This week's lesson is called "Walden."</p> <p>And we're going to talk about a book with the same name, Walden, by a writer named</p> <p>Henry David Thoreau. Now Thoreau is probably my favorite American writer, I guess</p> <p>maybe my favorite writer in general. He wrote back during the American Civil War, prior</p> <p>to the American Civil War, and his book Walden is his most famous book. Now it's quite</p> <p>difficult. There's a lot of big vocabulary in this book. And also the writing style is kind of</p> <p>old, very, very, very formal English and a little bit of an old style of English. So l'm going</p> <p>to read one paragraph from the book and then l'll talk about it more. And that paragraph</p> <p>may be quite difficult for you, but don't worry. I'll explain it after.</p> <p>Now, Walden, the book, is about an experiment, an experience that Henry David</p> <p>Thoreau had. He decided to go and live in the woods. Go away from the town where</p> <p>he was into the woods, into the forest, and then build a very small little simple house</p> <p>and live in it by himself. And just think and relax and live a very simple life. And then he</p> <p>wrote a book about this experience. Now, of course, this is something that people have</p> <p>done for centuries and centuries, holy people, religious people, spiritual people,</p> <p>philosophers.</p> <p>In many different periods of history, in many different locations in the world, they've</p> <p>gone off by themselves to some small remote place away from other people to think, to</p> <p>live simply. And of course we have a lot of great intellectual breakthroughs from these</p> <p>people. So it's a long tradition to do this and Henry David Thoreau was following the</p> <p>same tradition. And it's not a usual thing for Americans, I would say. He was maybe</p> <p>one of the first Americans to do this and write about it. I'm sure many did it but he wrote</p> <p>about his experience. And t