How to comprehend hard books like Walden?

proletariat2
Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:49:15 +0000

mintymojito, two of Joyce’s books show up on the Modern Lit and the Arts curriculum at my school, but they’re the easiest ones, and I’m not taking that class anyway.

Anyway, in Walden, Thoreau will give long, drawn out paragraphs with many examples and cultural references that will usually either seem to be sheer brilliance or complete nonsense depending on your perspective, but then he’ll get to the point and summarize a couple pages in a sentence or two. Keep an eye out for those spots.