Today a majority of high school students do not read books because it is considered "boring", and with today's technology, you don't have to read, something else will do it for you. People who don't read often judge a book by its cover. "It is not all books that are as dull as their readers." Thoreau said this quote because people often judge books without knowing about the book, in this case, the book would not be dull but the person saying it is will be.
In the chapter Reading, Thoreau said, "To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object." This quote is very important because Thoreau is saying that reading is not an easy task, but it also requires lots of practice and training just as athletes undergo.
English: Henry David Thoreau, photograph taken in ...
English: Portrait by Benjamin D. Maxham (daguerreo...
English: Signature of author Henry David ThoreauThroughout the chapter of Reading, Thoreau states how everyone should read books, and if we don't, we could end up being like pygmies and manikins. "No wonder that Alexander carried the Iliad with him on his expeditions in a precious casket."
In the chapter Solitude, Thoreau explains how being by yourself is not at all a bad thing. "But for the most part it is as solitary where I live as on the prairies. It is as much Asia or Africa as New England, I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself." Thoreau didn't look at solitude as being something bad or a punishment, he looked at it as if it were...