Walden - Chapter 1 & 2

So here in the class I'm teaching about interpretative methods, I asked the students to read one book that interpreters would read (I try to make a point that people who do tours or lead walks, read, they read many things however there are a set of books that interpreters just read or have read to seem like they know stuff, even if they do not). One student wanted to read Walden so I agreed to also read Walden (a book I never really wanted to read) and then I opened up the club to other students who wanted to read the book. A total of six students indicated interest however I told them that we would only do "book club" outside of class.
So, on Friday we were supposed to meet over at the local coffeehouse and talk about the book. Here's where the fun begins.
First, of course no students were over at the coffeehouse. I left the coffeeplace and walked over to my office and lo and behold two students showed up about five minutes later. They mentioned something about a meeting and I asked about the other students and they just mumbled some stuff and shifted around. Then I noticed one of the students looked as high (puffy red eyes and a constant "yeah" when I asked him questions) but since I'm not the local constable, I accepted the situation and decided to actually do this book club. Next, the two of them told me that they had read the first chapter but did not understand it (I guess I believed them and will from now on). I pulled out my notes (yeah, I took notes) and dove in and we went over the parts of chapter one and two that I thought were cool and meaningful.
Here's the bigger point, I never wanted to read this book (not sure why) but now that I read it and was thinking about the book as I read it (I got an annotated copy which explained some of the writing and gave me some history of "T" as it related to the writing) I loved it. What a great read for someone like me.
Chapter One: loved the live simple mantra ("life is not a hardship but a pastime") and the sense of being closer to the Earth (even I believe that this is close to impossible for me "Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things"). I thought the chapter really spoke to me and had arguments that I can use in the future whenever I am doing tours/talks in a park.
Chapter Two: unbelievable. Had on paragraph that I will put on a notecard and use at the drop of hat ("I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what is had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion"). Was totally worth putting in the time to read and think about it.
Wow.