In his 1923 treatise Ich und Du, Jewish philosopher Martin Buber argues that human existence fundamentally revolves around engagement with the world. He calls one form of relationship with the world Ich-Du — “I-You,” or more commonly “I-Thou.” An I-Thou relationship occurs when two beings meet without any objectification of each other—whether they are lovers or strangers. As opposed to an Ich-Es “(“I-It”) encounter, Ich-Du does not involve a sense of purpose, evaluation, or even analysis. It is instead a relationship of true connection, recognition, and appreciation. The encountered one need not even be aware of the encounter; what matters is that one subject relates to another subject with openness and honesty. It can also occur between humans and other living things.

In Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau, Ben Shattuck conjures an I-Thou engagement with the Massachusetts transcendentalist. Relationships are at the heart of this gentle and moving book, a recognition the author acknowledges in his very first words where he defines “footstep” as a step made by a walker “especially as heard by another person.” Reading personal travel accounts gives Shattuck a way to hear Thoreau’s steps and points the way to follow after him.

He decides to start this walking project as a way to experience the peace and restoration that may be inspired by encounters with the natural world. Hoping to escape the “doubt, fear, shame, and sadness that had arranged a constellation of grief” around him after a breakup, Shattuck first retraces Thoreau’s journey along the beaches of southeastern Massachusetts. Before setting off, he fills his backpack with a rain jacket, snacks, and a copy of Thoreau’s Cape Cod to keep him company. To paraphrase Omar Khayyam, he brings a loaf of bread, a brick of cheese—and Thou.

Shattuck may never invoke Buber, but his way of regarding Thoreau — as a silent companion, a double, a person worthy of not only appreciation but interrogation — resonates as an I-Thou encounter. So do those with the people he meets on this walk and the paths that follow. One couple offers him a room for the night when the temperatures drop too low to sleep outside. The husband and wife feed him and share memories of their youth on the Cape. Shattuck’s evening with them reminds him that “no matter how crowded our lives feel, the old ways haven’t entirely disappeared. You can still reach back” to times similar to the ones that Thoreau himself might have felt, including “the satisfaction of a warm house on a winter day.”

Shattuck’s interest in forming connections with the world extends to urban and modern adventures as well. After another long day of walking on the beach, he heads into a pub to fill his rumbling belly with freshly-caught seafood. An elderly lady sitting beside him strikes up a conversation, and he responds. “If I’ve learned anything from novels,” he explains to the reader, “it’s that you talk to a stranger at the bar when they talk to you.” After the woman throws back a few too many cocktails, she requests that Shattuck escort her home. He becomes her companion in those moments, dropping her off at her door and recognizing not only her quirky drunkenness but their shared humanity.

During his trip to Wachusett Mountain, Shattuck rests on a grassy slope to peer at the night sky. Since he does not know the names of constellations as Thoreau did, he pulls out his phone and downloads an app. He lifts his phone to the sky to see Cygnus, the Swan — and tentatively suggests that this moment feels sacred. He writes:

“Henry had walked to Wachusett, sat up on the summit and looked at the stars as if they were ‘given for a consolation’ six months after his brother died. Was he doing the same thing I was doing? Walking to husk the dead skin of grief? Looking up to feel the comfort of one’s own smallness in the world, to displace bulging selfhood, under the shadow of such urgent beauty as they night sky? To force loss or confusion microscopic in perspective?”

In the second half of the book, the narrative leaps to a moment years after his night on Wachusett Mountain. Now Shattuck no longer travels to avert loneliness. Instead, he acquires a jug of wine and a loaf of bread to share with a companion, his new Thou. He packs a picnic basket before they set off. Before he closes the lid, he nestles inside it a box he has carved from the limb of an oak tree in his backyard. It contains his great-grandmother’s ring, to be offered to his beloved.

During one of Shattuck’s last walks, a trip with an old friend up in the Maine Woods, he thinks of Thoreau’s account of finding a piece of phosphorescent wood with light emanating from the sapwood directly under the bark. After discovering it, Thoreau cut several small chips from the glowing limb and was awed that “they lit up the inside of my hand, revealing the lines and wrinkles,” as he wrote. “It could hardly have thrilled me more if it had taken the form of letters, or of the human face.” Shattuck sees in Thoreau’s words both “metaphor and meaning”: as he sees it, “a man carrying back to camp illuminated wood is, in a way, the heart of his work.”

Extraordinary encounters like these seem like promises that Shattuck celebrates without reservation. Far less extraordinary moments also open him to the world, too. When he sees an enormous frog, larger than any he had ever seen, Shattuck wonders if the frog is looking at him as well — not just as a human interloper “but as an individual,” recognizing him in some sense as a trustworthy companion. Eventually, he comes to understand his own quest in a new way: “Maybe what I want when I go out in nature is not to see it,” he writes, “but to be seen by it. To receive anointment.”

Finally, Shattuck confronts Buber’s ideal Thou, or at least its modern version — “the spirituality of a life.” Experiences in nature, he explains, teach us to recognize that what we see when we look overhead on a starry night is the same sky we see on a sunny afternoon at the beach. “Grief and joy are in the same life,” he says as he expands the metaphor. “It is one canopy of light spread over your whole life’s landscape.”
Six Walks is at its heart a meditation on love — romantic love for a partner, lasting relationships with close friends, and all the deep connections we make with the natural world. For contemplative readers, this may be the perfect beach read.

This is an interesting book. I read this in homage to my Thoreau-obsessed youth. When writing about his travel, it is a good book. However, his thoughts and info on Thoreau are uninspiring with nothing really new to say. Plus, maybe its time we stop lionizing Thoreau anyway.

On an autumn morning in 1849, Henry David Thoreau stepped out his front door to walk the beaches of Cape Cod. Over a century and a half later, Ben Shattuck does the same. With little more than a loaf of bread, brick of cheese, and a notebook, Shattuck sets out to retrace Thoreau’s path through the Cape’s outer beaches, from the elbow to Provincetown’s fingertip. This is the first of six journeys taken by Shattuck, each one inspired by a walk once taken by Henry David Thoreau.

Such an intriguing concept for a book, and executed beautifully. Thought provoking and inspiration, Shattuck writes beautifully. A reminder of the power of nature, and that sometimes doing something somewhat outlandish and out of the norm can help to break us free from our melancholy.

SIX WALKS by Ben Shattuck is subtitled "In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau" and I had originally thought that these musings might appeal to English teachers, perhaps as a contemporary reinforcement of Thoreau's relevance? However, I had trouble starting this book. I tried again and still found it difficult to relate to the narrator who blithely took off "without a plan, with only an impulse to walk." For me, there was too much rather random jumping around between places and times. Shattuck is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and an award-winning author. He appreciates nature and describes it eloquently: "Shellacked in rain, like rubies nestled in enormous sienna carpets, wild cranberries appeared in the boggy ground between the hills ..." SIX WALKS has been widely praised and received starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly. Please gauge your own reaction and if you still wish to read an amazing book about walking try The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. That debut chronicle held my attention and touched my heart.

What a beautifully written piece of art. This books comes in at a good time because walks are all for mental health these days. The prose is peaceful, lovely, and wistful.

Ben Shattuck writes eloquently about the small observed details of a life on foot. His candor about his physical and mental health issues in the first part of the book contrast dramatically his evident happiness in the last part of the book.

Shattuck says about his motivation for walking and writing:

"But if I’ve learned one thing from reading Henry’s journals, it’s that stepping out your front door gives an offering in all seasons and moods."

"I think I understand something more of why Henry journaled, and why there is so much good writing in it, so little lazy writing, so many elaborate metaphors and full sentences.”

This is a lovely book for anyone who finds pleasure in stepping out their door with boots and backpack, ready to observe the world and its inhabitants.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Enlightening, Thought-Provoking, and Inspirational this story is a great one to read and peruse by the fire on a cold day or while sitting in a chair lounging in the backyard as the birds chirp and a light breeze ruffles your hair. This was a bit of an emotional one with sadness, happiness, and everything in between like happens in life.
It was about how the author Ben Shattuck decided to try out doing some of the things that Henry David Thoreau did with his walks and looking and reflecting on nature as he went. Ben also decided to go about experimenting and trying these walks and things out because he was having a difficult time after a. hard break-up that was causing him to have insomnia, anxiety, and bad nightmares.
He started on this journey by taking walks and doing what he could to follow in the footsteps of Henry David Thoreau and what you find and read while following along with his narrative is a poignant, moving tale of life, loss, love, and seeing the world, nature, animals, himself and others in a whole new light. It's also fascinating reading about his experience written this way with the sketches and drawings in the book as well that illustrate some of the places he went and how he reflects on things, people and events as things happen. This reminds me a bit of poetry and prose that's written beautifully in a way to touch others, remind others of the world, nature, animals, and their beauty as well as the people and their kindnesses.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Tin House for letting me read and review this deep and soulful book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I am a big fan of walks. I take a lot of them, whether at home/in my local neighborhood or traveling. So this book held a lot of appeal--especially since it channeled Henry David Thoreau! (I have also seen _Dead Poets Society_ a time or six, so might have had Robin Williams's voice in my head at times. <innocent cough, whistle>)

This book started out appealing, and indeed was (varying degrees of) interesting throughout the read. Shattuck definitely met some colorful characters on his walks; some of these encounters read better than others, lol. The first half of the book was also more interesting to me; the second half struggled to hold my interest. I'm not really sure why...then again, maybe it was the severed-finger story, that went on longer than I wished (with my vivid imagination and own reasons for not being a doctor). :D

Would I pick up Thoreau after reading this? Absolutely. Would I reread this? Mmm...no.

I received an eARC of the book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

I loved the premise of this book: author Ben Shattuck retraces six nature journeys undertaken by Henry David Thoreau, weaving excerpts from Thoreau's writings with his own impressions and observations of those places today. And for the most part, Shattuck delivers an enjoyable book, a mix of travelogue and nature writing with a dash of biography and literary criticism thrown in. My early quibbles about the writing in a few of the first walks feeling a little overwrought gave way as Shattuck's life, along with the book, improved as it went along. "Six Walks" is a fun read for anyone who enjoys the outdoors or quirky literary quests.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tin House for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

I had expectations of loving this book, having grown up in Massachusetts and having hiked in several of the areas described, and being heavily influenced by Thoreau’s writing. Despite those shared starting points, it became clear I’m not the target audience for this book. There are many Thoreau quotes in the book, but I never felt connected to the present-day author. I guess I expected more about the land and less about the author—I did enjoy the nature writing, but I decided long ago I didn’t want to live a mainstream life and I’m definitely not interested in reading about it. I also don’t care for attempts at analyzing the personalities of people from the past based on current values. I’m sure most Americans will relate to the writing more than I could.

Thanks to Tin House and NetGalley for the advance copy to review.

A snowstorm day was the perfect idyll in which to curl up with Ben Shattuck's SIX WALKS, a poignant, intensely observed and intelligent retracing of some of Thoreau's most famous road trips. The first half of the work is especially compelling, as Shattuck seizes the opportunity of these journeys in an attempt to heal himself and address his own demons. A highly recommended read--irresistible for anyone who loves the works of Thoreau, thoughtful memoirs, and/or captivating nature writing.

We learn early in Six Walks that after suffering a devastating breakup — that caused him anxiety, insomnia, and nightmares — author Ben Shattuck reached for some of the writings of Henry David Thoreau, and living in the same general area as that famed naturalist had, Shattuck decided to retrace one of Thoreau’s walks and see what became of it. This led to another and another long walk, and for the first half of this book, it was moving and poignant to watch as Shattuck reconnected to himself as he considered the changing landscape around him and sent feelers back in time to discover what kind of man Thoreau must have been. This was very satisfying as a work of naturalism, literary criticism, and self-discovery memoir. The second half of the book sees Shattuck returning a couple of years later to the project of retracing Thoreau’s paths — while in a COVID lockdown with the love of his life — and although the thinking and writing are still of the highest order, it’s not quite as affecting without the pain. Still, this is a mashup of my favourite types of nonfiction writing — the nature writing, the literary callbacks, the thoughtful self-examination — and as a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Shattuck is certainly a polished wordsmith and Six Walks is finely crafted and relatable.