Walden by Henry David Thoreau and works by his mentor Ralph Wald

Synopsis of Walden, or life in the woods.

"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 it 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 out 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."

Emerson's work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson

以前在国内上学的时候接触过一点儿，没有认真读。等我读完手头上的书，也想读读Thoreau和Emerson的essays。