So, I wanted to love this book, because it is interesting and mixes nature, biography, and history. But after reading it all the way through it feel like a mish-mash of things. Maybe because you never get a good idea who the author is, personality-wise. He stays relatively anonymous through the whole year of living in a cottage. He is the observer, not the center of attention, which is both good and bad.

The writing is great, and I especially liked the comparisons between different generations and Henry David Thoreau and his cabin at the lake Walden.

There are some true gems in the text, and I didn't find the book boring, just long and slow. On the other hand, the year in that cabin appears to have been long and slow, on purpose, so the book fits that mind set. The author reflects on how we spend time, how people, work, and society is changing. He describes characters from all walks of life so the come to life, including his no-longer-alive relatives, and Thoreau and his relatives. It is a good book to read when you have some time to think. ( )