Beach House Diaries: Vacationing by the Book

You don't see red-white-and-blue bunting in my neck of the woods; nor do you hear marching bands blasting Sousa's greatest hits. In fact, when you're happily marooned on Pictou Island, even Canada's own national holiday (July 1) sometimes slips by unnoticed. Yet each year, in the run up to July 4th, I do remember to honor the ol' U.S. of A -- and my family members there -- by ritually re-reading an American Lit classic: namely Walden, Henry David Thoreau's 1854 ode to fresh air and freedom. It seems a fitting choice, not only because the author moved into his cabin by that titular pond on Independence Day but because, in doing so, he inspired my own experiment in "the simple life" beside a bigger body of water.