"I aspire to be acquainted with wiser men than this our Concord soil has produced, whose names are hardly known here.  Or shall I hear the name of Plato and never read his book? ... How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book."  (Walden, pages 101 and 102).

In a few weeks we will be joined by freshmen in the Class of 2014, all of whom are entering a new era in their lives.  Hopefully, they will be helped along in that journey by the reading of a few books over the next four years.  We asked them to start this summer with Walden, in which Thoreau describes a bold experiment he undertook with his own life. 

If general trends hold true, more than half of our freshmen will change majors before they graduate.  That probably means they have discovered a new passion in their lives, and potentially a new direction.  As older adults we read books for lots of reasons, including as a way to gather information and for entertainment, but rarely with the thought that it might open a new era in our lives.  I wonder if that is a good thing or something we should regret?  Thoreau would regret it, and he would admonish us sternly that these limits are entirely self-imposed!