Thoughts on Thoreau... while not reading Thoreau

I had a hard time reading Thoreau's Walden, much harder than I thought it would be. I didn't read once or twice, once due to $1 microbrew pint night at the Bozeman grill & tavern. I tried to justify this beer-drinking to myself by saying that perhaps Thoreau would have wanted me to sip on some brew instead of burying my head in a book. I got pretty enmeshed in this argument thinking what he would feel about me skipping assigned reading in his book. I felt he might view it as a stand of individualism, or defiance, or experiencing nature! Plus, I think that $1 is good economy :) However, no matter how hard I tried (and I tried hard) I just couldn't bring myself to think that Thoreau would condone my choice of evening among other beer drinkers watching a sports game in a loud bar area. I feel he would have looked at me and said "Adam, you think it is essential that you have commerce, and drink beer, and talk loudly in the bar, and ride here at thirty miles an hour... Adam, you don't drink upon the bar, the bar drinks upon you." Okay, so perhaps I'm taking some liberties with his statements in "Where I Lived and What I Lived For" but isn't that what happens when you try and apply an individual's individualist-based philosophy? How can we, who only have access to his books, chapters, and words, pin-point his philosophy and say what he wants? It seems to me that perhaps he, knowingly or not, is proposing that people

On the other hand maybe he is saying "be yourself! and here is how I did it!" This seems to make more sense to me. I can see Thoreau saying "whatever floats your boat, as long as it doesn't interfere with mine." For me, this view of Thoreau gels a lot more. I like to think of "nature" in a much broader sense than a pond, some trees, grass, etc. Why is it that in the bar, surrounded by my fellow man that I too should not feel as though I am in a state of Nature? If any where I should feel at one of the hearts of HUMAN NATURE in the bar! It seems that that the academy wouldn't quite agree with me. Taking time for oneself? "Poor time-management?"NO! You must be reading Thoreau! Even myself, an individual, feels the regret of not reading and drinking some beer instead. So, somewhere in the academy's and the individual's efforts to pin-point Thoreau and live exactly by his philosophy we have lost sight of our own needs as individuals.