Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

 

I began reading Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek many, MANY years ago. It was my companion on road trips – perfect for taking in a short piece at a time, and sometimes read aloud if I could get any other passengers interested. It lived multiple places. On the table by my bed. On the back of the end table. In the basket by the bathtub. Forever ready to divulge another slice of nature as seen through Annie’s eyes.

Dillard’s writing is poetry in disguise. The language and structure of the passages makes it easy to forget you aren’t walking with her as she wanders the woods near her home. I found myself totally absorbed by the lives of water bugs and muskrat, interaction between plants and animals, the quiet violence in nature. It is a journey through the seasons with the smallest details brought large. It is "reflection and meditation on creation, creatures and Creator". A truly spiritual experience.


Sometimes I would go months without picking it up but something always drew me back. Perhaps something I observed in nature. It took me years to finish the book and I am better having stuck with it. After I finished it was strange to not reach for it when I had just a few minutes to read, a few minutes to savor Dillard’s gift of words and images. Maybe someday I will start over again.


Recommendations for beautiful descriptions of the natural world 

    The Windward Shore: A Winter on the Great Lakes by Jerry Dennis

    The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

    Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo by Eric Hansen

    The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan

    Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens


Hoping to experience one day

    Better Living Through Birding by Christian Cooper

    Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

    The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl

    The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

    Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh










 

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