I found this book on Amazon.com. I am an avid Barbara Kingsolver fan and thought I would try one of the books that was linked to Kingsolver's books. I chose this book for the bookclub I am hosting for twelve members this coming month.

The book is utterly pointless. The writing is sometimes interesting and there are a few good thoughts, but mostly it is the disjointed and uneducated thoughts of a crazy person living on the edge of society.

I have not finished the book and wish I had not subjected the other readers in my club to the "story". I cannot recommend this book.

Don Miller mentions it as one of those books that you read a paragraph of and then put away and ponder. Intense writing and thinking. Stream of consciousness type of stuff. Makes me want to spend more time outdoors watching and thinking.

I found this book boring...I KNOW it was a Pulitzer prize winner. But, to
me, oh, so boring...

Annie Dillard is an excellent writer of course, and I loved her little
book, The Writing Life.

I first read this book in High School. I was impressed but 8 years later re-read the book to my younger sister for a class she was taking. She wasn't getting much from the book. But as I read it to her, I realized how supreme this book is among American Lit.

Dillard's book is the result of relentless observation. Chapter by chapter she radiates a worshipful view of the natural world. Those who miss the point will complain there is "too much description" all the while missing her acute observation and beautiful prose. I have read that she wrote 15 hours a day. It seems likely since the book seems to reflect an obsessed mind.

Also great is An American Childhood. I think she is the second greatest American writer ever after Cather.

Annie Dillard was way ahead of her time in the spend-time-doing-something-interesting-and-then-write-about-it genre en vogue these days due to its use by Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) and Barbara Kingsolver (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle). The place Dillard writes about is the backcountry near Roanoke, Virginia, with its many wonders of nature, especially insects, birds, fish, and small mammals. She sets out on daily pilgrimages, a predator stalking prey (for observational purposes only) wandering in the wilderness, where she observes plants and wildlife. Back inside, she reads and reflects (and writes). Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is filled with the details of her outdoor experiences, enhanced by famous quotes as well as thoughts and facts on religion, philosophy, and even evolution. The writing is really good: flowery, descriptive and detailed. But you can have too much of a good thing. It only took a few chapters for me to consider relegating the book, with its prolifically poetic prose, to the "Do Not Finish" pile. The thought of learning more about on an egg-laying praying mantis, the quest for a muskrat, or the water bug that ate the frog was enough (though barely) incentive to continue. Great stuff, but reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is liable to cause fancy prose overload, so is better taken in small doses. Similarly good: The Good Rain by Timothy Egan, Silent Spring by Rachel Carlson (both preachy, but fact-filled), The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.

Apparently, Ms. Dillard fancied herself being Henry David Thoreau -- she even named her pet goldfish Ellery Channing (Channing was Thoreau's lifelong friend). Structurally this book is organized similar to Walden, and it is Walden that Ms. Dillard tried to emulate.

The book starts with a bloody, filthy and delirious little episode with a tom cat. Fortunately, the whole book is much more forgiving. There is no doubt that Ms. Dillard is well-read, as she gives us excerpts from Fabre, Edwin Way Teale, Marius von Senden, etc., stories about different animals, the Eskimos and facts about sciences (even Quantum Mechanics), which are quite fascinating to read. It is also no question that she has a flowering pen, her vivid descriptions of nature and events are scattered throughout the book and I especially enjoy the chapters "Flood" and "Stalking".

However, to think that this book is merely an observation of the natural environment and the flora and fauna in it would be a mistake. For one thing, there are actually not that many narratives of first-person observations. The book consists of three main themes: 1. description of the natural environment; 2. anecdotes and stories from other sources; 3. the author's own reflection about theology and spirituality. The first theme probably only occupies one third of the book.

In the end, what we have here is vastly different from Walden. Reading Walden gives one delight, hope, and a sense of liberation -- from the everyday quiet desperation. I don't get much of these from "Tinker Creek". Yes, Ms. Dillard is a keen observer and writes very well, but her main focus is not nature, but instead her religious ruminations. It is very much different from Walden, or Desert Solitaire, or many other books in this genre: in the other books the authors do offer some opinions and reflections, but they are mainly description of natural phenomena, the opinions and reflections are sparkles that give them life, an upshot so to speak. In "Pilgrim", the relationship is reversed; the narratives of nature comes second to, and is dictated by, the author's theological pondering. The book on a whole gives me the impression of a theological discourse rather than a nature book. I also get the feeling that the author is more inward looking, in a sense she is more self-absorbed, often delirious, and sometimes narcissistic. It is really a book about a "pilgrim"; that she happens to be at Tinker Creek is largely coincidental, and probably irrelevant.

Another thread that keeps popping up in the book is her thoughts about a "creator" -- I don't mean to make this a "evolution vs. creationism" debate, but since this is in the book itself and carries much weight, I figured I have every right to comment on it. This is permeated throughout the book, but most strongly in "Fecundity". It is interesting that Ms. Dillard does not actually reject evolution; in fact, she gives us many scientific facts about biology (especially entomology), ecology, etc., one is inclined to believe that she actually accepts it. She goes on to say how "wasteful" nature is in creating a lot of things and then discarding them (which is true and she made a good case by giving us a lot of interesting facts), but then wonders how a creator can be so inefficient. Well, maybe the answer is right at your fingertips, Ms. Dillard, perhaps you should just do away with that first assumption, like Laplace did.

I may be harsh in giving it 3 stars (I would give it 3.5 if I could), but my expectations were much higher (probably it had something to do with the Pulitzer Price).

Find time to read "Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek". Annie Dillard writes about seeing--Seeing--and writes so beautifully about life seen clearly and meaningfully. It's an exquisite book that merges her observations on life in the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountain Valley, and her experiences teaching the young, and her own surprising lessons in learning to See.

Dillard is a brilliant writer whose prose is as agile and weighted and sonorous as poetry. Frankly, surprise, it often IS poetry--and essential.

To the Amazon readers who didn't appreciate Pilgrim, "if at first you do not see, blink, and look again." This can be a life changing book; we don't want to live like cockroaches, do we? And to the reviewer who said the cat described on page one scratched the waking author: Well, no. The cat left bloody footprints on her because he was a tom cat who'd been out fighting or loving (or both) furiously and passionately and savagely. So, hey, let's wake up and re-read this one together. "What are we missing?" may be the perfect place to start.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RUJWZWQT3VC40 I've been meaning to try my hand at video reviews ever since they were announced, but this is my first. It was fun to make, and turned out to be a nice way to practice shooting and editing. My hope is that this short video may inspire some to pick up and read this remarkable book.

The footage in the video is obviously not from Tinker Creek, but from my own "backyard" and surrounding areas in Saint Petersburg, Florida. I captured the images using the new Flip Ultra Video Camcorder, and edited them using Apple's iMovie. The music (perhaps a bit cheesy) was composed using samples from Apple's GarageBand software. All quotations are from Dillard's book. Enjoy!

Took about a week to get book, but knew this, arrived in great shape. Happy customer , would buy again.

The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek has a LOT to say. It has nearly as many frills as the natural world it describes--and all of them lovely--thanks to Annie Dillard's poetic style. She moves effortlessly from the most informal to the most elevated language, a feat I've rarely seen. Just as importantly, there is a bedrock of deep thought beneath Dillard's unique prose.

Readers will enjoy this book no matter their level of comprehension, but in all likelihood, no one will understand Dillard's every nuance and message. She may or may not realize that her own writing mimicks the intricacy of nature, and with its emotional ups and downs seems to describe the change of seasons that she discusses in many of her chapters. Dillard not only thinks wisely about nature, but she also begins to resonate with it on an unconscious level. She is not merely a distanced observer, but she allows herself to truly be PRESENT, and to let her surroundings act on her. Between her conscious statements are hidden transformations.

I'll get personal, because I think each reader's experience will be different: This book made me long to understand what she understood, and to do what she had done. My experience with this book was one of need: I felt the strong urge to mimic her foray into the nearby outdoors, and not to imitate her further, but to find equally individual conclusions for myself.

I found this book very confusing, but interesting. She (the author) is a very descriptive writer, but it is hard to decipher her meaning through the complexity. She rarely talks about other people, but instead she talks about her own experiences. If you can get past the way it is written, it holds interesting concepts.
"When I was quite young, I fondly imagined that all forighn languages were codes for English" is the start of one of her curious topics. If this book only had one word in it it would be the word "nature." That is what the book is built around ant the topic it never leaves. If you are a determined reader and love the natural world, this is definitely the book for you.
i read this for a school assignment, so i am probably not old enough to understand it completely

I had just finished Walden and I was hoping Pilgrim At Tinker Creek would be a little easier reading. It was and I liked the book very much. It reminded me of Mary Oliver's Blue Pastures with the descriptions of the natural world. The flow of the book was better than Blue Pastures as Dillard's book seems to tell a story about her home and surroundings. She writes about how people interact with nature and how humans try to make nature fit into their ways of life. This is illustrated by the story of the town people trying to get rid of the starling population.
You can tell the author loves nature by all of her vivid descriptions. Some of them like the frog having the life sucked out of him are graphic enough that parents of young children might want to censor the book. Dillard views nature as it really is. She epitomizes the survival of the fittest; there is no sugar coating on what she sees and describes. I especially liked the descriptions of the spiders that she let live in her house just so she could observe them and how they contributed to nature's processes.
Dillard's book would be an excellent book for parents to expose their children since most children today do not see nature unless it is on a video game. The book lends great insight on the outdoors from the brilliance of a summer storm to the coming to life of Tinker Creek in the spring. Dillard's knowledge of biology is well illustrated as she describes many of life processes from the creation of atoms to the death of a gold fish.
The reader can walk side by side with Dillard as she contemplates life and its complexities. I can guarantee that once you have read this book you will not look at a walk in the woods in the same way ever again. Dillard takes a long hard look at what is out there and makes you realize that life is not always exactly as it seems.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a different kind of book, but unique in its own way. It is an in depth look at nature, and Annie Dillard's experiences in it. Dillard not only looks at the splendor of nature, but she also describes in detail the horrible acts that take place there. This book is not for the faint and lighthearted from that perspective, for there are some extremely graphic scenes. However, after reading past some of the more unpleasant material, Dillard rewards the reader with beautifully written figurative language that gives the book incredible imagery. This book provides food for thought and teaches the reader to look closer at things that may seem insignificant. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek also offers interesting facts and comical stories. In all, the book is well written. I like to think of it as a stepping stone to the more complex and philosophical book, Walden. For the nature lover and budding transcendentalist, this is an excellent book.

The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek makes it seem as if it should be an interesting yet pleasant book. However Annie Dilliard writes in such manner that it is somewhat interesting and no where near pleasant. Her syntax, or sentence structure should I say is very interesting. There are many one-word sentences and one sentence paragraphs as well. Also she uses many gory details to describe the different things happening in nature. From the moth in the jar to the waterbug sucking the living daylights out of the frog; she tells nature as it is. The chapter on Fecundity is also very vivid one could say. Her thoughs seem random, but as one goes through the book they begin to see it all come together. If you do not read the whole book, it will seem like a bunch of jibber-jabber. Also there is a lot of symbolism throughout the book. The changing of the seasons is one of them. Changing from spring to fall to winter synbolises going from deatch to rebirth. It is not easy to catch on to these symbols. Also most of everything she says, she relates to humans. One other unique thing i found out was that she is a fan of Henry David Thoreau. Earlier this year i read Walden by Thoreau and I did not think it was the greatests of books. She makes a couple of allusions/references to him. I was not the least bit surprised reading across his name. If you have read Walden by Thoreau, Pilgirm at Tinker Creek is somewhat similar to it. This book is not for young teens, it will bore the crap out of them.

So I read this book. While reading it and upon finishing it I came to the strong conclusion that I really enjoy(ed) this book. It's a book about looking deeper into things, exploring possibly everything around and being amazed by it. The chapter on sight is one of my favorite chapters in any book. This is a rich book. This book, if you let it, will make you a deeper person. I think I'm going to go a read it again.