Sterling Terrell

smart ideas from books (mostly)

  • Home
  • About
    • My CV
    • Books
    • Series
  • Newsletter
  • Advertising
  • Tools
You are here: Home / Books / Pilgrim At Tinker Creek, By: Annie Dillard

Pilgrim At Tinker Creek, By: Annie Dillard

Pilgrim At Tinker Creek, By: Annie Dillard

Pilgrim At Tinker Creek
By: Annie Dillard
Harper Perennial Modern Classics (September 10, 2013)
304 pages

Pilgrim At Tinker Creek is superb. I am so glad I found this book. Originally published in 1974, it became an instant classic when its publication won author Annie Dillard the Pulitzer Prize at the age of 29. The book journals Dillard’s year-long residence beside the creek in Virginia as the seasons slowly move by.  The style this book is written in is an interesting blend of narrative non-fiction, memoir, and science textbook – all reflected in a poetic tone that is aimed at both the wonder of creation and our own existence.

Two of my favorite quotes:

It is winter proper; the cold weather, such as it is, has come to stay. I bloom indoors in the winter like a forced forsythia; I come in to come out. At night I read and write, and things I have never understood become clear; I reap the harvest of the rest of the year’s planting.

Of all known forms of life, only about ten percent are still living today. All other forms—fantastic plants, ordinary plants, living animals with unimaginably various wings, tails, teeth, brains—are utterly and forever gone. That is a great many forms that have been created. Multiplying ten times the number of living forms today yields a profusion that is quite beyond what I consider thinkable. Why so many forms? Why not just that one hydrogen atom? The creator goes off on one wild, specific tangent after another, or millions simultaneously, with an exuberance that would seem to be unwarranted, and with an abandoned energy sprung from an unfathomable font. What is going on here? The point of the dragonfly’s terrible lip, the giant water bug, birdsong, or the beautiful dazzle and flash of sunlighted minnows, is not that it all fits together like clockwork—for it doesn’t, particularly, not even inside the goldfish bowl—but that it all flows so freely wild, like the creek, that it all surges in such a free, fringed tangle. Freedom is the world’s water and weather, the world’s nourishment freely given, its soil and sap: and the creator loves pizzazz.

Buy this book.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: BooksTagged With: #Books, #MyReadingLife2017

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Privacy Policy

Connect

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Free Weekly Newsletter:

Search

Top Posts

  • The Tricky Lily Pad Riddle (You Probably Can't Solve)
    The Tricky Lily Pad Riddle (You Probably Can't Solve)
  • The Tragedy Of Gina "Bronco" Bouza (1932-1957)
    The Tragedy Of Gina "Bronco" Bouza (1932-1957)
  • Waffle House, Lubbock Texas
    Waffle House, Lubbock Texas
  • Kindle Copy Error
    Kindle Copy Error
  • Looking For A Persian Rug In Saudi Arabia
    Looking For A Persian Rug In Saudi Arabia
  • This Is How To Draw A Simple Singing Face
    This Is How To Draw A Simple Singing Face
  • The Week In Review - 92
    The Week In Review - 92
  • Rectal Earache?
    Rectal Earache?
  • And The Angels Were Silent, By: Max Lucado
    And The Angels Were Silent, By: Max Lucado
  • Instabooks 317
    Instabooks 317

Supporting = Loving

Recent Posts

  • Control The Outcome
  • On A Speaker’s Feelings
  • Man And Not Dance For The Man
  • Iraq Weapons Of Mass Destruction
  • Random Thoughts – 350
  • Competition Cheer
  • Farming Gophers
  • About Reality Has
  • When It’s Just Your Own Feelings
  • Random Thoughts – 349
  • The Abolition Of Man, By: C.S. Lewis
  • I Did It Because Of You
  • Feel Safe And Wanted Or They
  • The Only Thing That Money Is Good For
  • Random Thoughts – 348
  • The Barking Dogs Are Not The Weirdest Part
  • But You Limp
  • Lose The Liabilities
  • Peter Kreeft Commencement Address
  • Random Thoughts – 347
  • Not Famous Enough
  • Shoes, Jeans, Truck
  • 6 Steps To Giving A Great Presentation
  • Random Thoughts – 346
  • If I Had Understood

Copyright © 2022 · Generate Pro On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in