Pilgrim At Tinker Creek by Annie Dillared

Pilgrim At Tinker Creek was one of the most interesting books I have ever read, and I would consider it  to be one of my favorite books, as well as one that I would reread. However, I would not recommend this book to most people, but if you're the science-y type or a lover of many random often gruesome topics, then you may want to try this book out. 

This book is 304 pages long, and it took me about a week to finish. It is a nonfictional work about nature and theology. According to Amazon, 

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is the story of a dramatic year in Virginia's Roanoke Valley. Annie Dillard sets out to see what she can see. What she sees are astonishing incidents of "beauty tangled in a rapture with violence."

Unlike many other book descriptions, this is a pretty accurate description of Pilgrim At Tinker Creek. I really enjoyed Dillard's inquisitive, humorous, and sometimes ridiculous tone throughout the book. Her little anecedotes contained in every chapter are delightful, and most of all, I am simply shocked by all of the random things that Annie Dillard is knowledgable about and has written about in the book. Some readers think Dillard is simply pretentious, but I just love all these random bits and pieces of interesting stories and information. Thank goodness the Kindle app allows me to easily look up all the obsurcure things she talks about on Wikipedia. 

This book was actually an assigned reading for an academic decathlon competition that I participated in, and it was by far the most hated-on assigned reading by my peers. I was repeatedly warned by every teacher/coach and previous readers of how verbose and tedious this book is, and told to just "grind through it".

But, being the stubborn person that I am, I was determined to force myself to like this book despite everyone else's opinions, and luckily, it wasn't very hard for me to enjoy it. I did start getting a little tired of it towards the end; this is not a book you can half-heartedly read while being half-asleep from studying APs.

In conclusion, this book really inspired me to ponder upon topics that I have overlooked throughout my life, and I learned many new tidbits of information from this read.