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Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book has been on my to-read shelf for years, and I finally got around to it, prompted by a quote from the author posted on a college friend's Twitter feed. Some books, perhaps most books, I have learned to read at a faster pace, reading for concepts, ideas, plot sequences, etc. When reading in this way, sentences are read at a glance as opposed to word for word. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is different. All the way through, I found myself reading every word. The higher altitude method would not do for me, I wanted to savor every word. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a beautifully and intelligently written meditation and memoir about life, death, nature, the world and physical universe; how to experience and understand them and how we relate to the world in which we live. Nothing is sugar coated or kept behind the curtain. Our natural world is portrayed in all its wonder and horror, and we are invited to consider what it all means, and where we fit in. After I started reading the book, I looked up Annie Dillard on the Internet and was astounded to find that she was in her late 20's when she wrote this masterpiece. I loved it, and I recommend it to all. This is my first book by this author, but I'm now anxious to read and savor more.


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saying hello to ourselves

Annie Dillard writes about watching an elusive muskrat on Tinker Creek...

"... he never knew I was there. I never knew I was there, either. For that forty minutes last night I was purely sensitive and mute as a photographic plate; I received impressions, but I did not print out captions. My own self awareness had disappeared; it seems now almost as though, had I been wired with electrodes, my EEG would have been flat."

"... I have often noticed that even a few minutes of this self-forgetfulness is tremendously invigorating. I wonder if we do not waste most of our energy just by spending every waking minute saying hello to ourselves."

cool.

photo credit: Alan D. Wilson, www.naturespicsonline.com via Wikimedia Commons

pick up a penny

"It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get."

 - Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

great ending to a great trilogy!

Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

what a great ending to a great trilogy! Loved it. Gibson's writing is fast moving and intriguing. The story is fantastic, characters are amazingly real considering their futuristic context. Loved this trilogy, hope to re-read someday.

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great writing

excellent!

"Kumiko would remember the alley always: dark brick slick with damp, hooded ventilators trailing black streamers of congealed dust, a yellow bulb in a cage of corroded alloy, the low growth of empty bottles that sprouted at the base of either wall, the man-sized nests of crumpled fax and white foam packing segments, and the sound of Sally's bootheels."

p.163 Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson

Count Zero

Count Zero by William Gibson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Count Zero" grabbed me from the first chapter and it was hard to put down. This second of William Gibson's "Sprawl Trilogy" (first book is "Neuromancer") is fast moving, intelligent, fascinating, and very well written. The three plot lines in this story are each interesting and compelling in their own way, and converge near the end in an exciting conclusion. I loved this book, and am excited to read the third in the trilogy "Mona Lisa Overdrive"! (and then to re-read all three again) I highly recommend this book!