Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
by Annie Dillard
A year of looking at a creek in Virginia: muskrats, praying mantises, a frog drained by a water bug, the cruelty and profusion of nature and the discipline of seeing. It won the Pulitzer at twenty-nine and is the best book ever written about paying attention.
Read it if…
you want to learn to see.
Skip it if…
you want plot or practical steps; it is dense, lyrical attention.
Three things you will actually use
- Seeing is a discipline, not an accident.
- Nature is extravagant and indifferent; look anyway.
- Spend the afternoon; you cannot take it with you.
Do this first
Read 'Seeing' (chapter two) and spend an hour outdoors doing what it describes.
Our verdict
The best book about paying attention.
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