Lately Cia and I have been reading together -- and listening to the audio version of -- Annie Dillard's quite famous book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and we are both surprisingly disappointed with it. I think we both find it to be quite unnecessarily confusing at times, and I am not at all impressed by her apparent interest in "showing off" her writing skills. I get the distinct feeling that she was consciously trying to write with elegance and flair,  instead of simply telling her story honestly and letting the elegance and flair happen by itself, which it often does when the writer's ego steps out of the way. I see too much of Annie Dillard the skilled writer here, and not enough of Annie Dillard the sincere and keen observer of nature.