Barcelona Book

The maps can tell you how far it is from town to town. The guidebooks can tell you how much to pack. But what is the Camino de Santiago really like? What does it feel like for a specific person to sleep in a bunkbed in a crowded dorm, or to walk dozens of miles every day? Codd offers a delightfully honest and yet thoughtful memoir--one of the best I've read (and I've been skimming or reading Camino books for a couple of years now).

He admits his petty annoyances and failures, as well as the moments of personal insight and spectacular accomplishments along the way, but there's no sense that he's playing anything up for the reader's benefit. This is simply how he, a Catholic priest and a scholar, experienced his Camino. These are the people he met: some of them friendly, some of them not.These are the days he walked; some of them he was in good spirits, and sometimes he was not. There's plenty of practical information for the aspiring pilgrim like myself, without it ever getting boring.

Buen camino.