A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago: The Way of St. James (Camino Guides) [Abridged] [Paperback]

John Brierley (Author)

Book Description

Series: Camino Guides | Publication Date: January 1, 2006

Representing the most popular Christian pilgrimage anywhere in the world, this guide combines maps, photographies, and hospitality information to help travelers in their journey.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Even if you don't think you will ever make this pilgrimage, you will enjoy the books because they help you feel like you are right there, making the journey along with the many travelers on the paths."  —New Spirit Journal

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

John Brierley, born in Aries on April 2, 1948, was educated and qualified as a chartered surveyor in Dublin, where he began his own practice in 1971. An existential crisis in 1987 took him to Findhorn in Scotland. This proved to be a turning point in his life toward a spiritual perspective. In 1996, he convened the international conference "Business for Life," in which the central issue was identified as a crisis of the human spirit. His abiding passion became the idea of business sabbaticals as an antidote to burnout and the notion of pilgrimage as a way to reappraise life’s purpose. He is the author of several pilgrim guides.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Findhorn Press; 2nd edition (January 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844090698
• ISBN-13: 978-1844090693
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 4.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #991,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent guide, with colored maps, photos, route elevation profiles, accomodations, February 7, 2006

By 

Timecheck "backpack45.com - Camino Chronicle... (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago: The Way of St. James (Camino Guides) (Paperback)

The revised edition remains a fine guide and the weight has dropped from 15 oz to 10 oz, making it easier to carry. Mileage and refugio information have been brought up to date.

This guide is very pleasing to look at: glossy paper, colored photos almost every page, multicolor maps and trail profiles, parts of text set off by shading. It has the information the walker needs, where the refugios are, how many beds, alternate choices. There is an introductory section with introduction, overview, followed by planning and preparation information. The main body of the guide follows, organized in 33 stages where each stage corresponds to a typical day's travel. Each stage has a map and a trail profile.
The planning section is very useful - detailed equipment list, travel info, essential phrases in Spanish and a short history of the Camino
.
This guide also makes a serious effort to address the spiritual or inner path side of the journey. In addition to the map and profile, each stage begins with three paragraphs - the Physical Path - a narrative overview of the day's walk, the Mystic Path - to awaken you to the spiritual potential of the day's walk, and Personal Reflections - a quotation from the author's reflections. In each stage there is a page with blank lines for the walker to write in their own reflections. The mystic path, and blank reflections page didn't work for me, but that is personal preference.

For me, the colored maps, elevation profiles and photos are the strong points of the book.

The only real competition to this guide is Davies and Cole Walking the Camino de Santiago. Brierley's guide clearly beats the original Davies and Cole on appearance, and maps and profiles are much better. There is a new Davies and Cole that I have not seen yet. Either one will get you there. I'd buy each ahead of time and make your choice. In total trip expenses it's a minor cost, and both have information you will appreciate. Accomodations change from year to year, so also be sure to get the annual confraternity guide in the next paragraph.

When walking the Camino, the mandatory guide for English speakers is the Confraternity of St. James Pilgrim Guides to Spain I. The Camino Frances. This is a barebones 76 page guide focused on pilgrim food and shelter - how far is it, how many beds available, what does it cost. Supplementing this is the Camino chapter out of the Lonely Planet's Walking guide to Spain - about 35 pages. The Camino facilities change from year to year, and inevitably publications will have typos and errors of fact. Do not rely on just one guide, and do future pilgrims a favor by emailing the publication's website if you find errors in the text.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Covers all you need to know about walking the Camino Frances, January 26, 2007

By 

Robert Muirhead "Bob" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago: The Way of St. James (Camino Guides) (Paperback)

I bought this book because it is mentioned in the popular UK CSJ Pilgrim Guide to Spain and was also mentioned to me by another intending pilgrim. There may be better guides, but once I found this one I stopped looking. It meets my planning needs exactly.

Another caveat is that while I am an experienced trekker in Nepal and South America, I have never done an 800 km trip like the Camino Frances. So my comments will almost certainly need revision when I have completed my pilgrimage.

The book weighs 300gm and is 22cm tall x 12cm wide x 1.5cm thick. The weight is significant in the context of limiting one's load to 10 kg or less. The physical dimensions make it too big to fit easily into a pocket.

One could lighten the book by ripping out un-needed Stages and most of the planning stuff. Actually, it would have been a good idea if the publishers had allowed for this by having a binding to facilitate non-destructive page removal. Some folk, for example, may not plan to do the whole walk in one go and may need, say, only 8 Stages out of the 33 described in the guide. Why take text that you don't need if weight is at a premium?

The front pages of the book show a credit-card size map of each daily Stage (roughly 24km) to give an overview of the whole route from St Jean de Pied to Santiago. This is a nice touch for preliminary planning, but is not really necessary on the road.

Daily Walking Stages (33)

The sections on each Stage have a similar, but more detailed, full-page map. They are in "strip map" format, with the route facing the way you are walking from the start at the bottom to the destination at the top. So North does not face the top of the map in the conventional cartographic manner. The maps show routes, towns, land-marks, some accommodation, important contours, drinking fonts and walking distances. Another interesting touch is a "sun compass" on each map that shows where the sun is, to help navigation. The amount of detail is just right for use in the field, any more would be confusing.

Each Stage also has a diagram showing altitudes and the ups and downs of the stage, which is very useful when contemplating the day's walk.

Total distances are broken down into "path", "quiet road" and "main road". Adjusted distances are also given to take into account climb. As an aside, when trekking in mountainous terrain, especially at high altitude (eg Nepal), distances are totally meaningless for a trekker. Time is the only meaningful measure of travel.

A typical Stage section in the book has about 8 pages, including the full-page map. Most of the information is detailed route directions, although there is also some introductory text on "The Practical Path", "The Mystical Path" and "Personal Reflections". There are usually several credit-card size photos of accommodation and landmarks/sights. The information is very condensed, but quite readable.

Accommodation and phone numbers are included, but not in the detail of the annual UK CSJ Pilgrim Guide. There is no information on specific costs. That's where the CSJ guide shines. But is it really necessary to be so up to date?

The only very slight reservation I have about the emphasis on Stages in designing the book (any guide book, not just this one) is that it encourages/forces you to do the Stages as set out. This imposes a discipline on the journey that runs counter to the notion that a pilgrimage should be a journey of discovery, of meeting both pleasures and travails, along an unknown path to the ultimate goal of the pilgrimage. Although one can also argue the converse in that lovers of ritual and pilgrims wishing to emulate the trials of early Christian martyrs might welcome the forced discipline of a set daily route.

Planning

There is a useful bar chart showing pilgrim numbers by month. July/August look insane to me and the experience of jostling among the summer crowds must be quite unpleasant. This is borne out by comments I have read on the net. In years when July 25 falls on Sunday (not 2007), pilgrim numbers spike up into the stratosphere.

There is good information on clothing and equipment, plus sample packing checklists.

There is a section on types of accommodation and illustrative costs which is quite useful for budgeting.

There is a 4-page section on the Spanish language and useful phrases. Personally, I think some time spent on learning the local language is desirable for any trip.

There is a brief history of the Camino which is interesting, but certainly not needed on the walk.

Conclusion

Overall, this guide is excellent and very practical. It covers all the questions that have occurred to me with one exception: Nothing is said about arrangements available for sending unwanted gear ahead to, say, Santiago. In my case I will be taking other stuff to Europe for post-camino travel that I don't intend to lug around for 800km.

Apart from the practical things you need to know, there is quite a bit on spiritual (not necessarily religious) preparation to focus you on the question "why am I doing this?" I think this is important, although I personally don't think it is necessary to tie it into any formal religious dogma.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Buy, December 31, 2006

By 

Kevin Dehan (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago: The Way of St. James (Camino Guides) (Paperback)

I walked the Camino de Santiago in the spring of 2005 and this book was the envy of all pilgrims I met along the way. Everyone who walks the camino had some type of guide that they carried along with them, but this one was the most comprehensive. It prepares the walker with all they need to know prior to beginning their pilgrimage as well as giving an overview (town expectations, alberque locations, and altitudes climbed). While I found that I differed occasionally on the review of the alberques along the way, I never felt lost or unprepared for the journey that was to lie ahead. Walk the camino -- you will love the difficult and challenging experience that will forever change the way you look at everything -- and make sure that this is the only book you take along with you.