Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

[frmikeminn]

Books are heavy! I like to read. So, the last time I walked the Camino with my brother-in-law we have a good idea about books that worked for us. We each chose 6 books we thought we might want to read on the Camino. We then shared our lists of 6 books and the other person chose 3 of those books to have brought on the trip. We ended up with 3 books each and yet had six to read. I got to know a bit more about Gary and he got to read stuff that I had chosen. Once a book was read by both of us, we left it behind. I remember leaving a sci-fi book in one place only to find it sitting around another place a few days later! If you are traveling with someone I recommend the practice.

this time around I am thinking of bringing my electronic book with me. nothing like having 60 books to choose from!

[JohnnieWalker]

Hi Frmikeminn

Sheesh, weight, weight, weight E books are the only answer!

J

[vinotinto]

E books are the only answer!

I think it would be neat to bring along an Amazon Kindle or similar ereader. But it's also nice to go old school and haul the printed page along - especially since you can pick up/drop off books at albergues along the Way...

[Janeh]

I've decided to take my ipod after reading all the for and against discussion on previous threads. That way, i can also download some audio books and enjoy them. I've also put onto my ipod a fabulous spanish dictionary/phrase book, my friends email addresses and other info like that. The extra little bit of weight of my slim nano is worth it all I think.

[cecelia]

Hi all - what you're all saying on this is interesting and just for discussion I wanted to say that I have taken a different position.
I am an avid reader and happily lose myself in books and music - and that's why I DON'T read on the camino - or listen to music (except in the cathedrals). I started my first camino with a book and realized that my head spent more time in the story than on what was actually happening and when I listen to music my mind wanders all over the place. Is it only me? It seems I am happier "being" somewhere else in my mind and letting someone else entertain me than I am with "being here now" (as we used to say). I suspect I am not alone in this. One of my goals for my caminos has been to be present with the experience no matter how uncomfortable that might make me. And for what it's worth - I do feel much lighter,clearer and more energized when I'm finished.
Just a point-of-view.
Buen camino to all whether you're listening to others stories and music or just to the stories in your own head.
Cecelia

[sillydoll]

If you really want to take a book with you - make it the Pilgrimage Road to Santiago by David Gitlitz and Linda Davidson. This is not a 'how to' book but a handbook to everything you will see and want to know about along the way. They offer to "... walk with you, providing useful and interesting information about the history, people, natural environment and artistic monuments that you are passing - as well as the historic, literary and religious contexts of the pilgrimage and pilgrimage the road." All they ask is that you 'fill your pockets with curiosity".

[Priscillian]

Several pilgrims I walked with were taking along pilgrim guides but tearing the pages out as they went. As a lifelong bibliophile and former bookshop owner this to me could be likened to nails on a blackboard! However, when you consider that the optimum weight of a backpack is 7 kilos it does make sense to consider what that book is going to add to it. On the Camino Frances, certainly, you don't need one. Follow the sun. The other thing I would be tempted to say is that while reading you are not "listening to the Camino" - perhaps the best advice I had. Better to write than to read is my advice.
TS
http://pilgrimagetoheresy.com

[frmikeminn]

I have read Hemmingway in Pamplona and the gospel of John in Leon. Yes, a good guidebook to help know where you are and the history of the land and buildings gives you a way into the Camino. I few good books, carefully chosen to illuminate the experience, can invite you to Camino also. I remember a pilgrim who read a devotional book each night. A woman who walked in honor of her best friend, who had died of cancer, read her friends favorite book along the way... It's all in how you approach the task.

[sillydoll]

To me, walking the camino without some form of clutural handbook is like going birding without a field guide!
A bookshop owner in Madrid told me that, ".. and between June 2006 and June 2007 over 400 new books were published on the camino. As the numbers of pilgrims increase, so more feel the need to put pen to paper - some are good, a few have a new angle or a different message, but many will be the same old story of - I walked 800km in the wind and sun, staying in refuges with snoring pilgrims, eating frugally, got blisters, arrived in Santiago, now I am a changed person."
I suppose it is a different "Writes of passage"!

Another new book will be released soon - this time by an Aussie.
Walking the Camino - a modern pilgrimage to Santiago Tony Kevin (on his VDLP walk in 2006)
Tony Kevin is also the author of the award-winning book A Certain Maritime Incident: the sinking of SIEV X. http://www.scribepublications.com.au/book/walkingthecamino

[sillydoll]

Canadian Mennonite theologist and author Arthur Paul Boers' (a professor at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary Elkhart, Ind.) has released his sixth book, The Way is Made by Walking, which chronicles his month-long pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. He has a number of book signings and talks planned: check this website:

http://www.thestar.com/living/article/306730

[vinotinto]

The extra little bit of weight of my slim nano is worth it all I think.

I brought a Nano, but I avoided listening to it while walking. Some folks are into that, but I didn't want to miss anything on the trail. There's another thread devoted to that topic, though.

One thing I found useful was to place language lessons on my Nano. I put One-Day Spanish and One-Day French (I started and ended in France) by Elisabeth Smith on (1 CD each, about 70 minutes worth of instruction on each CD), and here and there (at night) I'd listen to a section to brush up for the next day's potential discussions.

[Arn]

Vinotinto wrote:brush up for the next day's potential discussions.

How typical for a Marine!

Let's see: Tape #1 "dos cerveza por favor" repeat until learned. Tape #2 "Tres VinoTinto por favor". Tape #3 "cafe con leche y ________"

Re listen to the tapes each night...repeat as needed.

Buen Saludos Camino,
Arn

[vinotinto]

How typical for a Marine!

Yeah, and I'd also write down important words (like "ice cream scoop" and "orujo") in my light-green personal logbook...er, I mean Hemingway-style Moleskin journal...gotta be able to talk the talk if yer gonna walk the Walk...

[Arn]

VT...we've got to meet after I return and we've got to plan a Camino along one of the less traveled ways in the not to distant future...you're remarkable!

Folks...I haven't even been on My Camino yet...but in a short span of less than four months I made more friends than I have in the past four years. Oh yes, I have many folks that I'm involved in with the work thing and on side adventures...but this...the Way...is driven by desire and enthusiasm such as I've not seen in my short life time.

I may seem short with some of you. I may be condescending or even brash...but it's done with an all consuming love to help all of us do our best and not lose this chance to walk about it and meet along the Way!

Buen Camino
Arn

[vinotinto]

got to plan a Camino along one of the less traveled ways

The Sevilla route intrigues me...perhaps someday we can take that region of Spain by storm...

On a side note, I just found out that an old Marine buddy of mine got into a pretty bad motorcycle crash yesterday afternoon. He's got a lot of broken bones, but is in stable condition. We'd talked about doing a Wild Hogs meetup down there on our Harleys (he lives in SoCal with his wife and two young daughters), but that's out now. I'm hoping for a quick recovery for him. We were pretty close back in the day - lots of adventures all up and down the Camp Pendleton area.

[MermaidLilli]

Arn, you speak from the heart, and that is what is amazing about this and other forum groups, that camaraderie, driven by this single thread, our Camino. Look at how many of us have already done it and we still come here every day, sometimes more than once a day to see what our friends are asking and /or contributing.
Love
Lillian

[vinotinto]

Arn, you speak from the heart

I second that - I can hardly wait to read his posts after he returns from his Camino. Arn, you'll also have to post on the "Live from the Camino" thread when you can while on the Way...

[PILGRIMSPLAZA]

a fabulous spanish dictionary/phrase book ...

... to make it easy to go back to basics and more enigmas with these three hard workers who back in '82 gave a whole new meaning to facts & fiction (faction); see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holy_B ... Holy_Grail and

El enigma sagrado by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln
Colección Enigmas del Cristianismo; Ediciones M. R. Argentina, S. A. luí
Título original: The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
publicado por Jonathan Cape Ltd., Londres; Traducción de Jordi Beltrán
© 1982 by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln
© 1985 Ediciones Martínez Roca S.A.
© 1989 Ediciones M.R. Argentina S.A. ISBN 84 270-0972-0 ¡

and for some balance: http://www.gotterdammerung.org/books/re ... grail.html
many more mysteries: http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id96/pg1/

and another question: Is this Ja'akov with his Tau-staff below? Click on foto 47 on
http://www.manbos.com/en/verfoto.asp?id ... ql=2&cod=1

Sometimes pictures say more than books; see the first two foto's in miscellaneous-about-santiago/topic3794.html
Now is this a coïncidence or is there more than meets the eye?

[Priscillian]

"Disinformation" is would seem, is no longer available.
Geert: are you feeding us "disinformation" or "misinformation"!
Anyway, Holy Blood Holy Grail is only the very tip of the iceberg.
Tracy Saunders,
http://pilgrimagetoheresy.com

[PILGRIMSPLAZA]

Pilgrimage is of all people, faiths, sferes and ages - for hunters, gatherers and smorgasbordians:

"Disinformation" is would seem, is no longer available.

Thank you! You were right: the ‘Disinformation’-site is still there but too many of its links are not working anymore (I didn't double-check them all; sorry!) so I picked just this one with also plenty of links in different languages from where our new readers may find their own way: http://www.connectotel.com/rennes/index.html
And some more clear reading in the book below: