Book #30: Spanish Steps by Tim Moore
Spanish Steps by Tim Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Millions of people take the 500 mile pilgramage along the Camino de Santiago, which runs between St. Jean Pied-de-Port in France to Santiago de Compostela on the western coast of Spain, all to see the remains of St. James, also the patron saint of Spain.
I've read books about this before, and this is Tim Moore's account of his own journey. I'd previously read his book, "Do Not Pass Go", so I was familiar with his often self-deprecating humour, which has been compared to Bill Bryson. I had wanted to read this for a while, and was lucky enough to pick it up secondhand while on holiday.
Moore undertook the whole journey with a donkey called Shinto, and much of the book is about their relationship, starting with his admission that he's scared of donkeys. A lot of the stories involve Shinto's attempts to get his end away with other donkeys, waking others up in the night, and being mistakenly called a "monkey" by German hikers.
I found the text in this book a little too dense at times, and I did have to read a few bits again, particularly the comprehensive background to the Camino de Santiago and its origins in the first chapter, but overall I really enjoyed this. As well as reading about how Moore related to Shinto throughout, I loved reading about the places he visited, and even more so about the people he met, who were often described in vivid detail, and also the places where he stayed. A lot of the stories are about squalid living conditions, with Moore often staying in a room with several other pilgrims.
I'm not sure if I'd want to do the Camino de Santiago myself, but I enjoy reading books about it. I am also thinking of reading one of his other books, "French Revolutions", which I hadn't heard of.
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