It’s very much ‘just the facts’, which suits me perfectly - I’ve read enough inane rambling about the unique experience which a couple hundred thousand people every year seem to manage to have without resorting to publication.
Every Camino is unique and every Camino is not.
There have been a number of threads on this forum asking why people would want to walk the Camino again, or walk the same route again. And one thing you read again and again in the responses is that to walk the same route again is not to have the same experience again. Things will be different. You will meet different people. You may have different weather, stop at different places. You will be different. It is best not to approach it with expectations of having the same experience again.
On the other hand, there are certain things we consistently seem to find on Camino. That is also what tends to bring back pilgrims again and again. There are places that become favourites. People we see again (like Marcelino in Logrono or David before Astorga). There are common experiences and patterns and lessons that we start to forget after a while but going on Camino again reminds us of what we learned before.
That's why I enjoy reading well-written books about other people's Camino experiences and watching the videos that they share on YouTube or Vimeo when they choose to document their Caminos that way. There is enough different in the particulars that it adds to my experience rather than simply repeating it. But there is enough similar in the experience that it brings back happy memories of my own Caminos, like seeing old friends, and it reminds me of lessons I may be beginning to forget.
But to each, their own. Others certainly will have completely different experiences reading the books, just as others will have completely different experiences on their Caminos. There is room enough for all of us.
And to keep this post on topic, I'll write something about
The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago: The Complete Cultural Handbook, by David M. Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson. Since I own the book, the questions asked of me were how do I use it and why would someone want to get it. More specifically:
- Do you read it cover to cover in advance of a walk, do you make notes, carry e-book and study each day, read only selected parts, etc., etc.?
- Is it timeless, or getting out-of-date?
- How is it organized? Does it have a good index?
- How location-specific is it?
- Is it authoritative or is some of the information not reliable?
I own the book twice: In a large, physical paperback copy that lives on my shelf and in a Kindle version that lives on my phone. I tend to use the former at home and the latter on Camino.
I tend to use it in four ways:
- I use it as a reference at home when I need to know something about the history or cultural artifacts of the Camino Frances. I use it as a reference to answer questions that pop up in these forums, or to add historic or art history information to what I post (for example, recently when posting about San Miguel de Escalada, I looked it up in the book.)
- I will also read sections at home for pleasure reading, although I don't think I ever read it cover to cover in one go.
- On Camino, as others do, I will read about the next day's location in advance.
- I will also open it when at a monument (church, cathedral, etc.) to use as a tour guide. This is particularly effective at the large ones with lots to offer, like the Burgos Cathedral, where you can stand before a portico or retablo with the guide and it will tell you what to look at and what to pay particular attention to.
Much of it is timeless, as much on the Camino is timeless. How much has the art and architecture of the Burgos Cathedral changed in the last 30 years? But things do change. New places get built, old ones restored and changed. The book doesn't keep up. For example, when it was written, pilgrims entered the cathedral in Santiago through the entrance on Obradoiro Square, pausing to place their hand on the column in the
parteluz that holds the Saint. That is how it is described in the book, although we no longer enter through that entrance nor place our hand on that column. It is wise to have another guidebook that can bring you up to date on more recent things, but that in no way negates the value of what this book offers. You just have to recognize what is timeless and what is out of date, for the book contains both.
Katar1na has done an excellent job covering the organization. I won't repeat it. The book has a section near the beginning, "How to read this book", that goes over the organization and conventions of the book in greater detail.
How location specific is it? The second part, with reference material, is not location-specific at all. The first part, organized by location, is certainly location-specific ... in one sense. They are talking about specific locations, and specific monuments in those locations and historic events associated with those locations. In doing so, they reveal much of more general interest. When they talk about a Gothic cathedral, they will reveal much about Gothic architecture that will be of interest and use when looking at Gothic architecture elsewhere. The same goes for when they talk about a Romanesque church. They talk about the history of certain kings and kingdoms, and eras in Spanish and European history and how they affected particular places. What we learn about these can be applied in other places they affected. And so on. There is much of general use that is presented, but in this part of the book it is presented as it is instantiated in a particular location.
While some have disagreed with me that the book is specific to the
Camino Frances (or the
Camino Frances and the Camino Aragones, or the
Camino Frances, the Camino Aragones, and the Camino Navarro, depending on how you define this terms) because so much of it is more broadly applicable, I stand by my assertion. This book will not serve the same way on other Caminos as it does on these. When I am walking these Caminos, I can use the book as a reference to the particular places I am. I can look up the Burgos Cathedral and see what it has to offer, or the Camino history of Ponferrada. Were I walking the Via de la Plata I couldn't use the book to look up the Cathedral in Sevilla or the history of Merida. I do wish similar books were written for other Camino routes.
I generally treat it as authoritative. The authors are academics and noted scholars in this field and have a wealth of both academic research and lived experience to back up what they write. That said, it is only authoritative to a point. And that point is the year 2000 when the book was written. Things have changed since then and new things have been discovered. To the extent that it is out of date, it is not authoritative. But while some books may be more up to date than this one, I don't know of any that are more authoritative.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the Camino. But I think its greatest value is as a reference book, read in bits and pieces directed by need or interest, than as a book that is read cover to cover, absorbed, and set aside.
.
. I was tempted to write to David Gitlitz to point it out but I didn't bother in the end ...
... and it seems to be a very thorough reference book. Not sure I'll plow through it cover to cover, but it will be invaluable. I have been putting together a list of Templar sites to visit on my next CF pilgrimage, where I can have my adolescent Order of DeMolay membership certificate stamped. The Guide has precise entries that I am cross referencing to 
