Books for the road and the year before it
Written by James M. Gehrke, MS, DMin — veteran pilgrim, and the person who will be walking beside you if you come to Spain. Six books on Amazon now, two more on the way.
The app walks with you. The books think with you.
The app is for the walking — the route, the towns, the short reflection at the end of a stage. The books are for the hours when you are not walking: the year of preparation, the evening in the albergía, the strange flat week after you come home.
They are not route manuals. There are good route manuals already and we point you at them. These are about what the walk does to a person, which is the part nobody hands you at the pilgrim office.
Start wherever you actually are
The book behind all the others. James writes as a North American Christian who had little exposure to pilgrimage before walking the Way of St. James in 2009, and draws on his doctoral work in pilgrimage spirituality to ask what makes a walk a pilgrimage rather than a hike or a holiday.
Read it before you decide whether to go. It is the one to give someone who asks you why you went.
Guidebooks tell you where to sleep and how far it is to the next town. This one answers a different question: what does this journey mean, and what is it asking of me?
One story and one meditation for each of the 33 traditional stages, from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela. Carry it with you and read the page for the place you are standing that evening.
A four-week walking devotional for the month of March: Joseph’s hidden faithfulness, the ordinary holiness of Nazareth, the courageous “yes” of Joseph and Mary, and the quiet hope of spring.
Short daily readings, Scripture, simple walking practices and journal prompts for the routes you already walk.
Four weekly topics and 28 daily reflective activities on the focus you bring to your goals and life intentions.
Made to use alongside the Camino for Good app, whether you are walking across Spain or around the block. Do it in a month or at your own pace.
Twenty-two weekly topics with daily reflective activities, concentrating on the inner journey: the vision, focus and perseverance a pilgrimage asks of you.
Intentional, meditative walking can be enlightening across Spain or around the block. This is the longer companion for a season of it.
A resource guide for the inner pilgrimage: the self-reflection the Camino is known for, set out so you can practise it at home.
A good partner to the Inner Journey edition, or a quiet place to start if you are not ready to plan a walk.
Ninety short readings for the three months before you go. One a day, a few minutes each, taking you from the decision through the doubt and the packing lists to the morning you actually leave.
It works whether you are walking in Spain or walking a virtual route from home.
A companion for the Central Way out of Porto: what each stage asks of you, what to notice, and a reflection written for the place you will be standing that evening.
Written to be read in a café in Barcelos with your boots off, not at a desk.
An honest answer in three lines
You are going
Start with Walking the Sacred Journey. On the Francés, carry Walking the Camino de Santiago as a Pilgrim. Becoming a Pilgrim, the ninety-day preparation, is coming soon.
You might go
Walking the Sacred Journey on its own. It is the book about why people go, and it will help you decide.
You are not going
Focus or March Pilgrimage. Four weeks each, walked around your own block, with no assumption you will ever set foot in Spain.
Every book has a route to match
Reading about the Camino and walking it are not the same thing, but they help each other more than you would think. The Finisterre–Muxía route in our app is free, permanently, so you can start walking the distance while you read — no card, nothing to cancel.
About the books
Are the book chapters inside the app?
Do I need the book to use the app, or the other way round?
Is there an audiobook?
Can my church or group order in quantity?
Does buying a book fund the grant?
One walk, however long it takes you
Written by someone who has walked these routes and is still walking them. Six books on Amazon now, two more on the way.
