Really Good Reads: I'm off Then

The first time I heard about the Camino de Santiago I was sitting in a tiny kitchen in north London and the latest gal pal of one of my friends had just arrived, backpacker's pack still on her back, from having walked the Camino by herself. I was fascinated in part that this tiny 21-year-old girl had camped out for a month along a trail by herself (I was never really by myself!" she had said) and in part by the idea of a modern pilgrimage.

I had also just finished reading Pillars of the Earth, and two of the characters follow the same trail in northern Spain at one point in the book. I was completely drawn in by the idea as I was reading and then, suddenly, was someone in front of me who had actually walked it. I was hooked.

It wasn't until a year or so later on a rainy day in Seattle that I came across Hape Kerkeling's account of his walk along the Camino: I'm off Then: Losing and Finding Myself on the Camino de Santiago. (I'm told by my German friends that he's like the Adam Sandler of Germany.)

I'm off Then was inspiring, insightful, and honest. I loved reading about Kerkeling's inner and physical journey and it absolutely solidified the idea that someday I'll walk the Camino, too. Someday.