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Saturday, November 30, 2013

Behind the Albergue Door {Book Review}

Today I am reviewing Behind the Albergue Door by Dean Johnston, a book about traveling El Camino de Santiago in Spain. When I had to opportunity to get this book to review, I jumped on it. Walking El Camino has been a dream of mine for a while, and I must say that this book made me even more excited to travel there someday.

Summary

Behind the Albergue Door : Inspiration Agony Adventure on the Camino de Santiago is a detailed and, according to the author’s mom, hilarious account of the 5 weeks in the fall of 2012 that he and his wife spent hiking the popular 800 kilometre Spanish pilgrimage route, the Camino de Santiago. It mixes stories, advice and humour in a way unique among travelogues and is a terrific read for past pilgrims, future pilgrims, travel buffs, and those who simply enjoy reading about other people’s suffering.


Review


This book is a wonderful combination of informative and hilarious. Dean Johnston intersperses his advice and guidelines with humorous anecdotes and stories of fictional travelers. I found his writing style quite enjoyable, and I think he managed very well to combine the serious and not so serious topic he covered.


This book is thorough, and covered many topics such as what to pack, the food, the weather, the other people, and more. There are also several chapters, intersperced through out the book, which tell the story of a fictional El Camino traveler, usually told through emails, tweets, or other modern methods of communication. These stories help demonstrate the different kinds of people who make the journey, and some of the experiences they might have.


 There are also more real life, semi serious stories from Dean's actual time on El Camino de Santiago, which, by the end of the book, make you feel like he is a family friend you have been asking for advice from. Nothing, it seems, was too personal for him to share, and that is what makes this book so wonderfully comprehensive.


I would highly recommend this book to people to love to travel, people considering walking El Camino de Santiago, and those who simply love a well written real life adventure!

Now, I have the very special opportunity to give away a copy of this ebook to one of you! You can enter below using your facebook account, your twitter account, or your email address. Unfortunately, since I have been really sick lately, I did not get this up as soon as I had hoped, and so Dean Johnston would like to send this to the winner in just three days!
You can find this book at Smashwords here, Amazon here, and the author here.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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