Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Walking the Walk, 6 Aug 2006
Like many travel books and books about anything to do with places and the people who inhabit or frequent these places, there is an added benefit to having experienced it yourself.To get this book, you don't have to have walked the Camino but it most certainly adds flavour if you have. Or more specifically there is an added glee when you witness Moore's beautiful slapstick unravelling as he makes his way across northern spain to his final destination of Santiago. His struggles are your struggles, the people he encounters you've encountered, and best of all he gives voice to the secret thoughts that played over and over in your mind as you wandered along the way. So if you've walked the Camino I urge you to read Spanish Steps, if you're thinking of walking the Camino I urge you to buy it and read it as soon as you return home, and if you have all ready read it I urge you to walk the Camino and read it again and finally if you have no intention of walking anywhere farther than the corner shop or the bus-stop I urge you to read it and laugh yourself silly. Above all Enjoy.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tim Moore does it again!, 1 Oct 2004
A book about a pilgrim travelling across Spain with a donkey is not the sort of book I would normally read, and indeed if someone other than Tim Moore had of written it, I wouldn't have even picked it up. But that would have been a mistake.After "French Revolutions" and "Do Not Pass Go", Spanish Steps starts off slowly, rather like a donkey being pulled towards Santiago. However Moore's humour comes to the fore quickly, I laughed out loud at his struggles to keep his ass under control, the way Shinto the donkey is "an unlikely babe magnet", and his struggles with Spain, the Spanish and everyone and everything else he encounters on the way to Santiago. Moore's reminiscences of his journey are equally humourous, sad, mellon-collie, frustrating, thought provoking and heartwarming, and that is normally within 2 pages of the book. Along with this he paints a picture of Spain that, knowing Spanish people as I do, is remarkably accurate. Altogether this is an excellent read, don't be put off by the book's concept - this is a travel book, about a voyage of discovery, with a donkey in tow, and a mighty fine book it is too. Unless your name is Shinto you shouldn't have to be dragged down the road to read a copy of this
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fun read, 2 Feb 2005
Having read (and thoroughly enjoyed) Moore's other books, with the exception of Do Not Pass Go, which I plan to get to at some point, I had high expectations for this one. For anyone who hasn't read anything by Moore, the usual drill is that he embarks upon some sort of journey or "quest" (cycling the Tour de France, doing the Grand Tour, that sort of thing), and writes a highly amusing, historically informative book about his travels.The premise for this book follows much the same pattern -- Moore decides to walk across Spain on a pilgrimage to Santiago, as thousands of Christians have done before him. But he doesn't go alone. Put off by the thought of having to carry bags of clothes and supplies while trekking under a burning sun, he enlists the help of Shinto the donkey, who becomes his reluctant companion, local celebrity, the centrepiece of many a tourist holiday snap and the cause of many of the funnier moments in this book. If I were to be honest I'd have to say that Spanish Steps probably doesn't have quite as much in the way of embarrassingly-loud-laughter-on-the-bus moments as his previous efforts do, but the funny bits when they do come (and they're still pretty frequent -- often, as I mentioned above, as the result of Shinto and his bridge-hating, Moore-taunting antics) are every bit as good as I've come to expect from the author who wrote the funniest book I've ever read (Frost on my Moustache). Some of his descriptions of refugio living conditions and his fellow pilgrims -- a highly eclectic group of whom we see a lot along the way -- are priceless. For all Moore's comedic, often cynical, outlook, there are some deeply poignant moments in the book, and no shortage of historical information. The end even brought a wee tear to the eye. Like all Moore's books, it's great fun to read and has both utterly hilarious and deeply moving moments (the former outweighing the latter by a fair bit, admittedly). I thoroughly enjoyed it and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to others.
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