Book Review: Practical Pilgrimage
Practical Pilgrimage: Useful Rules for Walking the Camino de Santiago
by Thom Ryng
Pilgrimage House Press, 2025
96 pages
on Goodreads
Reviewed by Amy Horton | Warrenton, MO
In Practical Pilgrimage, a Camino pilgrim who has walked into Santiago five times on assorted routes of varied distances offers readers 12 rules to “not necessarily ensure a more spiritual or fruitful pilgrimage, but perhaps a less needlessly difficult one.”
To be clear, this book is not a Camino guidebook of the wayfinding or spiritual sort. It also doesn’t include training or equipment recommendations. Rather, this book was born of a simple list of rules the author first jotted down for himself (“I don’t mind making mistakes. What I don’t like is making the same mistake more than once.”), and that he and his wife, a fellow pilgrim, have amended and refined over the course of several Caminos and countless training hikes.
Some of his rules for the road offer paternal pertinence for any journey, Camino or not (“Rule 6. If you pass a restroom, use it.”). Others are akin to the types of travel nuggets Rick Steves might share in Europe Through the Back Door (“Rule 8. Stop in every church.” Hint: Churches are where the art is.). And some carry a Robert Frost “The Road Not Taken” wisdom (“Rule 12. Take detours and alternate routes whenever practical.”).
At 96 pages, this book is a quick read, though certainly more than just a bullet list of 12 rules. Each rule receives its own chapter in which Ryng expounds on the topic, offers tangential insights, and provides corollaries and exceptions when warranted.
He presents his tips, suggestions, and observations “in no particular order, except that this is the order I first wrote them down.” The order makes sense, at least in his own head. “They’ve become a kind of shorthand for us, as many’s the time the shout ‘rule six!’ has rung out across rural Spain.”
Ryng also offers that while these rules ring true for him, they may not resonate with everybody. Just as we each walk our own Camino, we are free to choose which of his rules we follow, with one exception (“Rule 4. Donativos are not free.”). “Rule 4 applies to everybody. Obey Rule 4.”
This book is a useful addition to the prospective pilgrim’s pre-Camino planning library. In the afterword, Ryng thanks his readers “for letting me chat with you,” and that’s precisely how this piece of mentorship reads. Like a well-traveled friend humbly imparting his hard-won wisdom over a pint of beer.
Got a book or film to review? Let La Concha know!
Have you published a Camino- or pilgrimage-related book that La Concha has not yet reviewed? Did you produce a film on the subject that you want fellow pilgrims to know about? Drop an email to laconcha@americanpilgrims.org with the title and a brief synopsis of your creative work, and we will connect you with one of our reviewers for consideration.
