Pilgrim Snail: Busking to Santiago

by Ben Nimmo

After the girl he loved was killed by armed robbers in Belize, Ben Nimmo decided to walk from one of the greatest European medieval pilgrim sites to another - Canterbury to Santiago de Compostela in Spain - in her memory, taking with him his trombone and busking for charity.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I plan to write a more in-depth review later, but wanted to say this much: This book is very well written and exceptionally thoughtful, but holy hell, do you think Nimmo could have gotten an editor to look over it before publishing it? It's almost as if it's self-published. I'm only on Chapter 3 and there are more typos than I can count. "Her" instead of "here"; "every since" instead of "ever since"; "effect" instead of "affect"--and a myriad of missing punctuation marks. Because it's so good, I'm going to keep reading it, but there's nothing worse than a worthwhile book being ruined (ruined, I say!) by complete carelessness. If you care enough to write a book, then care enough to have it edited, for crap's sake.[return][return]Also, I can appreciate that Nimmo's a musician. I'm a musician, so having a little bit of musical interjection here and there is nice. Nimmo goes a little overboard, though, to the point where it feels very much like he is bragging about how well he can play, how well he can improvise, how many songs he knows, how cool jazz is, how cool jazz is, and how cool jazz is. I like jazz. I do. It's just that I think Nimmo wants us to look up to him for some kind of knowledge he thinks no one else could possibly have.[return][return]Update: I couldn't finish it. It was too much of the same. Sorry, Nimmo.

Merged review:

I plan to write a more in-depth review later, but wanted to say this much: This book is very well written and exceptionally thoughtful, but holy hell, do you think Nimmo could have gotten an editor to look over it before publishing it? It's almost as if it's self-published. I'm only on Chapter 3 and there are more typos than I can count. "Her" instead of "here"; "every since" instead of "ever since"; "effect" instead of "affect"--and a myriad of missing punctuation marks. Because it's so good, I'm going to keep reading it, but there's nothing worse than a worthwhile book being ruined (ruined, I say!) by complete carelessness. If you care enough to write a book, then care enough to have it edited, for crap's sake.returnreturnAlso, I can appreciate that Nimmo's a musician. I'm a musician, so having a little bit of musical interjection here and there is nice. Nimmo goes a little overboard, though, to the point where it feel

s very much like he is bragging about how well he can play, how well he can improvise, how many songs he knows, how cool jazz is, how cool jazz is, and how cool jazz is. I like jazz. I do. It's just that I think Nimmo wants us to look up to him for some kind of knowledge he thinks no one else could possibly have.returnreturnUpdate: I couldn't finish it. It was too much of the same. Sorry, Nimmo.

[Julia Doherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know this book was based on adventures from 1999, but having walked part of the Camino in 2016 I think Ben has written a fantastic book. I laughed out loud in places (especially the bear incident and the dead person in the canal).

I think you get a true feeling of all the emotions that you go through when you are walking a pilgrimage. The peace, the scenery, the really annoying people who have no social skills, the physical and mental challenges. Yes, it's all here.

Well done Ben on a massive achievement. I'm looking forward to reading your next book.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was enjoyable with interesting characters.

[Ben Potter · Rating 4 out of 5]

wonderful story