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My Camino Book: Is This Really Happening?

Reg Spittle 2 Comments

I was warned. The vast majority of books from indie authors find few readers beyond family and friends and have a short shelf life.

Almost six years after my first book, Camino Sunrise: Walking With My Shadows, was published, it is finding new readers in surging numbers in several countries, especially the United States and the United Kingdom. One wrote me a note:

“My friend and I so enjoyed your book Camino Sunrise. I have read endless books written by pilgrims, but yours provided me with an entirely new set of information. Thank you for all I learned from you and Sue with your beautiful book.”

Another posted a review:

“Not only did I love trekking the Camino through the eyes of Reg and Sue, I so appreciated Reg’s candid and very personal reflections on a difficult childhood, bullying and lack of confidence. I too find myself looking critically through the rear-view mirror of my life. I’m inspired now to bravely find my own Camino challenge.”

The number of new readers is inspiring as I finish work on my third book about my journey with Sue on the John Muir Trail through California’s Sierra Nevada wilderness. My second book, Trippin’ Through My 60s: When Adventure Calls, the Trails of Europe Answer, is also gaining renewed attention. It transports readers to Scotland’s West Highland Way, the Alps’ Tour du Mont Blanc, Italy’s Way of St. Francis, and England’s South West Coast Path.

It is an honor to know people choose to read my books. Above all, I hope my love of distance trekking will encourage others to give it a try, like I did–grudgingly–on the Camino de Santiago, my first trek. Or maybe they will experience adventure from their armchairs.

Both books are available on Amazon in ebook, paperback, and audiobook formats. If you are a Kindle Unlimited member, you can read it free. The paperback can also be ordered online through Barnes and Noble and Powell’s Bookstore in Portland.

I am gratified that readers have invalidated the predictions about indie publishing, at least in my case. When I left the working world in 2012, I would never have guessed that distance trekking would play a leading role in my life. And to think that people would one day read about my adventures. I am still coming to terms with that concept, but it has left me grateful beyond measure.

Travel High in the Himalaya

Reg Spittle Leave a comment

You long for an up-close look at the world’s highest mountain range, but logistics, cost, and a long list of complications stand in your way.

Here is an alternative: Travel with Erika Fatland and her superb book, High, A Journey Across the Himalaya Through Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, and China.

The acclaimed author, anthropologist, and extreme adventurer from Norway traveled solo by foot, car, train, and plane for eight months, gaining access to riveting stories told by people from virtually every walk of life in all five nations. She stayed in local homes, monasteries, and other places that would intimidate many travelers. Her narrative and conversations will make you feel like you are in the room with her, sipping tea or a stronger drink while you watch and hear the people in the room. I hope you are an adventurous eater.

Everyday life, religion, culture, environment, history, transport, politics, arranged marriages, government, and more. She covers myriad topics effortlessly and expertly. She is warned that she could be in danger as a woman traveling by herself, but she keeps going.

Her experiences in western China captivated me. In Xinjiang, a region with 11 million people, mostly Muslim, she reports that more than a million Uyghurs are in “reeducation camps” while the government encourages Han Chinese to move there. She sees modern apartment buildings in Tibet, inhabited by Han Chinese in the government’s effort to dilute the influence of Buddhism.

She vividly describes the mountains that cut between the Indian subcontinent and the Tibetan Plateau. More than 100 peaks exceed 23,800 feet and many of them are sacred to Buddhists, even off limits for climbers. She wrote the book in Norwegian, leaving Kari Dickson to translate into English.

If reading High tempts you to try a journey to the Himalaya, you will travel armed with a wealth of insights. Or you could remain in your armchair and let Erika Fatland bring the Himalaya to you.