Sunrises to Santiago

Searching for Purpose on the Camino de Santiago

By: Gabriel Schirm

Narrated by: Gabriel Schirm

Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's Summary

After spending his 20s traveling the world and hopping from job to job, Gabriel Schirm was lost. At 32 years old, he desperately needed to find direction and meaningful purpose in his life. With no physical training, he decided his answers were waiting for him somewhere along the historic 490-mile pilgrimage route called the Camino de Santiago in Spain.

From the physical high of crossing the Pyrenees Mountains to the mind numbing rhythm of walking through the endless wheat fields of the Meseta, the route was filled with many challenges. Accompanied by his "guru" wife, Amy, Schirm faces setbacks like bed bugs and tendinitis, all in the pursuit of elusive answers. The lessons came from the serendipitous experiences and conversations with fellow pilgrims from all over the world. Sunrises to Santiago chronicles a wondrous journey of personal growth, physical pain, and outdoor adventure while teaching us all to enjoy life's incredible journey.

©2015 Gabriel Schirm (P)2015 Gabriel Schirm

Sunrises to Santiago a beautiful and apt title.

Gabriel Schirm does the Camino and its past, present & future fellow travelers justice in this memoir. I loved every morsel of this book, from the Authors voice to his descriptions of The Way and the ending that feels like a beginning not only for the Author but the reader as well. It is my dream, for he past 2 yrs have felt a palpable pull to walk the Camino De Santiago and I feel gratitude to Gabriel Schirm for writing his book that brings me one step closer to my own walk. The great thing about this book is it reminds me that I can start right now on being present in the moment and to not take myself so seriously.
Thank you Gabriel and Amy for sharing your wonderful story with me. Buen Camino!

Whiny and self-absorbed

I really struggled to finish this book. I don't think it was very well written, the only fully developed character was the author / narrator (even his wife who he walked with the WHOLE way functioned only add a plot device to spew inspirational sayings at opportune times) and he seemed so whiny and self-absorbed that I never empathized with him. It seemed like he was constantly trying to be profound, and that really got in the way of telling an honest narrative about the author's experience on the Camino. Reading a memoir is choosing to spend a significant amount of intimate time with the author -- seeing the world through their eyes, and hearing their thoughts. It helps if you like the author. In this instance I did not.

Meh

This guy gave me a glimpse into what to expect on the trail but his writing is average and he is rather grumpy throughout the experience. It is like listening to someone’s journal without the benefit of an editor.

Quite good, especially compared to some others.

Does capture quite a lot of the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of the Camino. Really, the only kink in the story is how someone that intelligent could take so long to realize that their hard 30 day limit should be "busted".

I particularly like the clear, enunciation and the sort of "staccato" narration. A little less smooth for native speakers, but I bet people that speak English as a second language will be able to understand the story with much less effort.

A Good Listen!

I liked the way the story was written and the detailed descriptions of the experience and the land. I listened because I am preparing and think it will be helpful.

Enjoyable listen

This was my first audio book, which I "read" on my way to work in my last weeks there before going to walk the Camino. It was a enjoyable read, I appreciated the lessons and warnings. One little twinge of annoyance - don't try to do accents!! Aside from that, a good read. Thanks, and well done on finishing the Camino!

Great story, rough narration

Great story about life lessons from the Camino. I felt the narration was unfortunately a bit rough, i.e. trying to talk too slowly and over enunciate to such a point that he often lost the flow of voice and the natural cadence of storytelling.

Robotic Reader

Any additional comments?

The author should have chosen someone else to read this book. He sounds too robotic. We need more emotion and flow in the reading. I should have read the book, not listened to it because I would have enjoyed it more.

I really enjoyed this.

I have been interested in the Camino for some time, though have yet to walk it. The story told both the good and the bad of the trail, and didn't seem to sugarcoat anything. Very good perigrino :-)

A little self indulgent.

I learned a lot about the Camino from this book, but I’m sad to say that it is mostly filled with self indulgent soul searching from the author. I love a story about self actualisation, but this almost always came back to the individual situation of the author, rather than how it could be perceived by the reader. A short but possibly relevant synopsis would be: “An account of how walking the Camino de Santiago impacted the author’s lack of vision and motivation. He takes / learns lessons from the people he meets, to attempt to discover how he should continue to lead his life”.

Good book, good audio, but not a great advert.

I've been inspired to walk the Camino Frances, but after listening to several accounts I'm now not so sure.

Snorers, bed bugs, bad legs, silly rules -- the camino has them all, and I'm not sure I'm prepared for any of that.

This is a good listen, but I'm just over halfway through and having heard some of the horror stories, I'm not sure if I'm still feeling inspired.

Let's see how I feel once I've finished the book.