Reading List
Books that have shaped how I walk, pray, and understand the road.
The Way of a Pilgrim
A wandering Russian peasant learns the Jesus Prayer and walks thousands of miles across 19th-century Russia. One of the most beloved spiritual classics ever written — deceptively simple, quietly transformative.
Read this before any long-distance pilgrimage. It will change how you walk.
The Pilgrim's Progress
The great English allegory of the Christian life as a journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. Bunyan wrote it in prison. It has never gone out of print.
The Slough of Despond is real. So is the Celestial City.
The Divine Comedy
The greatest pilgrimage poem ever written. Dante descends through Hell, climbs Purgatory, and ascends through Paradise — guided first by Virgil, then by Beatrice. The Ciardi or Hollander translation is best for modern readers.
Read Purgatorio first if you are preparing for a walking pilgrimage.
Confessions
"Our heart is restless until it rests in Thee." Augustine's spiritual autobiography is the original pilgrimage memoir — a soul's long journey home. The Boulding translation (New City Press) is the most readable.
The opening lines alone are worth the price of the book.
The Interior Castle
Teresa maps the soul as a castle of seven dwelling places, each drawing the pilgrim deeper into union with God. Written in a single sitting, reportedly. Essential reading before visiting Ávila or any Carmelite site.
Pair with a visit to the Convento de la Encarnación in Ávila.
The Imitation of Christ
The most widely read Christian devotional after the Bible. Short chapters, plain language, and a relentless focus on interior conversion over external observance. Fits in a shirt pocket — carry it on the road.
Read one chapter per day on the Camino. It is exactly the right pace.
A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino Francés
The definitive practical guide to the Camino Francés — stage maps, elevation profiles, albergue listings, and Brierley's own spiritual reflections woven throughout. Millions of pilgrims have carried this book.
Get the current edition. Albergues open and close every year.
Hinds' Feet on High Places
An allegory of a soul named Much-Afraid who is led by the Shepherd through valleys of suffering and loss to the High Places. Quietly devastating and deeply consoling — especially on hard days of walking.
I re-read this after the Meseta. It made sense of everything.
Francis of Assisi: A New Biography
The most historically rigorous modern biography of Francis — stripping away centuries of sentimentality to reveal a more complex, more radical, and ultimately more compelling figure. Essential before visiting Assisi.
Read this, then walk to the Porziuncola. You will see it differently.
Padre Pio: The True Story
The most balanced and thoroughly researched biography of Padre Pio — neither hagiography nor debunking, but a careful account of an extraordinary life. Essential reading before visiting San Giovanni Rotondo.
The chapters on his stigmata are among the most carefully documented in the literature.
If a book has changed how you walk or pray, I would love to add it to the list.