The Alchemist

Thanks to little bro Adam for the copy, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I think maybe I have a small hang up with a book being so overtly religious while also simultaneously being aimed at children, but in this case I think I can overlook it since the ultimate message of the book is some good old agnostic wisdom (at least by my reckoning).

We follow Santiago, a young and educated Shepard boy who tends his flock all over Andalusia in the south of Spain. After successive dreams that hint at treasure in far off Egypt, Santiago is whisked along by the machinations of fate on a journey to fulfill his personal legend. I think some people may have read this book in class, so I can understand if there's a small cloud of scholastic taint around this book. Likewise, I would encourage people to look past that and revisit the title if it's been awhile because Santiago's journey is fantastic.

I think that Paulo Coelho himself is an interesting guy, I would suggest looking him up because the story of his life is one of overcoming adversity and some serious spiritual awakening. I was wondering why this book was so religious, and let me save you the time and tell you that this was among a spate of books Coelho published after making his own pilgrimage. Like I said before, I'm going to give the religion in this book a general pass, you don't need to be religious to get what this book is trying to say about the nature of life and the metaphysics of pursuing your goals. It's easy enough to ignore or to treat the religious allusions and tropes as fantasy elements. The brand of religion in this book is also fairly innocuous and seems to encompass the entire Abrahamic tradition without any zealotry shown towards any particular faith, so points for inclusivity as well.

I won't say much else, this is basically a classic hero's journey with some generally palatable philosophy and modern religious themes (Say goodbye Zeus, say hello Melchizedek). Honestly, I'm surprised it took me this long to read it; I really liked what the book has to say, and I think that this would be a perfect book for a younger reader.