The Alchemist

The book is a sweet story about personal growth and following your dreams. It teaches you about the treasure is the journey and what you learn.

This def doesn't pass the bechdal test

A short modern fable. Lots of woo woo about manifesting your true destiny. Peddles in individualism. I just never believed the premise that "when you're pursuing your Personal Legend, the whole world conspires to help you," or that when we don't pursue the dreams of our youth our lives become worthless and out of sync with the universe. Overuse of the phrase "Personal Legend," disappointing relegation of the one female character to the role of personality-free love interest... wasn't for me.

I've never read a book like this. The boy (main character) undertakes his quest and along the way learns that if you look hard enough at the world, you'll end up seeing God. Every story ever was written by the same hand. Every part of the universe is just trying to live out its Personal Legend, and together those legends combine to form the Soul of the World.

As fiction, it wasn't shockingly entertaining, but I liked the plot. As a modern-day proverb, I felt uncomfortable and unsure how the story matched up with what I actually believe. I think if you dig through the hundreds of “easy” interpretations of this book that end up being lies, you might find one that has some truth to it.

I'm not sure about Paulo Coelho's spiritual background, but I would be very interested to read an article about how he was influenced by different religions.

Age range: 16+
This felt like a book you might read in a high-school lit class. Younger readers probably wouldn't be able to digest the story very well.

I really like this book! It was like a breath of fresh air for me after reading all those business books. The story was pretty good and it was so inspiring. I will recommend it to everyone!

Um baita livro de autoajuda, a estória as vezes até cativa um pouco, mas o excesso de filosofia de autoajuda atrapalha. Provável que darei mais uma chance ao Paulo Coelho, mas certamente não é o tipo de literatura que curto.

I read it because I'm a bookseller, one of my sections is spirituality, and this book is stocked there. I didn't think I'd like it all that much but it surprised me! It's got some profound moments and some beautifully phrased ideas.

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.

I loathed Aleph, found it horrendous, so someone gave this to me as a joke. But I actually kind of enjoyed it. It is sometimes a bit whimsical and sentimental, but it's a lovely little story about followint your dreams and trying to live close to your passion etc.

Bel romanzo. La comprensione del senso della vita attraverso un viaggio nel tempo, nello spazio, nell'interpretazione dei segni 7

2nd book finished today!! readathon going well ahaha
it's been 2 hours of the readathon, 6 more to go!!

this book was meaningful. it was quite easy to read but for me it was a little bit hard to get into. I give it 3 stars tho ^^

A very short read which I enjoyed, but I think I expected more magical realism from this story. The story did not go where I expected it to go which is why I'm giving it 3 stars. It did start off with a bang but the plot could've been better. Good lessons throughout the book though.

There was a bunch of really feel good mysticism in here, but the point I seem to have gotten was something similar to the secret. Want something super hard and you will get it. If you didn't get it, you must not have wished hard enough.

I give it some love because there were bits of personal philosophy I can get down with. But chatting with the universe is really hard reading.

Já fui fascinada pelo livro, já praticamente considerei plágio, e hoje acho que fiz as pazes com o propósito original e a ideia muito digna da lenda pessoal, do tesouro embaixo do seu nariz e do maktub.

This review was maktub. HAHAHAHAH
I enjoyed this story so much. It took me into another new foreign world, a world full of dreamers and hard workers. It took me some time to realize the message that the book wanted to convey, but I finally did, although I didn't understand most of the book.

The book wanted to send the message of persuing your purpose in life “Personal Legend” believing in god and his omens, keeping an eye on his world, his vast test ground. The book also emphasised the idea of leaving all for the sake of your purpose, referring to the purpose as the home of the warmness of heart and the home in whom the person connect to his outside nature. It also tried to explain how everything a human does from his start as a child till his last days are written “Maktub” by God himself. It was amazing thinking of this idea alone that you don't need to worry or to think of tomorrow just let it for the force of every power, the hand of every action and the strongest and greatest.

Allah

Anyways, it was an amazing story. it's worth reading. I will give it 4 stars because there's some stuff no matter how hard I tried. I didn't understand

a beautiful story about destiny; i could not connect to some of the themes in this book but overall it tells profound lessons about life.

Ultimately, a children's book.
Designed to be inspiring, it is well written and engaging, with a certain charm. It certainly is very short. I read it in 2-3 hours.
However, I haven't been a young adult since well before this book was written. I found the magical thinking and God mambo-jumbo to be a bit wearing. The final well-signaled plot twist would probably have seemed more profound if I were younger and it were more novel to me.
Then there is the point that finding a chest full of gold on somebody else's property in Spain at almost any point in time over the past 200 years is going to involve more than a little litigation, taxation, or bribery. Not completely happily-ever-after.
The setting in time is more than a little confusing. Obviously trying to achieve a certain sort of timeless vibe, there is a conspicuous absence of technology. No trains, planes, or automobiles. No telephone or telegraph. Only revolvers and rifles. I think it is supposed to seem 19th century. That makes the Englishman's interest in alchemy just barely plausible. But then the absence of colonial powers in North Africa, save for one Englishman, seems bizarre. The combatants in the wars in the region are conspicuously unidentified. There is a reference to an unidentified book whose beginning seems somewhat like Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago, but, seeing as this would place the timeline firmly and implausibly in the Franco era, it just further confuses the setting in time for me.

Life lessons about enjoying the journey because you're meant to be where you'll end up.

Finished reading the book just a few mins ago. It's definitely going in the category of books I'm never in a mood to read.

I didn't feel relatable or attached to any of the characters; I neither liked nor hated any of them. I believe that we can control our destinies, but I don't agree what this book tries to say at all. Also I just don't believe in God or omens and stuff like that so almost this entire book was a drag to read. Also, how heck does a person (genuinely) fall in love with someone after just seeing them for the first time?? It makes no freaking sense to me, they don't even know each other. Anyways, I very much didn't like this book.
Thus, I give it a generous rating of 2/5 stars!

A lot of good tidbits throughout. Reads a lot like what I think the Bible sounds like and a bit pedantic and over explanatory. I do think it is overhyped a bit.

Really enjoyed the book a ton. I was kind of surprised and really appreciated how the book dealt with and respected different religions. I'm not sure how much of the book really got through to me, but definitely left me feeling inspired, and a bit melancholy that I don't know what my personal legend is and that I might not be pursuing it now.

Do I think the message in this book is bullshit? Yes, I do. But I don't know Coelho, so I don't know if he wrote this book as a story with a message, it may be just a story.
It seems like there are some people who are in love with the book because it changed their life and there is a group equally large that thinks the whole book is nonsense, I don't think either.
Although I find the message of “universe will help you if you follow your inner following” too optimistic, the whole story is one of my favorites.
There is the dilemma of following your dreams against living a “comfortable” life. There is also the struggle between love and following your desires, the second half of the book, in my opinion, is all about the question “what does the heart truly desire?”.
So if you are a person who believes in the “Secret” stuff you will love this book. If you don't, like me, try not to get annoyed by the message and enjoy the story because there is a beautiful one.

This book is the book that 20 year old boys that love mansplaining Infinite Jest “graduate” to loving when they are 24 and perceive themselves as more worldly and mature.

A wonderful fable about life and living it without fear and doubts.

I really enjoyed it and it made me want to walk the grassy fields and the desert sands equally.

Thoroughly enjoyed this tale of a sheepherder and his dreams. Sweet and satisfying ending.