The Alchemist By Paulo Coelho

  

About the Book:

Paulo Coelho's enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.

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My Thoughts:

Ok,  so it took me long enough to get to reading this book, but I did it! Finally! And it was worth it, just for the end. I must admit I took a really long time to finish reading it, about a week to be precise. For a book of 88 pages, this was I think the slowest I've ever read. Everytime I would start reading from where I'd left off previously, I would start getting drowsy, my eyes would close, and I would start to drift away. 

All that stuff about the universe conspiring to give you what you desire the most sounded like a whole load of crap, I dont believe in all of that. So all the discussion and dialogue happening in the book between Santiago and the various other characters was quite boring, although a few of the quotes were pretty good. 

Anyway, by the time I reached the last page, I felt  like Santiago, going on this long tiresome journey - reading this book I mean - and eventually finding the treasure waiting for me at home - which would be the end the moral at the end of the book I believe - the place I started off from.

"You old sorcerer," the boy shouted up to the sky. "You knew the whole story. You even
left a bit of gold at the monastery so I could get back to this church. The monk laughed
when he saw me come back in tatters. Couldn't you have saved me from that?"
"No," he heard a voice on the wind say. "If I had told you, you wouldn't have seen the
Pyramids. They're beautiful, aren't they?"

***

Some Memorable Lines:

It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.

Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none

about his or her own.

"At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie."

And better still to be alone with one's books. They tell their incredible stories at the time when you want to hear them.

"If you start out by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work toward getting it."

Everything in life has its price.

A shepherd may like to travel, but he should never forget about his sheep.

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it,

Maybe God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees, he thought.

Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity.

Camels are traitorous: they walk thousands of paces and never seem to tire. Then suddenly, they kneel and die. But horses tire bit by bit. You always know how much you can ask of them, and when it is that they are about to die.

You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit, it's because it wasn't true love…

Men dream more about coming home than about leaving.

The existence of this world is simply a guarantee that there exists a world that is perfect.

"You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it's better to listen to what it has to say. That way, you'll never have to fear an unanticipated blow."

It said that the darkest hour of the night came just before the dawn.

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.

"But this payment goes well beyond my generosity," the monk responded.

"Don't say that again. Life might be listening, and give you less the next time."

'Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.'