The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

A friend was the first one to tell me about The Alchemist, but I put off reading it for quite some time. I was recently clearing my Amazon wish list and decided to order it along with five other books. Originally I wasn’t in a rush to read The Alchemist (I didn’t even know what an alchemist was), but after reading the inside flap and about the author, I wanted to read it right away. My expectations soared because the story and the themes seemed right up my alley. Oh, and it has sold 65 million copies, making it the one of the best selling books ever.

The story starts with a shepherd boy’s daily routines and his acceptance of life. He has a dream of treasure and, after consulting a Gypsy and coincidently running into a self-proclaimed king, decides to pursue this unknown treasure. The story is not about the treasures, but the journey itself. There are profound life lessons that are learned along the way. The journey and the people provide memorable messages.

The first part of the book captivated me. It focused on the shepherd’s life and his initial hesitation to follow his dream. I would describe it as the setup for the journey. As the book progressed, I was somewhat disappointed. Parts of the journey became unrealistic. I know the story is a fable, but for me that loses some of its meaning (I’m too much of a realist). I also should point out the author wrote the book in Portuguese. What I read was translated to English. I wouldn’t normally think this is a big deal, but often times I thought the writing was a bit broken and did not use proper grammar, although this didn't impact the story.

With all that being said, I really liked the book. It was easy and quick to read. I wanted to keep turning pages to find out what happened to the shepherd boy. I was expecting a big ending and the author delivered. I thought the ending was perfect.

My rating for The Alchemist: 4 stars out of 5. Get it here!

Bonus: As I said, there are countless lessons from the story. I wanted to share some of the one-liners that I really liked (yes, I jotted them down as I read):

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

“We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or our possessions and property.”

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

“For her, every day was the same, and when every day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their every day that the sun rises.”

“Making a decision is only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.”

“When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person realize his dream.”