With Shaking hands and deterred mind I picked up this self-help philosophical Marvel (as I had heard). The major pull of this book is that everybody you meet has read this book at sometime in their lifetime. So falling under the FOMO spell I choose to rise above my despise for self-help genre. And boy was that a good decision, Ok not so much. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is light read and is pretty predictable with a little spark to keep you engaged.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Review
Genre : Fiction , Self-help
A motivational novel ‘ The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho ’ is wonderfully written. Writer has brilliantly narrated the fictional story with realistic human psychology. The theme of the book is unique, and it shows how everything that we desired can be achieved with strong determination. A truly inspirational book presented by Paulo which mainly focuses on ‘Soul and the destiny’. The language of the book is easy to understand and words of wisdom shared by Paulo are simply affluent.
The book is all about the story of the ‘journey of the life’. The main hero of the story is Shepherd named ‘Santiago’. It is an interesting character represent realistic journey which can easily relate to everybody’s life. His passion of following his dreams and the lessons he learnt during the journey is really amazing. Unlike every novel it has factual story about the struggle we make at every stage of the life. Every character mentioned in the story is unique and gives great lessons to fulfill the destiny.
This book is really life enhancing and every character of it will surely make some positive impact on your life. The interesting thing about the book is its catchy flow and meaningful end. You will definitely feel joy as well as thrill while reading the book. Many times we caught between the struggle of bigger dreams and fewer opportunities. This novel helps us to find right path which lead towards the fulfilment of our dreams.
Rather than goals the journey we travel to achieve that is more important, and it is excellently explained in this book. Normally in life we run behind the unnecessary things and suddenly fall on the unexpected path of the journey. The book is worth reading to understand every stage of the life including childhood, youth and adult and its struggles.
‘The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho’ will tell you how to find your hidden talent by coming out of comfort zone. Everybody looking to accomplish their dreams and having the fear of facing struggles in the journey should read this book once. It will tell you basic desires of the human and destiny which lead us towards them. Book emphasized on the idea of teaching lessons of the life through meaningful story. The appealing formatting and great morals teaches by book is the amazing lesson for the readers. On every page of the book one can find true quotes of wisdom which will change your perspective of the life.
It is definitely the best novel which introduces you the amazing journey of life and different perspectives. The philosophy of optimism is brilliantly explained in the book which motivate the readers to overcome the fear of the life. You will be more inspired to achieve everything you desire and deserve. The book shortly touches every aspect of the life including fear, expectations and negativity. At the end you can realise well that the journey is always important than the Final Goal.
But with everything positive there is also a catch here. This book might bore you to core if you are not a fan of self-help and philosophy books. If you’re just a beginner and exploring this genre then grab your copy from the shelf. The problem with self-help is that the lessons you come across are fable like and are something which one is already aware of. So much so that you might kick that *Turning Stone* literally aside like some unlucky stone you kick on a road while stray walking.
Recommended to :
I would recommend The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho to the readers who are just starting their journey of reading. Also to those who are looking for a light read with a little bit of motivation.
About the Author :
The Brazilian author PAULO COELHO was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist and journalist. In 1986, PAULO COELHO did the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella, an experience later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage. In the following year, COELHO published The Alchemist.
Slow initial sales convinced his first publisher to drop the novel, but it went on to become one of the best selling Brazilian books of all time.
Other titles include Brida (1990), The Valkyries (1992), By the river Piedra I sat Down and Wept (1994), the collection of his best columns published in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo entitle Maktub (1994), the compilation of texts Phrases (1995), The Fifth Mountain (1996), Manual of a Warrior of Light (1997), Veronika decides to die (1998), The Devil and Miss Prym (2000), the compilation of traditional tales in Stories for parents, children and grandchildren (2001), Eleven Minutes (2003), The Zahir (2005), The Witch of Portobello (2006) and Winner Stands Alone (to be released in 2009).
Source : Goodreads
Pros
- >> Simple language and well formatting
- >> Quick Read
Cons
- >> Questionable Ending
- >> Philosophy and Self Help books are not the cup of tea for everybody
- >> Fable styled writing
I in fact enjoyed this book. Each character was extremely interesting and left me wanting to know more about them. Among the very best books I have actually ever checked out. Thank you so much PS: I like this website.