The Alchemist

It seems like this is a book a lot of people have read (and make a big deal out of). I strolled in to P1 (Page One) and sat down and read it today. I’ll say that I enjoyed it, laughed at times, the end made me chuckle, but what makes people so hype about it (I believe I’m asking this rhetorically, but not sure)? I know it’s about saying F%*^ IT! and doing what you want to do, but there should be a lot of books like that floating around.

Anyway, I liked it, but wouldn’t suggest it to anyone. But if someone asked me about it I’d say “Read it, why the fuck not, you just may be inspired to sell your sheep and move to Africa”. :laughing:

Summary: An adventure story about the little shepard that could. He meets magical and not so magical people on his way to a funny ass ass whipping at the end of the book.

I give it 7 out of ?? ripe bananas.

What did you think about this book?

I thought it was brilliant. Not so much the “moral of the story,” which has appeared in folk stories for thousands of years, but the way in which Coelho brings magic to the Bildungsroman. It’s usually very well received by youngish people wondering which path in life to take.

One minor character in the book is almost exactly like me. Can you guess who?

By the way, would you believe that Coelho played in a black metal band and practiced Aleister-Crowley based devil-worship? He’s a good Catholic now, though–says devil-worship bad.

[quote=“Screaming Jesus”]I thought it was brilliant. Not so much the “moral of the story,” which has appeared in folk stories for thousands of years, but the way in which Coelho brings magic to the Bildungsroman. It’s usually very well received by youngish people wondering which path in life to take.

One minor character in the book is almost exactly like me. Can you guess who?

By the way, would you believe that Coelho played in a black metal band and practiced Aleister-Crowley based devil-worship? He’s a good Catholic now, though–says devil-worship bad.[/quote]
The what?!? (Just kidding, I’ve looked it up since reading your post). Hmmmm… One minor charater was like you eh? I’ll guess the crystal seller maybe (just a guess, I don’t really know you well enough to make an educated guess), except he wasn’t that minor. The camel guide perhaps.

Would you recomend reading any of his other books? I think a friend told me The Pilgrimage was good too. Maybe I’ll check that one out on my next Page One trip.

The other foreigner who travels with Santiago, who has studied alchemy before and tells him about the Emerald Tablet.

Other books? It’s real hard for me to remember them. I only read about three, and now he’s got more than a dozen out.

That was my fisrt guess, I should have just wrote that. He seems like a main character to me though. I like how those two tried to school each other in their style of learning, but they both ended up just getting frusterated and going back to what they liked.