✨Book : The Alchemist
✨Author : Paulo Coelho
✨Genre : Philosophical Novel, Self-help
✨Pages : 161
✨Publication: 1988, HarperCollins
✨Format : paperback
✨Book Cost : £7.99 (Bought for: ₹167)

3.5 /5

Blogpost by Dhanu

Disclaimer – I think most of us got loads of vibes about this particular book. Yet I feel obliged to introduce my perception about the book which may be contradictory with others.

The novel narrates the story of an young Andalusian shepherd, Santiago who destined to flow his dreams and encountered with loads of unexpected adventurous and mystical journey. The novel begins in Andalusia, Tarifa and travels through Egypt. The book is well-packed with humungous sources of wisdom.

Each page teaches about the quest of life through the incidents faced by the protagonist. The language used in the novel is lucid and easy with the flow. The writing style has the ability to sway its reader and persuade them to find one’s destiny. I highly recommend this book for beginner-friendly read, also who enjoy inspiring stories.

My thoughts:

With the wisdom and magical illusions, the quest of Santiago towards his aspirations is more enlightening. Apart from that, the book preaches quite a lot, with the repetitive and high exaggeration of occurrences. Sometimes the book makes me feel the suffocation of such monotonous idea about universe, destiny and things go on. Overall, the book is more of a fable than a reality.

Undoubtedly, this book will make you feel inspired and gets you lead along the path of destiny. Because of this, that I felt preachy and tiresome. Despite the fact that book is brief and encouraging, it took me longer than expected to finish it. Even though I finished this book by the end of March, it took me a lot to express my thoughts into words here.

However, it is the kind of book that you can pick while you are going through a rough patch in your life.

Quote I liked:

“I found these one day in the fields. I wanted them to be a part of your inheritance. But use them to buy your flock. Take to the fields, and someday you’ll learn that our countryside is the best, our women the most beautiful.” 9

Happy Reading!


PS: Like Santiago, I wanted to be a traveller who read a lot. If you had been with me before this pandemic outbreak, you might have heard my blabbering about my urge for travelling. I still do. But it is quite a new normal situation than like before pandemic. I hope my friends still remember this.