Published by HarperCollins on 01 May 1993
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Paulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different—and far more satisfying—than he ever imagined. Santiago's journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, of recognising opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, most importantly, to follow our dreams.
I heard so many people mention this book as one they kept returning to from their childhood, so I was excited to finally get around to this one. I anticipated a story full of adventure, treasure, and soul searching, but I didn't realise just how heavy on the soul searching it would be. There was adventure too, but it wasn't an action-packed sort of adventure; it was more of a long, steady journey.
I have inside me the winds, the deserts, the oceans, the stars, and everything created in the universe.
This book is all about fulfilling your Personal Legend, i.e. your goals, dreams, purpose. For Santiago, it was journeying from the Andalusian countryside, through the desert, and to the Egyptian pyramids to find his treasure. Along the way, with guidance from a wise alchemist, we learn about Personal Legends, what it takes to pursue them, the challenges we face in pursuit of them, and why and how some of us give up on or forget about them. Cue existential crisis.
I'm afraid that if my dream is realized, I'll have no reason to go on living.
This was not a fun read for me. It was heavy. It almost made me sad. Maybe closer to frustrated. But I concede that perhaps all these reactions are more a reflection of where I am in life personally than of the book.
For her, every day was the same, and when each day is the same as the next, it's because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.
What I got from the book was to follow your heart/passion/destiny, almost blindly. This is in stark contrast to the message of the previous book I read, So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport, which argued that following your passion is about the worst advice and only works as an exception, not the rule. So perhaps my read of The Alchemist was simply ill-timed.
You will never be able to escape your heart. So it's better to listen to what it has to say.
While I definitely see the value of following your heart, I don't think that it's always as simple as that. In fact, I think it's almost never as simple as that. Sure, if you know what your Personal Legend is and you're pursuing it strategically, go for it. But what if you don't know what your Personal Legend is? What if you choose a Personal Legend for the sake of having one and close your eyes to a better path or opportunity? What if you try and fail and try and fail again? Is it enough to be relentless?
We all know the answer to that last one is to try again and fail better. But the book didn't touch on even that. Even more interestingly, what if the solution is not just to find a better path to your goal, but to reconsider your goal--not to settle, but to take advantage of where you are instead of blindly striving for something you're not. With these personal considerations in mind that I've barely begun to touch on, I found that this book was too simplistic and relied too heavily on destiny for me. As another reviewer put it, I found the parable-like quality of this story almost contrived. I could see how the parable-like quality might be enriching for children or even adults, but it wasn't for me.
Maybe this story struck too close to home. Maybe I'm taking it too personally because I'm still trying to figure out what my own passion/Personal Legend is. Reading this with Sadia, we agreed that this might not be a book for someone who is still figuring stuff out. If you're susceptible to existential crises, don't rule out reading this book completely, but maybe hold off on it until you're ready for it. On the other hand, if you're confident in your Personal Legend, you might find this story uplifting. (On that note, I really like this reviewer's observation that a good parable "should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable," but this book does the opposite. Or at least, that was true for me.)
People say strange things, the boy thought. Sometimes it's better to be with the sheep, who don't say anything. And better still to be alone with one's books. They tell their incredible stories at the time when you want to hear them. But when you're talking to people, they say some things that are so strange that you don't know how to continue the conversation.
For anyone who's at all interested in this story, I would still encourage you to read it and make up your own mind, as most people I talked to really enjoyed this book, as one of their all-time favourites no less! It's a short book anyway. And despite my misgivings, I did highlight many quotes and isolated words of wisdom.
Because I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. You'll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now.
