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Dec 17, 2009

Sarah rated it:

I feel like everyone LOVES this book, but I was kind of underwhelmed. I know that translation affects the quality of writing, but I could not get into this writing style. At all. I felt like it was totally affected and contrived. He was going for this "fable/parable" style, but it seemed to fail miserably. The parable-like quality was totally contrived, and I thought the "moral" was pretty stupid.

Moral: everything you want and need is close to home. Take ch More...

40 comments like (177 people liked it)

Apr 28, 2011

Clint rated it:

I hate this book so much. I used to work at a hippie vegetarian restaurant where everyone raved about it, so I should have known what a disaster it would be. Writing in the style of a fable does not convince me that what the author says is true or profound, this just sucks all around, and people who describe it as magical or inspirational are probably dudes I will not be having a beer with anytime soon. This guy, he's probably going to get a Nobel one day, too.

14 comments like (75 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Christopher rated it:

I really disliked this book. I dislike it in the way that I dislike a great deal of modern self help books. Their basic message is that if you want something to happen, you need to want it as hard as you can, without caring about anything else, not allowing yourself to doubt it, or let criticisms will get in the way then it will happen.
I disagree with this notion, not only because it is false, but because it is bad.
Just because we desire something, does not make it good. This idea of More...

25 comments like (111 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Kali rated it:

Everyone (save one guy) said I would love this book. Three of my four roommates have their own copies. That one guy was right. Now this may be because he planted that seed of discontent, or it may be because this was the least creative and most redundant book I've read in a while. It answered the question, what happens when you put The Hero With a Thousand Faces, The Bible and 1001 Arabian Nights in a blender? That said, I didn't hate it. Two of the central themes (which were hammered in over an More...

6 comments like (48 people liked it)

Jun 26, 2010

Marte rated it:

Utter drivel. The book was badly written, righteous, condescending, preachy, and worst of all, the ending was morally questionable. All the fables and stories are stolen from elsewhere, religious ideas and spirituality are badly mixed, and everything is so obvious.

The book harps on about tapping into the Soul of the World, the Language of the World, about your one true path and other nonsense. The basic idea is that if you really want something and "listen to your heart", t More...

23 comments like (107 people liked it)

Apr 09, 2011

Lujayn rated it:

كلّ شيء مكتوب !

ما إن انتهيت من قراءة هذه الرواية حتى أحسستُ أن الدنيا سكتت ، و العالم سكت

و أنني أريدُ أن أسكتُ باقي عمري ..

أتأمل الحياة .. لعل روح العالم تغمرني فأفلسف الحياة كما شاء لي قلبي

مليئة هذه الرواية بالرموز و الحكم و التراث و الأخلاق بل وحتى الآيات الإسلامية

تحسّ و أنت تقرؤها برياح أندلسية تلفح فكرك ، تجعلكَ تبتسم بين حكمة و أخرى

ببساطة القدر ، و تعقيد البشر .. بعمق المعاني ، و سطحية الفهم

هذه الرواية تجسّد القدر و الحكمة في أسمى معانيها ، كما More...

6 comments like (70 people liked it)

Nov 10, 2008

Jonathan rated it:

I've got your Personal Legend right here, Paolo Coelho. This may be the first book I've ever read that was so bad it actually made me angry at the author. If I ever run into Paolo Coelho, I hope I'll beat him down to the ground and take the inflation adjusted equivalent of the 13.95 I paid for this worthless rag out of his wallet. If you want to read something sort of thoughtful on the whole "follow your dreams" theme, the author's short introduction is actually better than the book More...

25 comments like (108 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Ed rated it:

I was told by someone who recommended this to me because I mentioned my love for The Little Prince ...but seriously, anyone that thinks these two are even in the same league is mistaking simplicity for profundity. Sure. Both are simplistic stories about emotional and literal "bildungsroman" but while The Little Prince is deft, clever, enormously profound without being even the slightest bit heavy-handed...The Alchemist is exactly the opposite. It's clumsy, over-wrought, and not just More...

6 comments like (48 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Eleanor rated it:

I picked up this book in an airport between flights, it's been pretty hyped up and was obviously the most-purchased book from the store. Even the girl on the plane next to me, obviously not an english-speaker, took great efforts to tell me that she loved this book.

The book's protagonist is an adolescent shepherd and reads as if it were written by one. Coelho abandons all subtlety, capitalizing the phrase "Personal Legend" and using it every other page in a story that ha More...

6 comments like (26 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2007

Nefik rated it:

In her review, Ioana wrote:

...."The language is quite simple, which can be beautiful (read: Herman Hesse); however it comes off as quite redundant and sermonic. Every other sentence contains at least one reference to either "The Soul of the World", or "The Personal Legend", or "Follow Your Heart" with a big fat capital H. By the end of the novel I am skimming most passages.

The characters are flat (I didn't really "feel" them, w More...

5 comments like (29 people liked it)

Oct 09, 2011

أحمد rated it:

رواية غيّرت روحي.

أحمد الديب
2007

1 comment like (15 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Andrew rated it:

The Alchemist has been translated into like a million languages, and it feels like it. Bland sentences, simple story telling and zero nuance. It's a quaint parable about a shepherd who bucks the current course of his life - shepherding - to go in search of his Personal Legend (Coehlo's caps, and phrase). Coehlo's got a point, and he's going to drive it through your eyeball until he's absolutely sure you've got it.

If you ignore much of the language of the book, this is a paper-thin re More...

3 comments like (27 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2008

Michelle rated it:

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1 comment like (18 people liked it)

Aug 21, 2010

asma rated it:

عرفته أوّل مرة من روايته إحدى عشر دقيقة.. كانت المرة الأولى التي أقرأ فيها قصة أو رواية مترجمة؛ نظراً لعدم وثوقي غالباً في الأدبيّات المترجمة فيما سبق..

أنهيت قبل أيام قراءة الخيميائي، شدّني الاسم؛ خاصة أنها في الانجليزية تسمى The Alchemist ولا أدري هل كانت الكيمياء فيما سبق تسمى خيمياء؟

تدور الرواية حول راعٍ أندلسي ترك مهنته ليحقق حلماً تكرر مرّتين، زار من بعدها غجرية أوّلت له حلمه ووثقت به حين لم تأخذ منه ثمن تأويل الحلم أو تفسيره إلا بعد تحقق تأويلها حيث عليه أن يسافر من More...

2 comments like (33 people liked it)

Oct 03, 2011

إسراء rated it:

البحث عن الاسطورة الذاتية .. ان الانسان يفضل مؤمن باحلامه و اهدافه مهما حصل و طول الطريق هيلاقي علمات و اشارات

لازم الثقة في النفس البشرية انها لازم توصل

الحب مش في كل الاحوال "بيعطل الانسان عن احلامه و اهدافه " زي شخصية فاطمة في الرواية

انها انتظرته و كانت مؤمنه هي كمان باحلامه و اهدافه و مؤمنة اكتر انه لازم يوصل و يحققها
و الثقة الاكبر انها هيرجعلها مهما انتظرته

الرواية متشبعة بكم رائع من الحكم و المقولات الحكيمة

More...

7 comments like (10 people liked it)

Dec 26, 2007

Don rated it:

I simply could not finish this book. I got halfway through it only to wind up on goodreads.com to see what others thought. I simply felt guilty panning a book that has received such global acclaim; more than that, I felt lame and inadequate.

Well, it turns out that my sentiments were echoed. I basically felt I was reading an overblown parable and that the same lessons were being spelled out again and again. It was like the 16th verse of a hymn.

Throughout my life I have per More...

2 comments like (24 people liked it)

Oct 09, 2007

Debbie rated it:

Jonathan Livingstone Seagull meets Lawrence of Arabia.

At least it was short.

3 comments like (51 people liked it)

Aug 03, 2011

Leah rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

6 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 12, 2011

Joyzi rated it:

SPOILER ALERT!

This book is very inspiring and what I really need right now to motivate myself with my everyday endeavors. In the end the boy in the story who was searching for his treasure, despite the long travels and experiences, find his treasure not in the place where he suspected it to be, but in the place where he came from. It's just pretty ironic that what have you looking for is in the end is just beside you right from the beginning. It's just that what he learned and discov More...

20 comments like (16 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2008

Patrick rated it:

Timing is everything. If I'd read 'The Alchemist' four years ago, I'm sure I would have loved it. It deals in big, bold pronouncements of 'follow your dreams' et cetera et cetera, and it certainly makes you think about your own life and the pursuit of your own "Personal Legend" if you will. But maybe I'm older and more cynical now, or maybe it's not cynicism so much as just seeing a reality that isn't so mystical and black and white as Paulo Coelho's, but in any event, I just wasn't bu More...

7 comments like (35 people liked it)

Jun 07, 2008

Amit rated it:

There are too many things one can learn from “The Alchemist”. Its all about following your dream and about taking the risk of following your dreams, which is actually so difficult to do and there are very few people in this world who actually do, I mean risk it all, just to follow your heart and your dream. Beauty is, the author is so right in saying that when u decide to follow your dreams the entire universe conspires in your favour which he called as the “beginners luck” and we all have been More...

6 comments like (41 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2007

Emily rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Apr 20, 2008

nanto rated it:

Selesai membacanya buku yang saya punya sepertinya akan memiliki bentuk baru. Di tiap lembarnya ada lipatan. Teknik penanda jejak baca yang memudahkan untuk merefer ke halaman yang menarik tetapi dengan resiko menurunkan penampilan buku. Thx to Mr. Dj untuk tips ini.

Garis merah dari pembacaan saya atas buku Coelho yang satu ini adalah kekuatan hati sebagai salah satu fakultas pengetahuan manusia. Namun kali ini, hati bukanlah semata sebuah bentuk filsafat verbal atau analitik yang ke More...

9 comments like (7 people liked it)

May 20, 2008

Alexis rated it:

Look, I realize many of you loved this book, so be warned, because this isn't a recreant review. Two stars is generous. I found this thinly veiled self-help book to be simplistic in form, prose, and plot. The only thing to celebrate about the book is the conclusion, because that means you're officially free of it. Harsh? Eh, remember, I reviewed for Kirkus, who never fail to bring the snark. I would even recommend it to someone I thought would enjoy it - like my Mom, or someone with a proclivity More...

2 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jun 23, 2008

Wendy rated it:

It is one thing to read a great book and be inspired. It is an entirely different thing for the author to throw it in your face..."You will be inspired, you will be inspired..." I felt like I was bombarded with heavy handed one liners ever other paragraph. If you haven't started this book, don't bother. I will give it enough credit to say it was better than the Nanny Diaries. Although anything would be a better read than that horrid excuse for a book... Sorry, still mad at myself at wa More...

3 comments like (15 people liked it)

Sep 23, 2008

Lamski Kikita rated it:

"when you really want something, the whole universe conspires in helping you to achieve it"

This book has crossed the buondires of books, and has taken a life of its own, creating a movement all around the globe.

Santiago's journey and spiritual quest, the people he meets, the dreams he has, the omens he encounters, and the nature he speaks to, are all things that we can relate to..things that we've either forgotten about or simply dismissed as childhood fan More...

1 comment like (27 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Lydia rated it:

Overrated. Grossly overrated book. Everybody was talking about how it was some life-changing book and I admit to be hoping that at least it was kinda inspirational.

And it proved to be the least inspirational book I had ever come across. It was written from the point of view of a traveling shepherd, telling us how he dealt with problems he encountered through his journey. The language was bland (I read the English version) and there was hardly any conversation in the book. Everything More...

2 comments like (16 people liked it)

Sep 12, 2011

Bibliomantic rated it:

What a waste of paper this thing is. Another reader (Anna) referred to it as ‘spiritual literature for dummies’. After a couple dozen pages into it, including a pretentious retelling of the myth of Narcissus, I almost threw this, what I like to think of as fable for dummies, across the room. Why this book is so popular shall remain a mystery to me. If anything, it serves as a reminder to stay away from best seller lists.

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 26, 2011

Kelanth, in tenebris lux tua rated it:

Si arriva alla fine del libro e ci si sente un po' poveri, o tonti, o una strana combinazione delle due cose. Perchè il primo pensiero che viene in mente è che non sei riuscito a capire quello che hai letto, a penetrare nelle profonde conoscenze che l’autore voleva trasmettere.

Poi ci rifletti bene, riprendi in mano il libro e ti metti a leggere alcuni passaggi importanti, diciamo quei punti significativi che probabilmente non hai appreso come dovevi fare e allora comincia la vera compr More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 15, 2011

Zeek rated it:

The Alchemist is a fable of sorts, full of not so subtle metaphors. First published in Brazil in 1988 it's been spotted in the hands of President Clinton and Julia Roberts, and is reportedly being made into a movie? Maybe has been already?? ::shrug::

Eh, that kind of press does nothing for me other than tell me I'm probably gonna be reading some sorta pop, self-affirmation, mumbo jumbo.

And in a way that's what this story is- which took it down a notch for me.

B More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

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