The Alchemist

by Paulo Coelho (Goodreads author)
The Alchemist
book data
88,636 ratings, 3.73 average rating, 9,462 reviews (more data...)
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published
May 1st 2006 (first published 1988) by HarperCollins

binding
Paperback, 197 pages

characters

setting
Czech Republic

isbn
0061122416    (isbn13: 9780061122415)

description
My Heart Is Afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky."Tell your heart...more




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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 121,630)

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Sarah
08/22/07
Sarah rated it: 2 of 5 stars

Read in July, 2007
recommends it for: people trying to find themselves
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
Like this review?   yes   (29 people liked it)
  6 comments

Jonathan
11/10/08
Jonathan rated it: 1 of 5 stars

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
Like this review?   yes   (19 people liked it)
  4 comments

Kali
03/23/07
Kali rated it: 1 of 5 stars

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
Like this review?   yes   (15 people liked it)
  2 comments

Christopher
08/13/07
Christopher rated it: 2 of 5 stars

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
Like this review?   yes   (15 people liked it)
  1 comment

Nefik
09/27/07
Nefik rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: philosophy, spirituality
recommends it for: optimists, cynics and dreamers
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
Like this review?   yes   (15 people liked it)
  4 comments

Ed
03/23/07
Ed rated it: 1 of 5 stars

recommends it for: Cheesy people
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
Like this review?   yes   (11 people liked it)
  3 comments

Michelle
12/16/07
Michelle rated it: 2 of 5 stars

Read in December, 2007
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Like this review?   yes   (10 people liked it)
  1 comment

Andrew
03/20/07
Andrew rated it: 1 of 5 stars

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in March, 2007
recommends it for: the desperate
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
Like this review?   yes   (10 people liked it)
  2 comments

Eleanor
05/06/07
Eleanor rated it: 1 of 5 stars

bookshelves: never-finished
Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in June, 2007
recommends it for: religious zealots
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
Like this review?   yes   (10 people liked it)
  1 comment

Mae Dagre
09/22/07
Mae Dagre rated it: 1 of 5 stars

bookshelves: fiction
Read in December, 2007
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
Like this review?   yes   (7 people liked it)
  6 comments

yudhipurwanto
07/26/07
yudhipurwanto rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Satu-satunya buku di dunia dimana saya memiliki 4 versinya, versi Indonesia bajakan, versi Indonesia legal, versi bahasa Inggris dan versi bahasa Spanyol. Dan konsekuensinya, buku ini menjadi salah satu karya tulis yang beberapa kali saya baca. Salah duanya kumpulan berita kemenangan AC Milan dlm kompetisi Liga Champion 2007 

Juga menjadi salah satu buku dimana saya pernah menghitung berapa jumlah katanya, menghitung berapa kali pengulangan kata-katanya, mencari dimana ada kata-kat...more
Like this review?   yes   (7 people liked it)
  7 comments

Don
12/26/07
Don rated it: 1 of 5 stars

Read in December, 2007
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
Like this review?   yes   (7 people liked it)
  2 comments

SF SQRL
bookshelves: fiction
Read in October, 2007
Jonathan Livingstone Seagull meets Lawrence of Arabia.

At least it was short.
Like this review?   yes   (11 people liked it)
  add a comment

Patrick
08/26/08
Patrick rated it: 2 of 5 stars

bookshelves: books-read-in-2008
Read in September, 2008
recommended to Patrick by: Sarah Otto
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
Like this review?   yes   (7 people liked it)
  3 comments

Amit
06/07/08
Amit rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in June, 2008
recommended to Amit by: i dont even know her name
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 ha...more
Like this review?   yes   (7 people liked it)
  3 comments

Emily
12/03/07
Emily rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in January, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Like this review?   yes   (6 people liked it)
  add a comment

nanto
04/20/08
nanto rated it: 4 of 5 stars

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
Like this review?   yes   (5 people liked it)
  9 comments

Alexis Taines
05/20/08
Alexis Taines rated it: 2 of 5 stars

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
Like this review?   yes   (5 people liked it)
  2 comments

Wendy
06/10/08
Wendy rated it: 1 of 5 stars

Read in June, 2008
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
Like this review?   yes   (5 people liked it)
  3 comments

Spamiola Kikita
08/19/08
Spamiola Kikita rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in September, 2008
recommended to Spamiola Kikita by: a friend
recommends it for: everyone
"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
Like this review?   yes   (6 people liked it)
  1 comment


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quotes from this book

""This is why alchemy exists," the boy said. "So that everyone will search for his treasure, find it, and then want to be better than he was in his former life. Lead will play its role until the world has no further need for lead; and then lead will have to turn itself into gold. That's what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too."" More quotes...


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