Aart's comments (member since Oct 22, 2007)

Aart's comments from the Paulo Coelho group.

Dear Friends,

Please Vote for The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/143.F...


The Alchemist (Portuguese: O Alquimista) is an allegorical novel by Paulo Coelho first published in 1988. It follows Santiago, a young Spanish shepherd, on a journey to fulfill his Personal Legend. It has been hailed as a modern classic. The plot is inspired from Jorge Luis Borges' short story: Tale of two dreamers.

The Alchemist was originally written in Portuguese and has since been translated into 67 languages, winning the Guiness World Record for most translated book by a living author. It has sold more than 65 million copies in more than 150 countries, becoming one of the best-selling books in history.


When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
The Alchemist

Some people see you as a guru. Do you accept that?

Of course not.


Is it flattering?

No. It’s totally out of reality.


Are you a political writer?

Everybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament, it’s how you deal with your life, with your surroundings. I am at least giving the readers the sense they are not alone. But instead of trying to answer the question, “What is the meaning of life?” I try to give some meaning to my life.


When you were 17 your parents had you committed to an asylum.

Yes, three times, and also I was in jail three times, but I never saw myself as a victim. This is part of my journey. My parents wanted me to follow their dreams, not my dreams, and the simple fact that I didn’t accept that does not make me a criminal or an outcast. I thought, “One day I will write about it,” and I did. I wrote Veronica Decides to Die, and the book was about this: accept your differences and this is how you make a difference.


You can listen 3 minutes of the interview:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/20...

Or you can read the whole interview by clicking here.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar...

The trailer of the movie "Veronika decides to die" (to be released in 2009): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtcZhIrhA...
Please be welcome to watch it and leave your comments.

PARIS (Reuters Life!) - The promotional power of piracy and artistic merits of blogging are among the themes to be discussed by bestselling author Paulo Coelho in his opening address to the Frankfurt Book Fair this week.

The 61-year-old Brazilian writer behind titles such as “The Alchemist” and “Eleven Minutes” is gaining a reputation as a digital pioneer for his enthusiastic embrace of online media.

Coelho maintains a personal blog as well as profiles across several social networking sites. He uses the mobile blogging tool “Twitter’ and regularly uploads videos to YouTube under the heading Privacy Zero. A few years ago, he even started distributing digital versions of his books for free over the internet. Reuters Television correspondent for technology, Matt Cowan, spoke to the author at his Paris home.

Q: What is the main reason you do all of this?

A: Fun. It’s such a pleasure to do this. I’m not a person that socializes very well. I don’t go to cocktail parties. I don’t go to parties in general. I discovered this fantastic world behind the web that helps me a lot as far as a professional, as a writer.

Q: How does it help you?

A: Not only is it a way to remain engaged but the basics of any writing is people and human conflicts. People are very reluctant to talk about their private lives but then you go to the internet and they’re much more open. Of course they have a persona. You never know if it’s true or not true but at the end of the day, even the persona has a good story to tell.

Q: Why do you think blogging is worthwhile?

A: If you asked the monks in Medieval times what they thought about Gutenberg and the press, they’d say “oh, what is the validity of having some printed books? We’re here, we’re printing, we’re designing every single letter with beautiful calligraphy. This is art. This is sacred and the printing process that Gutenberg invented is nothing.’ I think we are in the same situation now. People can show and express what they feel through images, text and movies. Everybody has a creative potential and from the moment you can express this creative potential, you can start changing the world.

Q: You didn’t set out to become a digital pioneer though.

A: At the very beginning it was to get information to write books and then you feel owe something, you’re getting but you’re not giving. And then you start giving, and then you realize how important it is to give away. If you go to my blog you’ll see a lot of free things. And does this keep me selling less or more books? Nobody knows. I’m going to The Frankfurt Book Fair to talk exactly about that. I don’t know if it sells books, but I know that I’m sharing my soul. This is the goal of any artist.

Q: Excited about multimedia as an alternative to books?

A: As a writer, I’m excited about experiencing everything.

I have just made a movie with my readers. For one year, I took one of my books “The Witch of Portobello” and I said “you have to choose one character and make a movie out of it. And we had over 6,000 people participate in this contest. And I had to select 15, and I selected 15 and we have a fantastic movie.

Q: Why are you so interested in social networking sites?

A: It’s not like I’m tired of writing books. But I am excited to write for new platforms because this challenges you to use new languages. You have to be direct. I am very direct in my books, but still the internet has a different structure of writing. And I’m learning. This is what excites me. It’s like I’m in a new realm now. Without leaving my book writing behind, I am expanding my universe.

Q: Tell me about the idea behind Privacy Zero.

A: The idea behind Privacy Zero is that privacy zero is a reality. You don’t have a private life anymore. So I started putting videos of things that happen to me (on YouTube). Of course the first reaction from the so-called marketing people in publishing houses is “this is wrong - you have to keep an aura of mystery. You should be in an ivory tower, nobody should know what you’re doing’ and I said okay but then I’m not going to have fun.

Q: Do you worry about your security or unbalanced fans?

A: John Lennon was killed before the internet. If you think about these things you don’t do anything. So, yes, you have to take risks.

Q: What is the significance of HarperCollins’s decision to make free electronic versions of some of its books?

A: I had this great CEO at HarperCollins Jane Friedman. I got a call from her and I said I cannot take it back (mentioning at a conference that he was making his books available for free through his website). I said let’s solve the problem, let’s not go back to the past. HarperCollins developed this browsing site where you can read the book but you cannot download the book. So I say, “phew.”

http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2008/10/14/re...

Warrior of the Light: A Manual is an inspirational companion to The Alchemist, an international bestseller that has beguiled millions of readers around the world. Every short passage invites us to live out our dreams, to embrace the uncertainty of life, and to rise to our own unique destiny. In his inimitable style, Paulo Coelho helps bring out the Warrior of the Light within each of us. He also shows readers how to embark upon the way of the Warrior: the one who appreciates the miracle of being alive, the one who accepts failure, and the one whose quest leads him to become the person he wants to be.

Paulo Coelho is one of the most beloved storytellers of our time. Now, in the long-awaited companion to his first novel, Coelho presents a collection of philosophical stories that will delight and guide seekers everywhere.

Paulo is distributing for free his works on his blog: paulocoelhoblog.com
Now the full edition Warrior of the Light: A Manual is online for free:

http://newsletters.harpercollins.com/W0R...

Please Check it!

The best-selling author Paulo Coelho has managed to turn tables on his publishing house Harper Collins. Indeed, the New York Times released an article (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/busine...)
saying how Harper Collins is enabling the online reading of Coelho's book The Witch of Portobello in its website. The publishing house also announced it would be putting a Coelho book per month on it's website.
It seems that Harper Collins had no choice, since Coelho confessed in his speech during the DLD conference earlier this year, that many books (including Harper English versions) where in Pirate Coelho – a blog he created for free download : http://piratecoelho.wordpress.com/
Thumbs up for Pirate Coelho!

Calling all film directors!! Paulo Coelho's Film Competition looks amazing and the special affects in this trailer are incredible!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeFLCQY6y...

Watch it!

Paulo Coelho takes all readers on his sandbashing experience across the desert in Dubai.
Watch the great videos:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=...

Share it if you wish!

p.s. digg it:
http://digg.com/travel_places/The_Crazy_...

Paulo Coelho is launching a new project based on his latest book The Witch of Portobello.
If you want to know more about the project of register, please visit this site :

http://www.paulocoelhoblog.com/experimen...

Fantastic video about the Experimental Witch porject! Digg it!
http://digg.com/arts_culture/Experimenta...

Feel free to share it!

Would you participate?!

A medieval legend tells us that in the country we know today as Austria the Burkhard family – a man, a woman and a child – used to amuse people at Christmas parties by reciting poetry, singing ancient troubadour ballads, and juggling. Of course, there was never any money left over to buy presents, but the man always told his son:

“Do you know why Santa Claus’s bag never gets empty, although there are so many children in the world? Because it may be full of toys, but sometimes there are more important things to be delivered, what we call “invisible gifts”. In a broken home, he tries to bring harmony and peace on the holiest night in Christianity. Where love is lacking, he deposits a seed of faith in children’s hearts. Where the future seems black and uncertain, he brings hope. In our case, the day after Father Christmas comes to visit us, we are happy to be still alive and doing our work, which is to make people happy. Never forget that.”

Time passed, the boy grew up, and one day the family passed in front of the impressive Melk Abbey, which had just been built.
“Father, do you remember many years ago you told me the story of Santa Claus and his invisible gifts? I think that I received one of those gifts once: the vocation to become a priest. Would you mind if now I took my first step towards what I have always dreamed of?”

Although they really needed their son’s company, the family understood and respected the boy’s wish. They knocked at the door of the monastery and were given a loving, generous welcome by the monks, who accepted the young Buckhard as a novice.
Christmas Eve came around. And precisely on that day, a special miracle happened in Melk: Our Lady, carrying the baby Jesus in her arms, decided to descend to Earth to visit the monastery.

All the priests lined up and each of them stood proudly before the Virgin trying to pay homage to the Madonna and her Son. One of them displayed the beautiful paintings that decorated the place, another showed a copy of a Bible that had taken a hundred years to be written and illustrated, while a third recited the names of all the saints.

At the very end of the line, young Buckhard anxiously waited his turn. His parents were simple people, and all that they had taught him was to toss balls up in the air and do some juggling.

When it came his turn, the other priests wanted to put an end to all the homage that had been paid, since the ex-juggler had nothing important to add and might even mar the image of the abbey.

Nevertheless, deep in his heart he also felt a great need to give something of himself to Jesus and the Virgin. Feeling very ashamed before the reproachful gaze of his brothers, he took some oranges from his pocket and began to toss them in the air and catch them in his hands, creating a beautiful circle in the air just as he used to do when he and his family traveled to all the fairs in the region.

At that instant, the baby Jesus, lying in Our Lady’s lap, began to clap his hands with joy. And it was to young Buckhard that the Virgin held out her arms to let him hold the smiling child for a few moments.

The legend ends by saying that on account of this miracle, every two hundred years a new Buckhard knocks on the door of Melk Abbey, is welcomed in, and for the whole time he remains there he warms the hearts of all who meet him.


©Translated by James Mulholland

Copyright free. Please be welcome to distribute this tale to all your friends.

from http://paulocoelhoblog.com/

When we least expect it,
life sets us a challenge
to test our courage and willingness to change.
(The Devil & Miss Prym)

When you want something, the whole Universe conspires to help you realize your desire.

Dear Friends, Paulo has released this year The Witch of Portobello and he is now inviting readers to adapt his novel to the movie screen

http://paulocoelhoblog.com/experimental-...

Watch his speech film too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2qxG-3V9...

Lots of love
Aart

Which Paulo Coelho books you have read?