From the Bookshelf of Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge…

The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Dec 04, 2017 Naj rated it really liked it

I can see why people rave about this book. It's a simple read but delves into very complicated concepts. I read pretty fast most times. Usually, due to the over-descriptive-ness of novels my brain can omit many things and just focus on the important things - hence the speed reading.

Coelho's The Alchemist is very easy to read but simply cannot be consumed quickly. There is nothing that can be omitted. I consciously have to digest every single word.

So I end up with a kind of pretzeled mess in my ...more

Like · see review

Sep 30, 2018 Debbie rated it liked it

This book has been on my TBR forever. I expected to love it, but didn’t quite get there. I’m going to try reading it in the original Spanish to see if it flows better.

Santiago is a young shepherd who dreams of seeing the world. He sets out on a quest to find treasure in Egypt and discovers that the universe has his back. I didn’t hate the story, but it has shades of The Secret (which I did hate). The way women have no agency was disappointing.

Like · see review

Sep 24, 2007 Anastasia rated it did not like it

Shelves: fiction, 2006, 2022

I hate allegories. And I hate books in which the characters are merely archetypes and you don't even know their names. And I hate books which center around only men, and the few (if any) women in them are mere symbols or stereotypes, never playing any kind of critical role. These types of books are sooooo tiresome. ...more

Like · see review