From the Bookshelf of 2025 Reading Challenge…

The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho

Start date: August 1, 2021

Finish date: August 31, 2021

Discussion: October 2025 Group Read

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Showing 2 of -3 topics — 109 comments total

October 2025 Group Read

Weyward: Mid-Reading Discussion
By Winter , Group Reads · 3 posts · 31 views

last updated 22 hours, 59 min ago

Weyward: Pre-Reading Discussion
By Winter , Group Reads · 7 posts · 30 views

last updated Oct 02, 2025 08:30AM

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What Members Thought

Feb 28, 2010 Netanella rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016-rrrc-challenge-addicts-reading, 2016-may-reading-challenges

Phenomenal book, but you have to be open to it. Some have criticized it for being too preachy, but it is what it is, as a wise person once said.

I'm in a weird place in my life right now, and doing a lot of soul searching. I'm not ready to sell my sheep and go on a quest for treasure somewhere hidden by the Pyramids in Egypt, but I am in a contemplative mood about my direction in life, and where I want to be, and what true happiness means to me, and what really defines my purpose. This is the ty ...more

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Jan 14, 2019 Eileen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook

This was a very interesting book to me and very different from most of what I was reading at the time (Vorkosigan sagas). In many ways, it reads like a fable, as it follows the tale of an Andalusian shepherd boy in search of the world's greatest treasure. However, depending on where you are in life, I think it may speak to your heart, mind, or soul in such a way as to inspire action or contentment. This is a story that is short enough and both complex and simple enough that you can reread it at ...more

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Feb 23, 2018 Brittany rated it it was amazing

Shelves: absolute-favorites

While I assume this is often a quick read for many I took my time with it. Several years of time actually. I'm not sure why I had difficulty staying with it, or if I simply came to various points where I needed to sit with what had been said and allow those ideas to digest. This book is a beautiful and inspirational piece and a journey and it took me some time to sit with the messages that came forward to me.

Easy to read with feel good ideas about the dreams we have and what it takes to go after ...more

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Jun 20, 2020 Eileen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, fantasy, classics, 2020, 2020-ng-group-challenge, philosophy

This is the second time I've listened to this and I enjoyed it just as much this time. Jeremy Irons is fabulous and after reading several heavy books in a row (including one called Heavy, lol), this worked nicely as a palate cleanser, so to speak. I remember thinking the last time that I might get something different from a second read, and I think that's still true. This comes at a time when I just wanted a little encouragement especially with all the upheaval in this country and I think that I ...more

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Mar 21, 2012 Chrissa rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I feel that this book was mischaracterized by having been shelved in the Fiction & Literature section. As others have mentioned, this book (which I read in translation) uses devices such as persistent capitalization of Important Themes and simplistic--meaning purposefully canted toward basic narrative--plotting to tell a fable centered around a young man out to earn his fortune/realize his dreams. If I had found it in the self-help, inspirational, or children's section, I might not have had my e ...more

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Oct 20, 2011 Amanda rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Debbie said it best: Jonathan Livingston Seagull meets Lawrence of Arabia.

I read this for book club. I can say two good things about it:
1.) It was short.
2.) It was a library book, so at least I didn't pay for it. ...more

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Nov 28, 2019 Dawelbeit added it · review of another edition

لا تحزن فكنزك في حجرتك لكن أحلامك هي من يقودك ويدفعك للبحث واللهث خلف المستحيل ... التسويف والمماطلة هي قاتل الجهد والأحلام

وكما قال السيد الشيخ إسماعيل بن الولي الكردفاني : التسويف بقتل القلب ومن مات قلبه دخل النار

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