The Alchemist question

Totally overated. When I hear people say that this book changed their life I just think . . . How???

I first read this tale in a collection of stories by Borges; he tell s more effectively, and without the spiritual pretensions.

I'll Coelho credit for developing a successful line of product.

I am with you, this book is a really bad one, and don´t impress a person who has lecture habbits, I don´t understand why some people use to love it. All Cohelo books talk about the same things and he stills appears on everyone...

I was left decided unimpressed by this book. This was especially disappointing considering all the hype that surrounds it.

I have not study enough about Coelho, his life or his beliefs. To be honest I don’t really care about those things.

All I know about this book is that changed my point of view for certain things and opened my mind to new directions. I have decided to give more value to myself and to the things that I want to do and to stop doing actions just to satisfy others.

...and for that, I thank him

This was one of my favorite books. I was surprised to see how many people thought that it was a waste of time and a bad book. Throughout the entire story I was engaged and very intrigued about what would happen next. The idea of the philosopher stone was also very interesting, as I have read many other books that graze that topic. I would definitely recommend this book, despite the negative remarks about it.

This entire book is a pseudo-intellectual steaming pile of shit that begs you to be inspired by its depth by constantly repeating "wisdom" and "soul" and other relevant keywords. The repetition inspires nothing but maybe suicide. There is absolutely no story, it's ridiculous in insisting that you can get whatever you want just by the sheer thought, and if that's not enough,;the universe will CONSPIRE to help you achieve it.

I was so angry throughout the last 50 pages, that I contemplated finding Coelho, only to stab the self-important bastard for trying to convince us that he is some kind of literary guru; and managing to do so as his sales numbers would attest to.

I recently read some of Aesop's fables and they allowed me to see why I didn't appreciate The Alchemist like I expected to. Yes The Alchemist is a simple tale but so are Aesop's fables. However Aesop's fables are delightful.

For me, reading this book was a waste of time.The main idea it's a good one,you have to search for things that makes you happy closer to you, but the writer's style is so dramatic and sometimes ambiguous.I wonder why so many people liked it?

I was quite excited when The Alchemist was selected for one of my book groups. I had yet to read Cohelo, but had heard that he was an amazing and inspiring author. I found it somewhat tedious - certainly not a page turner, nor a book to savor and reflect upon. I guess I missed the memo.

I really hated this book. I had to read it for a college course and it was such an over simplistic shallow view of life that to me was nothing short of facepalm worthy.

I was ready to be blown away or at least really enjoy it, and instead I was COMPLETELY underwhelmed, I thought the tenets and messages were extremely obvious and naive, and the story itself boring and too simple. I'm so surprised this book has done as well as it has; makes me nervous about the state of humanity, lol. The message was so trite.

I was not.

When I first admitted to not being impressed, I found that I was in a very lonely club. It was cool to love Coelho.

I did not like it then. I still do not like it.

His "Eleven Minutes" was even worse.

Me.. me..

Niether impressed nor depressed.
It was just an okay okay read through.

It's been a long time since I read it but I remember feeling disappointed at the time. It didn't move me in the slightest and I just felt like I'd read a load of drivel. I consequently discarded the book without a second thought (to charity of course). About a year ago a friend gave a copy of this book to my boyfriend and said it was the best book he'd ever read, it had really changed the way he thought about the world (apparently) and my boyfriend was instructed to read it straight away. I masked my puzzlement at this statement and said nothing as I didn't want to upset my friend. However, later on, I questioned myself and wondered if I was dumb or something and had missed the point with the book. SO... its very comforting to see this post and know that others felt the same. Incidentally my boyfriend has never touched the book and it sits on the bookshelf gathering dust.

People kept convincing me to read this book like it was the ultimate guide to spirituality, but I don't usually trust things that get popular easily or find them interesting or credible, especially books. Eventually a friend gave it to me as a present and I forced myself to read it. I wasn't disappointed at all because I had very, very low expectations. Coelho tried too hard to amaze the readers with the chain of events that were barely a "chain", but rather some separated, aimless incidents that I could not relate to either the journey of Santiago or the ending of the book. Not to mention the stereotyping that is used in a non-offensive way, but still is stereotyping. After that I even tried to pass on all of the negatives I found and just enjoy following the plot to anticipate or expect an ending to see if it matches Coelho's ending, but I couldn't even find a plot!! It was more like Santiago writing his own diary in a scrapbook and having internal conflict while writing it.

In short, it's a very overrated book, and Coelho should stick to writing short stories and forget about fictionalizing spirituality.

As some critics have said, it reads more like a philosophy guide than an actual novel. It had its good moments, but it lacked something I really desire and that's strong characters; only two characters are given names and we're not even given a description of our protagonist. That's what makes me put the novel in the "okay" category.

I absolutely hated this book. Me and two other people read it as a novel study in school, and you would think that by doing all the extra work (chapter summaries, author investigations, etc.), that we would have had a better incite on the book.... No.
We were completely lost by all of the random characters being thrown around in the book, and the end of the book was a waste of time. We joked that we should have read the ending first! Then we wouldn't have had to read the entire middle section!
I thought it would be a good read, seeing as how a million copies sold world wide! No. Just because a ton of copies sold, doesn't mean everyone enjoyed the book.

Sorry for the rant :)

You guys are taking this book out of context. It's "The Little Prince" for adults.

I was definitely not impressed. It was about as enjoyable as reading a college textbook.

Bland old boring "the secret" mumbo jumbo with no inspiration or a good story.

I too found it somewhat Underwhelming, and a bit over-hyped.

well i've read this book 2 years ago and i can say it changed my life. :) it's a good read :)

Another "New Age" fiasco

I never understood what this book was really about. Luckily I didn't judge Coelho by this miserable book.

Although the book in unimpressive, the characters bland, and a lack of plot, I can see why The Alchemist received the praise that it did. The journey and the message is the important part. It was a nice quick read though and gave my brain a break

I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone without first giving them a complete synopsis.

Kirsten wrote: "I'm a very spiritual person, but I have to admit this book kinda went in one ear and out the other. At least I can say I've read it."
Well I forced myself to read it but couldn't read more than 40 pages !!

It got me bored all ways !!

Was a good read. Maybe for some spirituality is not deep intellectuality but paying attention to the now. As shawn the surfer guru tells maxine in Bleeding Edge, here is THE WISDOM. "It is what it is." I need someone to tell me to slow down and pay attention. Added it to my bag of tricks.

I gave this two stars in a "My Books" review. Here is what I wrote: If the author had stuck to a simple tale of a shepard boy's journey and achievements it might have been worth reading. As it is the author reminds me of the "artist" who sold Los Angeles on the idea of the rock. He is a con-man posing the most important questions in life and pretending to answer them.

I wasn't impressed at all. This book was required reading our Senior year in high school (2 years ago), so I was expecting something elevated and classic, or at least well-written, but no. This book was either flat or cliche, or trying really hard to be spiritual in a way that came off as false or superficial, though to those who don't often contemplate spiritual questions Coelho probably seems like some sort of guru (which just makes me dislike him and this book even more). Compared to all of the really great literature that can move your soul this is such a waste of time. The Alchemist has unoriginal insight, and no story or well-crafted style to redeem it. We had to have a class discussion on this book and everyone was talking like they had never read anything so moving and insightful, while I rolled my eyes and thought, "Goodness, would I be a mood killing asshole to throw my honest opinion out there?" Perhaps I'm being judgmental or pretentious for thinking all of this, and if your life was changed or soul moved by The Alchemist I say, "Hurrah, good for you!" Yet I shall personally remain very very unimpressed, and even a bit contemptuous over all of the "philosophic" chatter over this book. Jeeze, I feel like I just tore someones heart out, haha.

I was not impressed. In fact, I was disappointed.
Here is my review of "The Alchemist"
http://abdelseg.wordpress.com/2013/07...

This book has to be one of the worst books I've read, worst than Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The only good thing is that it was short and wasted only a day of time.

i'm the one who was not at all impressed by this book :(
will give one more try so that i can change my opinion on it!!

Same here. Still surprised on how poor the story was.

Me! Part of the problem is that the idea of a personal journey is overdone nowadays. However, at the time of its publication I don't think it was as popular of a subject, so I appreciate its value. I wrote more about this in my review.

I read it once and in hindsight I think Coelho is pretty much overrated and the only reason why this book got so much hype was that he had a great PR team which managed to get hollywood celebrities pictured towing it with them. The book really didn't make sense for the most part.

Finally a whole lot of people sharing the same feeling on some over-rated book. Feels good!

I was feeling bored while I was at the first half of the book. It got better at the second half, however. I was dissapointed with it and did not think that it deserved all the hype.

This is among the top overrated books.

I thought it was simplistic and boring.

Two friends of mine loved The Alchemist, so I read it and was totally unimpressed. I'm pleased to see that I'm not the only one who felt that way. Apparently it is supposed to be inspirational, but I missed that at the time. There are many much better quest books out there in my opinion.

I did like the book but not as I expected. Both the story and the message is very simple, for me to like it more either one or the other would have to have more complexity to it. It seems to be a better read for a young reader who didn't get a chance to read stronger books with this theme before.

Kirsten wrote: "I'm a very spiritual person, but I have to admit this book kinda went in one ear and out the other. At least I can say I've read it."

Likewise Kirsten. I did finish it and was compelled to start it, fairly recently, by a drip drip hype effect.

This author is a spiritual con man and I am glad that so many readers refused to be conned. Repetitive, boring style, contents built on bits of a jesuit education that could have been put to better use. Alas, he has a great success and that will of course bring followers. We have lots of these peudo-authors now built from media hype.

I did not hate it, it was ok but that's all

Christ so many critics and so few thinkers. The more they read the less they know, the less they know the less they understand. Tragic.

Kirsten wrote: "I'm a very spiritual person, but I have to admit this book kinda went in one ear and out the other. At least I can say I've read it."

I was disappointed when I first read this. For a book with as much hype as this receives, I expected something more.

However, I walked away with the strongest appreciation for the book's message that if you want something bad enough, the universe will conspire to make it happen.

This alone made the book extremely worthwhile to me. It's something I hope for every day of my life.

I believe it was David Mamet who said, "We all hope. It what keeps us alive." I need to have faith that my dreams can come to fruition.

I do not think it's Coelho's best work.

Very overrated, preachy book. The story is average, the message is overly common and the characters are like talking robots. The profuse usage of words starting with capitalised letters as if that infused more profound meaning was just plain annoying ('Treasure', for example). I heard that Coelho's other books are actually better but this one just put me off, probably forever.