Paulo Coelho Books – The Alchemist
Recommendations, Revelations and Hidden Gems
Hello fellow readers and welcome to the third book recommendation. That’s right, we’ve hit the hat trick. This summary is for the best of Paulo Coelho Books.
First of all, it’s worth mentioning that this book was an absolute delight to read. It is the second fiction book I’ve read in about 3 years and leads me to believe that I should probably read more as it was very enjoyable.
Jump aboard the whistle stop tour adventure summary, complete with hidden gems, of:
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – Click Here to Get Your Copy
Summary & Recommendation – My First Read Of Paulo Coelho Books
The Alchemist is an adventure story. It is a very smooth read and as you may be able to guess from reading this far, is very highly recommended. The short paragraphs used are an excellent style of writing that makes it very easy to follow and allows the reader to never bore of a specific scene.
The book gives very realistic internal monologue describing the protagonist’s entire thought process on this incredibly captivating journey.
There are wonderful common themes with uplifting philosophies such as:
- Following your dream
- Enthusiasm being a universal language
- Loving what one does
- And many more
It was incredible to read such inspirational fiction, especially considering I usually stick to the business, marketing and self help genres!
Hidden Gems
Now on to the life impacting parts. As always, listed below:
- To continue doing what you already know isn’t success. We have to take on new adventures and constantly challenge ourselves. This may sound like obvious advice but is so poignantly described in this book
- I was struck by the boy leaving new friends he made without saying goodbye and realised how large this was considering mobile phones definitely didn’t exist at that time! It made me yearn for the simplicity of a goodbye being a goodbye until the two individuals met again
- There is a lot of acceptance of death due to it happening in the pursuit of following ones destiny. Very inspiring
- I remember writing in my journal in previous years to ‘pay attention to the signs of the world’, and this book is a big testament to that. Not in a magical way at all, but in more of an awareness of the way that the world is all connected and there are usually obvious signs telling one what direction they should head in. For example, if you keep noticing talk about an activity that you’re interested in doing (skiing, stand up comedy, playing an instrument), then take the world up on it’s offer and dive into it. This may also just be linked to a yes man philosophy and making sure one is open to new activities and opportunities. Either way, seems like grand advice to me
- A wonderful sentence is repeated throughout the book that I had to include here: ‘when a person really desires something, all of the universe conspires to help that person realise their dream‘
- I enjoyed the relaxed nature of the main character doing nothing but sitting and thinking for much of his time. This made me reflect once again on our modern obsession with constant stimulation and the fact that time can be passed very enjoyably by just sitting…and thinking. Get that old brain heated up. It’s like meditation in disguise
- There is a beautiful, real life example of something that we are all familiar with. The main character repeatedly goes through periods of being distracted from his goals. BUT, in his case the focus always returns at unexpected times. I think we should all reflect upon our goals and make an attempt to establish when we are being distracted and whether a change in direction is necessary
At around 100 pages this is a quick, immersive and enjoyable read that I would recommend to everyone. Turn off that TV for one evening and get through this beaut in a few hours – You won’t regret it.
Thanks for reading and as always, please comment below if you’ve read The Alchemist, any other Paulo Coelho Books or would like to discuss any of the points made. I hope you enjoyed The Alchemist summary.
P.S. Bonus revelation: Wouldn’t you agree that our generation has an amazing creativity and innovative advantage considering we can put any song in the world on straight into our ears at any volume and quality we desire? Something to be extremely grateful of me thinks!
P.S. The above revelation happened whilst listening to One Direction. Bring on the abuse.