MADreads

Dreams can come true, but you have to read the book

April 6th, 2007 Molly - Central

Who’s read Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist?  C’mon, you can tell me.  I know you’re out there – the bestseller lists tell me that people have been buying this book like crazy and I don’t think it is solely for graduation gifts.  It would make a nice graduation gift, though, wouldn’t it?  A vast improvement over Robert Fulghum’s All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, the book that was gracing all the parties in my touchy-feely circle of family and friends when I graduated from high school. 

The story of a young shepherd in search of his personal legend, or goal in life, The Alchemist reminds us that we are in charge of our destiny and that dreams can come true, we just need to lead a good life in order for that to happen.  The shepherd travels the world and meets up with a variety of people, good and bad, on his journey.  He makes decisions that ultimately lead him to the “treasure” he was seeking, even though it is not exactly the treasure he set out to find.

One thing’s for sure, The Alchemist is a book that people love to share.  Chelsea Clinton loved this book and told her father, Bill Clinton about it.  I saw a photo of the former President holding a copy of the book (photographed by Simon Murphy in 1999 outside the White House).  I also saw a photo of the author shaking hands with Pope John Paul II!  I can understand why people love this book and want to share it with others – it is uplifting and it shares an important message.  This message is known as the Golden Rule.  If more people followed the golden rule, the world would be a much happier place and people would probably live longer.  And finally, the storytelling quality in The Alchemist is more fun to read than some of the other “if you dream it, you can achieve it” books out there, like The Secret by Rhonda Bhyrne.

If you’ve read The Alchemist or given it as a gift, tell us why!  Likewise, if you have tried to read The Alchemist, but couldn’t finish it, tell us why.  A recent BBC News report lists it as number seven on a British top ten list of unfinished fiction, after titles like James Joyce’s Ulysses and David Mitchell’s The Cloud Atlas.  Sadly, this may mean that personal legends are falling by the wayside.  Or, that there is more treasure for those of us that read the book.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction