September 5, 2009

The Alchemist

alchemist

By Paulo Coelho

A modern classic, an international best seller, a fable about following your dreams – are few of various names by which this book has been referred to. I finally got my hand on the book. I was surprised by the thickness of the book. It jhave mere 177 pages for a book that has been translated into 67 languages and hence holds the Guinness World record for most translated book by a living author. I checked if by mistake I was given an abridged version but as it turns out, it just has 177 pages. 

Second surprise came by the simplicity of the language used. Even a 10 year old can read the book without difficulty. May be that’s why they call it a fable. And yes that’s what the book is: A fable about following one’s dream.

The book is full of pure optimism, faith, first-sight-love, destiny, omen and dreams. Being a hard core cynic, I scoffed and sneered the entire time. And obviously (given the optimistic tone of the book) there is a religious undertone in the book which made me scoff even more.

In a nutshell, its a cute little story for those of you who are hard-core-optimist. It failed to make much impression on me. May be I am far too a realist to be awed by foolhardy optimism.

2 comments:

  1. Hehehe...I felt exactly the same when I read the book --- because I'm also a cynic! We'd get along great, I reckon! :P I thought the book was over-rated...

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  2. That's the word: Over-rated. I had high hopes for the book but it completely failed to impress me..

    I know! At times when I read your posts, I feel as if you stole words from my mouth and wrote them down...Guess all the cynics think the same way. :D

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