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Summary: A fable for adults
Review: I picked up this book on a whim and discovered a real treasure! It is easy to read, and it's simple wisdom will keep you thinking long after the final page has been read. I strongly recomend this book.
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Summary: Direct Fulfillment
Review: This work is an engaging, penetrating look inside the makings of a journey. Normally, concepts like self-transformation and actualization are reserved for the analyst's couch. Here, inside this story, is a way for the individual to bypass hierarchies, to circumvent "authority" and go directly for the gold: mystical insight and a sense of fulfillment.Very happy reading.
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Summary: Ladder
Review: By telling this story in such a deceptively simple fashion, Coelho makes it universally acceptable and, unfortunately, easy to dismiss. I found this to be an amazing story of following one's heart to fulfill one's destiny. The use of metaphors is masterful; I found myself constantly pausing to consider a turn of phrase, a conversational point, a moment of action. I disagree with the reviewer who described this book as not life-changing. Like Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael", this can be a single step along one's path to a better vision of the world. The lessons the world has to tell us are simple, but actually listening to them is the difficult part.
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Summary: Short and sweet pick-me-up
Review: This was a great story that was a quick read. It left me with something to think about - a little chunk of life to chew on. If you are a fan of things that will make you think a little without beeing too difficult, then this is your book.
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Summary: Amazon.com are hypocrits
Review: ibid
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Summary: God, Allah and Crystals.
Review: I know this review will result in a whole heap of "No It Wasn't Helpful" votes, because I am going against the trend! Just as I hated Jonathan Livingston Seagull when I was a teenager, I hate this book now! No, hate is too strong a word for this piece of insignificant and shallow tripe. In every generation along comes an over-hyped meditation which is nothing more than New Age, melange-religion twaddle. And this is the one for now. And it's way over-priced. Disappointingly, it's by the author of one of my favourite books of the past couple of years (Veronika Decides To Die) . Personal Legends sound like some of advertising industry hype for the latest inspiration for how You Too Can Be President, or how You Too Can Win A Gold Medal at the Olympics. But when I got to this nonsense on page 80: "Everything on earth is being continuously transformed, because the earth is alive....and it has a soul. We are part of that soul, so we rearely recognize that it is working for us. But in the crystal shop you probably realized that even the glasses were collaborating in your success", I just exploded in laughter. God, Allah and Crystals. As a woman this book says absolutely nothing to me: "The desert was full of men who earned their living based on the ease with which they could penetrate to the Soul of the World. They were known as seers, and they were held in fear by women and the elderly." (p 103). Probably those other weaklings, children as well, though that is not specified. But there is a role for women - waiting around the oasis for their men to either return or hearing they have been killed. Grand! Just what I've been wanting to know - it's transformed my life! The most profound insight yet known to Man. Come, on pull the other leg! If I want to go looking for The Philosopher's Stone, I think I'll choose Harry Potter as my companion!
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Summary: The Life-Changing Book
Review: When people ask me to name the best book I ever read, I say it wasthis book. When I was in junior high, I had no direction, was gettingCs in school, doing drugs, and got along with no one. I read it in afew hours, on my dad's couch over Christmas break. Following thatmoment, I shaped up: personally, academically, emotionally, andspiritually. It is a book that will renew faith in those who feel theyhave lost it, and bring it to those who are without. If you're willingto spot the extra buck, I would recommend the hard-cover version--theone with the pyramids on the front. It's such an attractiveillustration. Furthermore, the illustrated version is exquisite andthe one I give to people for presents. ...and, for those who havealready read The Alchemist, I still haven't found my Fatima, but knowshe will come soon enough.
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Summary: a must-read for everyone!
Review: when i was first given this book, i was skeptical of its contents. a story about a shepherd? but then, after reading it, i saw everything in a new light. i have given this book to most of my friends, and never have i encountered someone who did not like it. if this book does not touch you in some way or strike a deep chord within your soul, i don't know what will. paulo coelho is not only a gifted storyteller, he has the rare ability to take the stirrings of our souls and place them into phrases and sentences that eerily make too much sense. please buy this book, you won't regret it!
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Summary: THIS IS ONE OF THE GREATEST BOOKS EVER!
Review: Let's see...What can I say about this book? It is one of the greatest books ever written. This truly takes you back to bare minimum thinking in a profound, let's-ponder-the-meaning-of-life way. After I read this book, I saw everything in a whole new light!
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Summary: It changed my life, Coelho is one of a kind.
Review: What can I say about this book? It is a poorly written fable, with a little vacant glimmer of hope for all. New age hollowness. With sinister authoritarian undertones planted in an all too subtle way. Oh, the preaching goes on and on and on, covert and ever so potent. Make everyone think like a 6 year old Coelho and become a millionaire in the process, go on, cancel out all the western tradition of thought with your new agey bubbles. This is a very profound book on...well I don't know what it is profound on but it is still very deep. Ah, I figured it, life that's the topic of the book, the big L. But people seem to like it so I better shut up fore they follow their dream of forcing the ones they don't agree with to shut up. (Just a question if two dreams cause conflict, say in a conflict of dreams, does the universe split in half to favour both, or if a dream becomes reality then does the universe no longer conspire and it has to become a dream again for it to happen, or if you dream a lot at night and wake up and don't remember your dream should you see a witch doctor about it, or if one is a dreamer and follows his heart and wonders off to the mecicine cabin of the medicine man and then the man with the long wooden stick tells him...but that's another tale.) Thanks for reading.
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