Rating: 
Summary: this book is an experience
Review: read this book if you feel as though you are lost and need some sort of a direction. it will give you an idea of where you should look. it has changed my life in such a way that it showed me what i've always had. hope your experience with this book is as simple, but yet extraodinary as mine:)
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Summary: one of the best books I've ever read
Review: It's one of the best books I've ever read.It's wonderful. If you haven't already read it,DO IT NOW.It can help you to understand the meaning of your life .It could be important for your "open mind".BELIEVE ME!!!!!!!!!!! kisses.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad...Not good
Review: Coelho offers a fairly conventional fable with this one: follow your heart, the universe provides, God is everywhere, you hold the key to your own destiny, etc... This fable is couched in the language of Alchemy (which is admirable...it is obvious that Paolo has studied Blake and a few of the major alchemical texts), and it accurately portrays two of the major world religions, but the main charcter is a far, far cry from a hero, and the thrown in love story would have been better left out. If you want to feel good about yourself for a little while, not a bad book. If you want to understand the cosmos in its myriad manifestations, this book does not deliver. Pure fantasy. You'd be better off reading Rand.
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Summary: A story incorporating all the major teachings of the world.
Review: I had the pleasure of reading this entire little book at the airport while waiting for my son's 6 hour delayed flight to come in. It put a whole new perspective on how I might have felt about being held up by the unexpected delay. The story is simply and eloquently told, as the boy goes from adventure to adventure, teaching to teaching, meeting an amazing variety of mentors, some unknown even to themselves. Reading the book was the perfect way to spend the afternoon.
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Summary: Perfect, no doubt about it
Review: A very simple book explaining in very simple words how simple life is if we just follow our fate and believe in ourselves... One of the best books I've ever read... Just read it and you'll understand... No other comments!
Rating: 
Summary: The book was a okay one and the cover is gross.
Review: The cover had a naked angel on it what is with that! Otherwise the book was okay but it was to predictable. It needed a better plot. The main charactor should have gone back to the girl and had some kids. He should also gone back to see his father.
Rating:
Summary: transforming
Review: one of the best books i have read. it is simple and easy to follow. once you start you will have to finish it. it had great impact on me and my life and the way i think.
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Summary: Great books for Entrepreneurs,NLP Trainers and Engineers
Review: I own this book, and maybe you will too!I thoroughly enjoyed Coelho's story about Santiago and his adventures. It's a story about transformation. It's a story about change and persistence. Very much like my history with my mentor, Dr. Love at Michigan State University. I gave him a copy as well in the past. A must read for people who like to tell stories for their children. A transformation story about magic. We are not here for fortune but for meaning and magic! Santiago is a boy who discovers the real me; It's about fame, fortune and unlimited love. Being a computer engineer, banker and Neuro Linguistic Programmer Practitioner; this one book has inspired me in my past success. I've given three copies away to close friends already. Why can't you? One may imagine a spiritual partnership with childlike curiousity, tenacious resolve and unlimited love in a whole new world, now or not?
Rating: 
Summary: In a world of chaos and darkness, choose a ray of hope
Review: Some read books to invigorate the soul, some read books to question the man, and some read books to satisfy a need. Often that need is a quest for fulfillment, much like the one Santiago finds in The Alchemist. Of course, Paulo Coelho will be condemned for his simplicity, but it is often simplicity which leads to happiness and fulfillment. His characters are flat, his plot is simple, and as some argue, his story is stolen. I, however, would argue that his story is one that NEEDS to be retold, and in the most simplistic way, so that one is not confounded by the depths of the most profound thematic arguments, and so that one is not grappling with the nature of the text. Instead, one has the time and energy to read that which the author intends: to celebrate the wisdom of the story that has been told and retold. To each literary critic her own. However, if upon reading this book leaves a reader with negativity, then, perhaps Paulo Coelho had a much more difficult task. In a world of post WWII materialism, it is increasingly more difficult to bring human nature back to what is simple, and ironically enough, refreshing. One may argue, that his book lacks substance, and books such as Remembrances of Things Past and Death in Venice bury books such as The Alchemist. Sure, Death in Venice is a wonderful novel. Every element of what makes a book a member of the literature canon is there--plot, allusions, thematic issues. However, if I were to choose between Gustave von Aschenbach's life and Santiago's, I would much rather commune with the soul of the world than live my life "at the edge of exhaustion" until I was old enough to muster the courage to travel to a distant land to enjoy life like poor Gustave's final year in Venice. What it comes down to is this: what some may term as bleak spirituality and as a fad which Americans will sop up with a giant sponge, is in reality, only society's search for a simple story with a message in a fable. And that's what Coelho provides. Thanks.
Rating:
Summary: The best three hours of reading in one package
Review: Oh, come on now!!!! Are we so abysmally cynical that we cannot appreciate a story that unpretentiously illustrates one of the truly great things about being sentient beings: the ability to recognize our passions and then (gasp) actually PURSUE them? "The Alchemist" is a profound writing... all the more so due to its abject simplicity. The first time I read it I was 26, it meant nothing but was a little amusing. I read it again at 28, in the throes of a personal tragedy, then it was uplifting and compelling. I re-read it this year, at 31, and it is like an old friend: comforting, inspiring and even a little ridiculous. It is a joy to read, and if nothing else, should remind one not to be so serious about all these things we get so freaked out over in this life. A simple map to the treasure is what so many want... here it is. Beware, though... it is so simple and unadorned that one may be compelled to look for a more complicated path. A good read!
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