By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Rating:
Summary: Malo
Review: Este libro es cursi, los personajes son de carton, los dialogos son vacios. Pretende ser espiritual, pero lo intenta demasiado, no tiene ninguna sutileza, es completamente predecible y lleno de cliches. Si quieren leer una verdadera historia de amor, prueben con La Tregua de Mario Benedetti.

Rating:
Summary: Jealousy and bitterness
Review: Paulo Coelho is the best South American writer ever, and the two Brazilian reviews of this excellent book only proves that. Jealousy and bitterness, because no other writer could reach such a wide audience. Please read this magnificent book, instead of reading frustating reviews from people who did not read, but did not like the author

Rating:
Summary: Excellent.
Review: I couldn't put this book down. It was great. I also have read The Alchemist which should be used in high schools as one of the required readings. It teaches us a lesson. This book is an easy read, as well as a good read. It also teaches us a lesson about love. And that we should not take it for granted.

Rating:
Summary: One Star is Too Much
Review: I really wish Amazon had a zero-star rating so I could truly rate this book. Paulo Coelho once said of his critics that they were jealous he sold millions of copies. Well, most authors should be jealous of anyone who sells so many books. It is too bad that the best-selling books are usually garbage. Real literature never sells this easy.

Rating:
Summary: A Proud Brazilian
Review: I am now proud to be a brazilian. Paulo Coelho has proven that we can export the same trash the first world has dumped on us for the past century. Go ahead: BUY AS MANY COPIES OF THIS PIECE OF GARBAGE AS YOU CAN! And call it literature, if you may.

Rating:
Summary: You say tomatoe I say tomotoe.
Review: One mans' dream is another mans' nightmare. This book was very descriptive and warm. I borrowed it from someone and it was so good I went out and bought it for myself to read again. Coelho did a great job of merging romance and spiritually. Affrika Andrews

Rating:
Summary: take the risk...
Review: I've always taken risk and never thought twice about what I was doing. Only once have I regreted something I've done. Thanks to all the risks I have taken, I am now the pereson I want to be. All those people who read a book and don't go anywhere under the surface haven't learnt how to read. It's not the language, it's the ideas and themes. All of you out there who think language should be the focus of a book.....read The Catcher in the Rye and then tell me what you think. Language is not slang. There are words that may be so simple that they express a complex idea, such as love, perfectly. Perfection is what you make of it!

Rating:
Summary: You'll Weep Too
Review: I found myself weeping at the thought of having to finish this book. It is more like a religious pamphlet trying to pass for literature. The characters are mere representations without a trace of the grit or complexity that makes a character real. They speak in platitudes and parables and not once did they utter a single genuine word. Some of the imagery was lovely and I suppose one could come away from this book with a reassurance of one's faith, but at the cost of one's belief in literature. Basically, it was like reading one long Hallmark card. If I had to read "the meaning of love" one more time I was going to head to Lourdes myself.

Rating:
Summary: I fell in love with falling in love - A must read!
Review: After reading "The Alchimist" I was so excited about Cuelho that I bought the rest of the books he's written. Then I read "The Fifth Mountain" which didn't do anything for me, so I was hoping that when I picked up "By the River Piedra..." I would not regret my purchase. Indeed, this is one of the most moving and lovly books I've read in a long time. There is so much to learn from what Cuelho has written, but even more than learn, he offers practices that anyone can use in their own lives to initiate the same changes that his characters go through. A must read!

Rating:
Summary: A simple love story that I'll carry in my heart for ever.
Review: A simple love story that I'll carry in my heart for ever. Seems that some purists found the book poor: their own right! As everything in life, we can find the good and the evil in books, depends on what we are looking for. But don't talk to me about the technical excelence of a book writing: that's not what I seek in books. Maybe the world is as it is because too much people seek that excelence rather than the good simple things that come from the heart: what this book is all about. A book I recommend to all.