Alchemist: by Paulo coelho

It is the best book I have ever read in my entire life. It is the most inspiring and fascinating book ever written.

It may take maximum of 6 hours to completely read the book. I consider it as number one book all over the world. There is not a single point in the book which is boring. It is a book which can be appreciated only by reading it. It creates an urge to do something in life. It is a great source of inspiration for depressed people. Those who have not read the book are ignorant fools. People of all age, religion and sex can read this book. It shows that one must not give up, no matter how difficult the goal is. The main of the story is “one should follow his dream”. It will surely inspire you if you care to read it. You can get a soft copy (e-book) here .

Rating (1-10): it gets 9.

It is book about a boy named Santiago who dreams of finding a treasure. He is a shepherd who lives on day to day basis. After hearing to old man’s words he starts his journey to find his treasure. He learns to recognize omens (good or bad). His journey gets stalled shortly after start. With hard work and persistence he gets back on track. He crosses Sahara desert to reach Egypt. On the way he meets alchemist, learns about love. He finally becomes an alchemist himself. He gives up his love to find destiny. He reaches pyramid in Egypt where his treasure is buried. To know whether he finds his treasure or not you should read the book. In all it is a extremely beautiful story.

About author: The Brazilian author PAULO COELHO was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist and journalist.

In 1982 Coelho published his first book, Hell Archives, which failed to make any kind of impact. In 1985 he contributed to the Practical Manual of Vampirism, although he later tried to take it off the shelves, since he considered it “of bad quality”. In 1986, PAULO COELHO did the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella, an experience later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage.

In the following year, COELHO published The Alchemist. Slow initial sales convinced his first publisher to drop the novel, but it went on to become one of the best selling Brazilian books of all time.

Other titles include Brida (1990), The Valkyries (1992), By the river Piedra I sat Down and Wept (1994), the collection of his best columns published in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo entitle Maktub (1994), the compilation of texts Phrases (1995), The Fifth Mountain (1996), Manual of a Warrior of Light (1997), Veronika decides to die (1998), The Devil and Miss Prym (2000), the compilation of traditional tales in Stories for parents, children and grandchildren (2001), Eleven Minutes (2003), The Zahir (2005).

To date, Coelho has sold a total of 75 million copies and, according to the magazine Publishing Trends; he was the most sold author in the world in 2003 with his book Eleven Minutes – even though at the time it hadn’t been released in the United States, Japan or 10 other countries!

Also according to Publishing Trends, The Alchemist was to be found in the 6th place of world sales in 2003. Eleven Minutes topped all lists in the world, except for England, where it was in second place. The Zahir, published in 2005, was in third place of bestsellers according to Publishing Trends, after Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons.

The book has been praised by different personalities ranging from the Nobel Prize Kenzaburo Oe to the singer Madonna, who considers it one of her favourite books. It has equally inspired many projects – such as a musical in Japan, theatre plays in France, Belgium, USA, Turkey, Italy, Switzerland. It is also the theme of two symphonies (Italy and USA) and had its text illustrated by the famous French artist Moebius (author of the sceneries for he Fifth Element and Alien).

His work has been translated in 62 languages, and edited in more than 150 countries.