Stay away from this book. Review on The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

It is said do not judge a book by its cover or by the hype generated by it or because of its superb reputation or just because each one of your friends has read it.My brother knowing my love for books brought me The Alchemist on an unfateful evening.There I was, jumping frantically having finally earned the book of my dreams.I had great expectations from this book which all fell short.

This was my first Paulo Coelho novel which managed to greatly disappoint me.The story was below average, the plot seemed to drag on and became repetitive towards the end , the characters fail to charm the reader and the only plus point of this book was that it was short saving me hours of agony.

All that the author manages to put into the readers mind is that each of us has a destiny but many leave them unfulfilled for fear of failure.I bet a children's fairytale could have taught us that much. The alchemist  is not  only a stretched up version of a simple moral but also manages to confuse the reader halfway through(which I say is a good way to keep the reader pondering and to cover up the average story).

So, here's the story(I hate to call it a story): There's a boy named Santiago , a shepherd, who became a shepherd by choice so that he could fulfill his wishes of traveling around the world. He is told in his dreams that if he travels to the Pyramids in Egypt he would find treasure. Then he sets out to fulfill his destiny and to find treasure after being egged on by an old king from Salem. The rest of the book deals with the hardships faced by the boy in reaching his goal.Finally with lots of help from many people (like the alchemist who totally freaks me out ) he manages to reach the Pyramids only to learn that the treasure he's been so greedily searching for had always been, well, right under his nose.Had that boy been a little more observant I would have been saved the pain of reading the book. In the end the boy finds his treasure (as if there's ever been a hero who does not find what he needs towards the end).Frankly I was disappointed like hell when it was revealed that the treasure was nothing but gold, I had been least expecting it.The way Mr.Philosophy a.k.a The alchemist talked I thought that the treasure was also a wise word but no Mr.Coelho seemed to have highlighted the fact that money is truly everything.

The only thing worth to look out for in this book are the great lines to which I give Mr.Coelho the fullest credit.Lines like the fear of suffering is worse than suffering itself, When you want something all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it and blah blah blah truly give food for thought.The rest is all just rubbish.I just don't get it how the Soul of God becomes the boys own Soul. What starts as a story of a simple shepherd from the countryside ends with the boy revealing superhuman powers and the ability to perform miracles( ha, how believable is that).

At last I would say this is a strict no-no for all who don't believe in crap .Don't waste your money in buying this book at least UTILIZE IT IN SHAPING YOUR DESTINIES.Trust me there's nothing more to it than what I've written above as I've read this book two times just to see whether I missed anything and I couldn't get more out of it than what I got the first time.

WARNING:This book is contagious it looks good only from 10 feet away.