|
|
nj-classifieds.net - The Alchemist
nj-classifieds.net is the where to go for the great discount prices on hundreds of
leading worldwide brands. Our catalog is large and updated frequently with products that you want.
With thousands of products, you are sure to find what you are looking for.
Why pay regular prices when you can buy discount items
online from nj-classifieds.net? To start browsing our catalog, click on one of our categories on the menu
on the left under the section marked "Products", or use our search utility on the top menu to search using keywords.
|
List Price: $13.95
Our Price: $7.23
Your Save: $ 6.72 ( 48% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 869.342
EAN: 9780061122415
ISBN: 0061122416
Label: HarperCollins
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 208
Publication Date: 2006-05-01
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: 2006-04-25
Studio: HarperCollins
|
|
Buy this item today
|
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Actually life-changing
Comment: I know a million other people have already talked about how great this book is, but I had to add my own review too. (I just started reviewing things on Amazon and now I can't stop!) Read this book. It's really good, and really uplifting.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Overall, a good read
Comment: Paulo Coelho weaves a masterpiece confronting the very basis of the way we live in society today. He tries to show that if you follow your, "Personal legend" which is what your deepest dream is, and what God has planed for you, you will achieve true happiness.
Paulo Coelho was born in Brazil. He has always been devoted to art of literature. He was once captured by paramilitaries because of his deep faith in freedom of speech. He started writing at age 27, and his first book was not much of a hit. When he wrote the first edition of the Alchemist it only sold 900 copies. He brought it to a different publishing company. It caught on like wildfire and sold more than any other Brazilian literature. Since then, he has continued to write books and has sold more then 65 million copies in 150 different countries in 60 different languages of his various novels.
Paulo Coelho does an amazing job of showing his perspective on how life should be lived. He writes a vivid story of a Shepard that gives up all he can to find a treasure. The Shepard is constantly challenged along the way and has to overcome these challenges. Coelho focus greatly on following your heart and omens from God in order to achieve your personal legend. Personally, as a high school student, I think that it is a good book, but can seem a little far-fetched, as far as the ideology goes, to some people. I think that it takes an intelligent individual to understand the book for what it truly is.
This book is written extremely well and is full of very insightful wisdom. I agree with him when he states "To realize one's destiny is a person's only obligation." However, this can be quite hard to do in today's society. Overall a very good book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: And the moral of the story is...
Comment: 'The Alchemist' is essentially a fable that crystallises an age-old theme - that of stepping beyond one's comfort zone in the pursuit of one's dreams. The moral of the story is illustrated by Coelho with an unwavering single-mindedness. This is clear right from the onset when our protagonist, the shepherd boy Santiago, receives the 'calling' to pursue his dream, till when he finally attains it after many a trial and tribulation. Along the way, he is aided by the Alchemist, who is really a personification of the boy's conscience and an expression of the ideals he works towards. Neither the story nor the message is new. Nonetheless, what the book offers is a clear and uncluttered narrative, written in an accessible style, that serves to accentuate the author's key message.
The fable-like style of Coelho's storytelling, however, makes for a rather colourless read. The plot and the characters are forgettable. Even the stark settings conjured by the author - the chaos and commotion of the bustling port-side towns and the loneliness of the vast North African desert - become increasing pointless when set against the thin narrative and unremarkable cast of characters. Furthermore, the brand of spirituality proffered by the author, in all his ecumenical eagerness, ends up confusing the key message by failing to offer any concrete religious philosophy from any of the spiritual traditions that he draws upon.
This book is a clear and `feel-good' reminder about pursuing one's dreams, but otherwise an unremarkable piece of fiction.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Comment: Anyone unsure of what they want to do after high school should read this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Everyman Parable? More like Glorified Cliches
Comment: There is not a single original idea in this book. That's true of even a lot of great literature, but other books make up for repackaging old ideas by adding new wrinkles. The Alchemist is written like a bible story, so you don't get attached to any of the characters (most of them don't even have real names), and Coelho does not bother with imagery or any real significant plot twists. Overall, it's kind of like a self help book in narrative form, with the basic idea being, "Follow your dreams and life will be grand! Sometimes the journey will be convoluted, but stick with it and you'll be glad!" I haven't heard that a thousand million times...
Not only is this book boring, but I'm a little surprised no one seems to mind the implicit sexism. There are no redeeming female characters in the entire novel. The only female characters are cliches: the old gypsy woman and the young, beautiful youth that, for no apparent reason, falls in love with the protagonist. I'm not a feminist or anything, but I would think that women would grow tired of reading literature that is supposedly inspiring, where their whole gender is reduced to the role of plot devices.
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
|
My Heart Is Afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky."Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams." Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. The Alchemist is such a book. With over a million and a half copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has already established itself as a modern classic, universally admired. Paulo Coelho's charming fable, now available in English for the first time, will enchant and inspire an even wider audience of readers for generations to come. The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist. The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories have done, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, above all, following our dreams.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
