The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

I had never heard of Paulo Coelho until I picked up one of his books in a book sale. When my friend, Gill, heard that I loved the one book I had read she arrived at my door the very next day with the entire collection of his books. Apparently, she had a set I could borrow!

I added her collection to my stack of books to be read. It might have been at this point that my husband started complaining that our bedroom was starting to look like an used book shop. I was flattered. I like that look; bookshop chic, I call it.

I finally picked up the recommended starting point in the stack: The Alchemist which is his most famous and most widely read. I won't tell you all about it here because quite frankly clicking on that will give you the Wikipedia entry and it tells it a whole bunch much better than I could.

I will tell you what I thought about what it said, which by the way is what book reviews should do, I think.

This book is a fable for reminding people to follow their dreams. It would be a great book for high school or college graduates who are trying to find their bliss. I enjoyed the book but felt it was a bit obvious and simplistic. I wasn't mesmerized by the language the way I was with his previous book.

I also found the tale about sacrificing everything and everyone around you to make yourself happy to be too self-centered to be relevant to me. Maybe I'm just at the wrong place and time in my life for this lesson.

It's a sweet tale but not for me.