Reading Mind 📖🧠

[EN] The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho.

The Alchemist portrays the story of Santiago, who one day has two dreams informing him that a hidden treasure awaits him near the pyramids of Egypt. Santiago then embarks on a journey to find this treasure, a journey during which he will learn and experience things he never even imagined. He will discover alchemy, his purpose in life, the universe, his heart, love, and much more.

The book isn't very long, containing around 230 pages. The reading is pleasant and straightforward, without much use of terms and words uncommon to the general public. The author constantly addresses topics that are now popularly found in "self-help" books, but in a way that directly integrates these topics into Santiago's adventure. More than once, I found myself wondering if certain passages hadn't been written specifically for me. It's interesting to think about the book's main theme: listening to the signals of your heart and following your intuition. That if you seem to want something VERY badly, it's because that something is naturally yours, defined directly by the universe itself.

Although the book has a religious slant, addressing topics from Christianity, Judaism, and Islam (the three major monotheistic religions), the author constantly mixes mystical terms such as the elixir of eternal life and the philosopher's stone, divination, and witchcraft; this makes the reading as a whole extremely interesting and conveys the idea that the teachings of each religious perspective, together, converge on the same objective: to understand and live one's personal legend.