31. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

This is my pick for our January book club meeting. I know, it is revolutionary .. I read a book well before the meeting AND I'm writing about it. I guess I figured since it was my pick and I hadn't read it I should maybe do a trial run in case it was truly awful. I didn't really think that it would be because it came highly recommended by one of my friends who reads and she had done it in her book club. But one never knows.

I wanted a book that was a fairly quick read and something that was uplifting in some way shape or form. We've done a lot of heavier books this fall, either material wise or simply the weight of the book, and I wanted something a little lighter ... Plus with the Christmas season we're doing 2 books in January and I always find January to be such a blah month so a book that might instill a little hope seemed like the way to go. This book provided all those things.

The book is written fairly simplistically and there is only the one main character, Santiago, so it is easy enough to follow the plot: Santiago has a dream, he goes on a journey to find treasure, on his way there are people and events who help him or hinder him. But behind the simple storyline there are many levels of interpreting and learning and understanding and I think it is a mistake to brush this book off without taking some time to think about it. And possibly read it again.

In some ways I found it a little too "Follow your dreams; Listen to your heart" ... those lines, or variations of, are repeated quite frequently and part way through I was all "Ok, I get it already". But do I really? Am I listening to my heart? Am I following my dreams? Do I even know what my dreams are? I have vague inklings but I am scared that they are unattainable or I feel like I don't know how to go about even starting to achieve them or I worry that I will get rejected or told that I am silly for dreaming what I do. In that sense, Santiago still has a lot to teach me.