Books I Want To Talk About discussion

Please discuss The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho!

Sera, did you want to start discussing this now or wait a bit? I've read this a while ago, but I can brush up on it fairly quickly.

Whenever you are ready, Meghan. I'm good to go when you are.

Do you want to just discuss the book or should we break it down in parts?

I dunno, is there anyone who wants to discuss it who hasn't read it yet?

I LOVE this book, seriously. I always buy it for people as gifts and every one always comes back to me going 'this book was SO good'. I think it relates to people from all walks of life, which is why it makes such an impact.

Wow, how lame was that sentence structure? Oy, it was a LONG night people haha.

Dee - you are so made of awesome!

I'll check to see if there are any good break points in this book. I know the story itself is short, but I would hate for people to feel "cheated". This book is too good!!

Meghan, maybe a good way to break this one down would be geographically. Like, a discussion of the beginning, when he's in Spain, before he sets off on his journey. Then a discussion of when he's working in the shop. Then a discussion of when he's in the desert. Just a suggestion.

I just read this. I'm warning you guys---I underlined half the book. haha. Don't worry--I won't hog the posts.

I haven't read this in about seven? years. definitely will have to reread to remember it.

I think that we should do the whole book. It's short and there is a nice natural flow there. If not, then I support Sarah's approach. Either way is fine with me.

Okay, there are very easy sections to break this up, so I'm going to do it that way. I know this book is short but I think the ending had such a good twist I don't want to ruin it for anyone who joins that hasn't finished it.

It seems that Paulo Coelho will be available in Goodreads to answer questions on February 15 - 29.

Here's his Q&A group.

Thanks, Dini! Very cool.

I can't seem to find where the actual discussion took place about the Alchemist. Was the linked Q&A it?

In reading Paulo Coelho's answers in the interview some new questions were provoked in me. A couple of them are pretty much just me reflecting/wondering but I thought maybe they would be good questions for some reflecting and wondering for other people as well.
One thing I keep thinking about this book is that it will probably mean different things to me if I were to read it at different points in my life. As I was reading it this time I would put it down and type out about half a page of thoughts the book had provoked within me. I'm certain if I read the book in two years it would provoke me again but the thoughts I'd type would be completely different.
To write such a short and seemingly simple book that provokes so much personally within people, I start to wonder how it feels as a writer to read your work like this 5, 10, 20 years after it was first written. Are you still excited by it? (I get excited when I know I've written some good or true or clever) Can you inspire yourself? Meaning I wonder if he carried the essence of the story with him always or if he could read his own story today and be surprised from what it means to him.

There were several threads.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show_g...

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show_g...

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show_g...

Fantastic questions!

When I read this book, it seemed to speak directly to me about the questions that I was facing at the time. However, my life is vastly different now, and you're right, I wonder how it would speak to me. Would I find things as meaningful as I did back then? Or would I be able to identify or see new things in this story because those are the experiences that I'm facing now? I think a truly excellent story can speak to you whenever you read it and has some ability to change with you.

I'm no writer so I'm not able to speak about your questions to authors. But for those of you who do write, I really hope you answer. I think it would be interesting to see what you have to say.

Overall this was a good book, but I felt it was almosst too simple and redundant.