The Alchemist

I recently had an English assignment where we could read a book of our choice. I chose to read The Alchemist after a friend of mine suggested it to me. I know I mention that I was reading it in this post, but I wanted to do a post on it now that I have officially finished the book. (Plus I have to give a book talk on it tomorrow, so I thought writing this post would help with that!)

First off, I would HIGHLY recommend reading this book. It was SO much better than I thought it was going to be. Don't be fooled by the name or the description the back of the book, because it is so much better than that.

The story line is fairly simple. A young shepherd boy named Santiago travels around a lot while herding his sheep. One day, he meets a magnificent king who tells him to travel to the Pyramids in Egypt to find a treasure that awaits him there. Santiago does go on the journey, but along the way he learns a lot of life lessons. What I really liked about the book was that the lessons he learned, I could apply to my life.

There were a lot of great quotes in this book, and I wanted to share a few of my favorites:

"I'm afraid if my dream is realized, I'll have no reason to go on living."

"The future belongs to God, and it's only he who reveals it, under extraordinary circumstances."

"God created the world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and the marvels of his wisdom."

And this last one is my personal favorite:

"The fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. No heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity."

Have I mentioned that I would strongly recommend this book? The story line is kind of simple, but the big ideas and themes help to make it more complex.

One of the themes that I picked up on, and which could be applied to modern life was that treasures are not as important as God and the people you love. Yes, Santiago did ultimately go on the journey to find the treasure, but he learns about having faith in God and the people he loves and meets along the way. Santiago learns that the journey is the most important part, not the materialistic things waiting for us at the end.

And on a completely different note, my friend Annabella wrote an awesome poem today that I loved. It kind of goes along with discovering the most important things in life. You can check it out here.