As I mentioned in my 2017 Goals, one of my aims for the year is to average a book a week, making that 52 in total. I want to capture at lease some of them here, as I believe reading and learning is a key facet to mindfulness and living in a fulfilled way. The words of a book have been comforting to me at many a time in my life, and even more so right now that I cannot run. Nonetheless I am keeping these reviews short and sweet, as it’s a real but welcome challenge to accurately capture the essence of each book within a time restriction.
So, I’ve already wasted two minutes of my allotted writing time- let’s just jump in already.
If I had to describe The Alchemist in five words, it would be:
Every line filled with treasure.
This is honestly one of the most exquisitely written books I’ve had the pleasure of reading in a long time. The lexis and semantics are stunning, even when translated from the original Portuguese. A recurrent motif is that of destiny and fate, which could be read as being overtly religious, making the novel essentially a tale of a young man finding God. Nonetheless, not being particularly religious myself, I chose to interpret it simply as a piece on spirituality and being tuned in to the universe and open to opportunity. It boils down to this: it’s a gorgeous jewel of a book, no matter what your views on religion and spirituality.
Marks out of 10: 9.5
Would I recommend it to a friend? Yes! A resounding yes!
That concludes the review.
Please tell me, have you read The Alchemist? What did you think?
What books would you recommend I read this year?
Lots of love,
Pippa
I have just finished the first two ‘Court’ books by Sarah J Maas and could not recommend them more! Don’t be out off by them being ‘young adult’ they were surprisingly mature.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh fantastic, I quite like young adult actually- they tend to be very current and honest. What’s the premise of the series?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve actually written about both of them recently in my blog 🙂 (if you go to my homepage and select books) but essentially, Feyre is taken away from her life of poverty in the human realm by faeries, and she then gets involved in breaking a curse and fighting a terrible ruler (and there’s also some love story stuff in there but I don’t want to ruin it!) It’s so well written and I already want to read both books again!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I loved that book! I just finished small great things by Jodi Picoult. A tough read but I couldn’t put it down.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ooh I might have to give that a go. I’ve read some other Picoult but not that particular one.
LikeLike
It was my first time reading her, and I’d like to read others now!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really struggle to make time to read books and one of my goals too for this year is to read more with a target of one per month and so will add this to my list for a future read 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know that feeling! Audible is great for that, you can usually get a free credit on signing up. I wouldn’t have normally paid for audiobooks but honestly they’ve made such a difference to my daily routine that I don’t know where I’d be without them!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good stuff, this is one of those books I’ve been meaning to read. Love this idea of reading a book per week.
LikeLike