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kimjobil05 t1_jdv7165 wrote

Reply to comment by sekhmet1010 in This sub's most popular posts regarding Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist are negative... I loved it! by benspaperclip

i loved the alchemist, i guess it found me at a point in life where I needed what it told me... that there's other things I could be doing other than what I was doing at the moment... and one step forward per day is all it takes.

however, I tried valkyries and veronica must die and found them almost unreadable. lol...

but the alchemist was huge for me when I read it, close to seven years ago. it legit changed my perspective on life.

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kleebish t1_jdv9qd0 wrote

I do know how life changing the right book at the right time can be. At 17, I read Colette's "Claudine at School." Then the other 3 Claudine books. She became a guiding light for me, getting me through a depression and rethinking my mother's deeply flawed teachings on life, sex and autonomy. I recognized myself in the character and she has been a little kernal inside me for 40+ years.

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kimjobil05 t1_jdwthy2 wrote

that's why books are so powerful... ive read the alchemist like three times, i understand the criticism, yet id still recommend it, especially to people i know who struggle to read difficult, 500 pages tomes. all that the book needs is to speak to me, thats enough.

what is claudine at school about? thats an amazing experience... you were almost educated on adulthood by this books. is that a fair comment?

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sekhmet1010 t1_jdv7qal wrote

I think that there are a lot of people who feel the same way. That is why the book was as popular as it was. Sometimes it's all about timing.

Maybe it's a reductive way of thinking, but i feel like sometimes there are these gaps in the market, which even when filled by comparatively sub-par books, end up being just the thing. We have seen this with so many other books like The Secret , Twilight , Da Vinci Code etc.

I am glad the book helped you!

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kimjobil05 t1_jdwsg9j wrote

yeah..... the important thing is having a message that resonates.

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