The Alchemist audiobook

O Alquimista = The Alchemist‬, Paulo CoelhoPaulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different—and far more satisfying—than he ever imagined. Santiago's journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, of recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, most importantly, to follow our dreams.تاریخ نخستین خوانش: در ماه ژوئن سال 1996میلادیعنوان: کیمیاگر؛ نویسنده: پائولو کوئیلو؛ مترجم: حسین نعیمی؛ تهران، نشر روایت، 1374؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، ثالث، 1377؛ در 283ص؛ شابک 9646404465؛ چاپ ششم 1379؛ هفتم 1380؛ هشتم 1381؛ نهم 1386؛ شابک 9789646404465؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان برزیل - سده ی 20مترجمه های دیگر از خانمها و آقایان «آرش حجازی»؛ «دل آرا قهرمان»؛ «میترا میرشکار»؛ «سوسن اردکانی»؛ «مرتضی سعیدی»؛ «ایلیا حریری»؛ «ندا نویدنیا»؛ «هرمینه شبانی»؛ «بهرام جعفری»؛ «مریم امیری»؛ «فرزانه فرزاد»؛ «مینا حیدری» و «عاطفه زینلی»؛ «اسماعیل غفوری ثانی» و «رضا ابوعطا»؛ «فریبا ریاضی مظلومی»؛ «گیسو پارسای»؛ «شهرزاد فتوحی»؛ «علی نادری»؛ «ماکان کیان»؛ و «ناهید ایران نژاد»؛ و ...؛در هزار و یکشب داستانی هست، که مردی در «بغداد»، همان خوابی را میبیند، که در داستان «کوئیلو»، چوپان «اسپانیایی» دیده است؛ در «مثنوی معنوی مولانا» نیز، همین داستان با واژه های شعر آمده است؛ هشدار اگر داستان را نخوانده اید و میخواهید خود این کتاب را نیز بخوانید، تنها پارگراف پایانی نگاره ام را بخوانید، که به موضوع این داستان ربطی ندارد؛ اما داستان این کتاب: چوپانی «اسپانیایی»، به نام «سانتیاگو»، در رؤیای خود، محل گنجی مدفون در حوالی «اهرام مصر» را، به خواب می‌بیند؛ و به قصد آن رؤیا، که آنرا افسانه ی شخصی خود می‌خواند، موطنش را در «آندلس»، رها، و رهسپار «شمال آفریقا» می‌شود؛ در آن سفر پرخطر، با مردی که خود را «ملک صدق»، پادشاه «سالم» می‌داند، و با یک «کیمیاگر» آشنا، و به «فاطمه» دختر «صحرا»، دل می‌بندد؛ همگان «سانتیاگو» را، در مسیر جستجویش یاری، و او را به ادامه ی راه، تشویق می‌کنند؛ در پایان، «سانتیاگو» پس از سالها سفر طاقت فرسا، گنج را نه در فرسنگها دورتر، بلکه در همان آغل گوسفندان خویش، در سرزمین خویش می‌یابد؛ گنجی بزرگتر که آنرا تنها می‌توان در درون خویش جستنقل از «اسکار وایلد»: (جویبار یا دریاچه پرسید: مگر «نرگس» زیبا بود؟ گلها یا پریها شگفت زده پرسیدند: چه کسی بهتر از تو این را میداند؟ او هر روز در ساحل تو مینشست، و به روی تو خم میشد؛ جویبار یا دریاچه لحظه ای ساکت ماند، و سپس گفت من برای «نرگس» گریه میکنم، اما هرگز متوجه زیبائی او نشده بودم، من برای «نرگس» گریه میکنم، زیرا هر بار که به روی من خم میشد، میتوانستم در ژرفای چشمانش، بازتاب زیبایی خویش را، ببینم)؛تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 22/05/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 05/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

There are too many things one can learn from “The Alchemist”. Its all about following your dream and about taking the risk of following your dreams, which is actually so difficult to do and there are very few people in this world who actually do, I mean risk it all, just to follow your heart and your dream. Beauty is, the author is so right in saying that when u decide to follow your dreams the entire universe conspires in your favour which he called as the “beginners luck” and we all have been witness to this beginners luck at one or other point in our lives. Also, he talks about a stage in our journey towards realizing our dreams, where everything just goes haywire and there is everything working against us and it almost takes us to the brink of abandoning everything and just getting back to what was so familiar and comfortable (i.e. our usual daily life which we get used to) this is actually the time when we are being tested for one last time and it means also that we are really close to our objective. The example given was really great and yes nothing new but we forget simple things in our life like "the darkest hour of the night is just before the dawn". It is actually true that so many of us just leave the struggle when it gets really tough and the chips are really low, whereas actually we were so close to the objective, if only we would have had a little more patience we would have been there. In one of the episodes he talks about death, yes the fact we always forget, the only reality about our life, it is a constant which is not going to change rest everything is uncertain. There are a lot of us who either think that it happens to others and then there are others, who are so busy running after the materials that they don’t have time to think about anything, leave alone death. Yes, and those who do think about death, mostly fear it, some fear death because of the physical pain attached to it (such people actually fear the pain rather than the death, I am one of them) and there are some who think they do not want to die because its not time yet for them to go. Ironically but true, this decision about timings has thankfully not been left to us. So, how do we get over the fear of death or make it our friend, a companion? And not waste our beautiful life worrying about dying all the time. One of the possible solutions lies in this book, it reads "if i have to fight, it will be just as good a day to die as any other". Yes very much right, one would never know when he or she wakes up in the morning that if it was the last day of his or her life and in fact, that day would not be any different from all the other days already spent. So, why not take everyday as the last day of our lives and live it up. Frankly speaking i really know what i am talking about, because I am in a profession which involves a lot of risk and death doesn’t have to look for reasons, it can just spring up from any bush in form of a small little piece of metal called a bullet coming out of the darkness of the night or just a deafening sound from under a culvert that I cross everyday. Here, everyday can be the last day of my life, every meal can be my last, every call to my wife can be the last time I would hear her sweet and loving voice and the kids… Anyways, so what I personally follow is, everyday when I wake up or every time when I move out on an operation, I say to myself "what a beautiful day to die" and there on, I just do what I have to and what I have been taught in all these years in the army and go through all the motions and concentrate on the job at hand rather than worrying about my death and I am really at peace with the fear of death. Another beautiful thought which I came across about death was in the novel by the author called "Confessions of a pilgrim". I derived from it that death can be visualized as a beautiful person who is always sitting besides us, so close to us that it travels with us wherever we go and it also accompanies us to our bed. Its a beautiful companion, a faithful companion, the only one who will never be unfaithful to us, rest all the companions are just lesser mortals and have been unfaithful at one point or other. Death always stays with us and actually speaking that’s the only companion who would accompany us all through our lives right from the moment we acquired some shape in our mother’s womb to the moment when we would get the vision of that white light and that feeling of lightness when we would finally leave this body also sometimes expressed as "VASTRA" (clothes) in the Indian mythology. As per the Indian mythology, the soul never dies, it is indestructible, it only changes a body just like we change clothes. Our soul is a part of God and it goes back to him. We can find the mention of the mighty soul of ours around the last portion of 'The Alchemist' where the shepherd realizes that ultimately it his own soul which is the “hand that wrote all” and his own soul was the part of soul of God. I firmly believe that there is no fiction involved in this story of the shepherd, but this is a true expression of mysteries and realities of our life, which we never pause to discover. There is message that this book wants to convey to us!!! I have never been into writing anything ever in my life, yes not even a personal dairy, but since the time I actually started writing which was just a month back, I realized that if we just write our thoughts as they occur, the resultant has a touch of mystery, because what we wrote with all our heart and soul, sometimes tends to surprise us. We tend to learn from what we ourselves wrote. We never realized that we had so much inside us and we don’t know from where, it all came. “The hand that wrote all”, yes I think its our soul that speaks out, the soul we never recognized, the one we never knew, the one which is part of soul of God…. …All religions have over all the years have preached a man “Know thyself, you will find God”, “look within yourself u will find all the answers”, these words are so common but how many of us actually are ready to pause and give it a try. It may sound crazy, may be the book has a effect that may appear really crazy but I am sure there are some people who would identify with me. May be when Paulo Coelho wrote this book his soul was revealing itself and that’s why some of us can identify with it because our souls are the part of same soul of God, just like his is. May be these lines of his novel were written by the “Hand that wrote all……………”

Whenever I felt lost, depressed, sad, numb, conflicted, frustrated, exhausted, I get this book into my hands and follow the journey of young shepherd Santiago who is looking for a worldly treasure. As like T.S. Eliot says: “ The journey not the arrival matters.” This journey is about self discovery,

All those negative reviews are baffling to me. Where does it say this is a self help book? People are bashing the "lessons" as if this is some philosophical or religious work. It's a fictional story that can be enjoyed by yourself or with your kids for ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. It's a fun story filled to the brim with quirks and marvels. I was curious the entire time how following one's legend blindly would turn out for the boy. Am I going to now follow my dreams without logic and reason as in the story? No. Because I'm not a crazy person. Get over it. It's just a story and a good one at that.EDIT: My first 100+ likes review. Thank you everyone!

(Throwback Review)"And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."Many people simply love this book, while many others think that it is overrated. I truly, madly, and deeply love this book. I still remember a younger version of me reading this book while sitting perplexed at the crossroads of my life. The above lines from it had given me immense energy to face the setbacks and move forward in my life with the required enthusiasm. This book will always remain close to my heart. This is a must-read one if you are looking for a simple book that will inspire you and change your life.

3.5 StarsThe Alchemist is an interesting little spiritual fable. A little bit of several religions have an influence on the journey to enlightenment. Not a whole lot of exposition as the author gets right to the point throughout. It should be a quick read (unless you don't care for it - and I have seen many less than satisfied reviews).When I read this I was reminded a lot of Siddhartha. I read that one earlier this year so I have it fresh in my brain. Both of them are short novels (novellas, really) that tell about a simple and fairly unremarkable boy going through many encounters to find ultimate enlightenment. With this being the case, if you liked Siddhartha, I think that not only will you like this, you should read it for sure!With that, I will end my review - leaving it short, just like the book!

SPOILER ALERT!This book is very inspiring and what I really need right now to motivate myself with my everyday endeavors. In the end the boy in the story who was searching for his treasure, despite the long travels and experiences, find his treasure not in the place where he suspected it to be, but in the place where he came from. It's just pretty ironic that what have you looking for is in the end is just beside you right from the beginning. It's just that what he learned and discovered from his travel is another treasure that he should realize in order to appreciate himself and the things around him.A very inspiring and positive book, it actually gives me hope that the things that I aspire for will in the end I would achieve if only I strive hard and don't lose hope until I get it. Sometimes the detours and the problems that we face now were later on in our life will make sense and when you remember that moment especially if you had overcome it you will know that you are thankful for that to happen because in the end you would learn something from it.

"when you want something, the whole universe conspires to help you."The Alchemist, categorized commonly as fiction, self-development as well as philosophy by most readers, did indeed give the feeling that it belongs to all these types, and then some. I believe, however, the meaning of the books is going to be entirely different from reader to reader, depending on his or her personal philosophical, religious, social and traditional systems of belief.It's true that most might interpret much similarly the parts on not giving up, having unshaken faith and pursuing one's dreams amid numerous challenges. But there are a quite a lot more in this book, which could be interpreted in various ways. The intangible connection shared by everything that is in existence, certain implications that this is actually a one's journey to understanding universe or enlightenment, the drastic differences in how a single situation is viewed and understood by different spectators, are some of these differences. But in the end, irrespective of your beliefs, you will well enjoy this book, that is most suited your own way of seeing the world. "The story of one person is the story of everyone, and one man's quest is the quest of all humanity,""It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them."

The moral of this story is absolutely intrinsic. I highly recommend reading this short novel and opening your eyes to more than just the world in front of you. This is the kind of read that leaves you thinking well after you’re done. Written exceptionally well, easy and comfortable read like soft blanket wrapped about you on a cold day by the fire. It left me thinking silently for quite awhile after I closed the book.

damn.

I had quite high expectations going into The Alchemist, granted that it had been my mom's favorite read about a decade ago when she picked it up. But upon having reached the last page myself, I was unclear on whether the book had made a positive impression on me or not. The one thing I remember for certain is that the ending had me laughing out loud (more on that later*). Oh, and there were a number of passages that made me either contemplate everything I know or feel like someone could see through my soul.However, there were also a lot of moments were I completely zoned out while listening to the narrator. So I don't know what to take out of this book.Having this as my second Coelho read, I knew more or less what to expect: a quick read with beautiful quotes that I would think about for a number of weeks. Also, the author's prologues are always exceptional in stealing my thoughts and time:“Who better than you to know that?” the goddesses said in wonder. “After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!”The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said:“I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.”Greek mythology combined with wit guarantees my interest secured in the palm of your hand.The Alchemist follows a young Andalusian shepherd in his journey to Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within.My love for this book is a quiet kind of love. The writing changed something inside me that I don’t have words for yet. So I’ll let Paulo Coelho's quotes speak instead:“You came so that you could learn about your dreams,” said the old woman. “And dreams are the language of God. When he speaks in our language, I can interpret what he has said. But if he speaks in the language of the soul, it is only you who can understand.”I was instantly won over when dreams were mentioned in here.“People say strange things, the boy thought. Sometimes it’s better to be with the sheep, who don’t say anything. And better still to be alone with one’s books. They tell their incredible stories at the time when you want to hear them.”I found this to be so fascinating that I ended up reciting it back to my mother.“The boy knew what he was about to describe, though: the mysterious chain that links one thing to another, the same chain that had caused him to become a shepherd, that had caused his recurring dream, that had brought him to a city near Africa, to find a king, and to be robbed in order to meet a crystal merchant, and . . .The closer one gets to realizing his Personal Legend, the more that Personal Legend becomes his true reason for being, thought the boy.”“The closer he got to the realization of his dream, the more difficult things became. It seemed as if what the old king had called “beginner’s luck” were no longer functioning. In his pursuit of the dream, he was being constantly subjected to tests of his persistence and courage. So he could not be hasty, nor impatient. If he pushed forward impulsively, he would fail to see the signs and omens left by God along his path.”“Don’t be impatient,” he repeated to himself. “It’s like the camel driver said: ‘Eat when it’s time to eat. And move along when it’s time to move along.’”“If good things are coming, they will be a pleasant surprise,” said the seer. “If bad things are, and you know in advance, you will suffer greatly before they even occur.”This kind of reminded me that quote from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them:“My philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice.”“When people consult me, it’s not that I’m reading the future; I am guessing at the future. The future belongs to God, and it is only he who reveals it, under extraordinary circumstances. How do I guess at the future? Based on the omens of the present. The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity.”“Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.” One last thing I want to point out is that I wasn't expecting this book to be so philosophical...and I wasn't anticipating to like it so much for that. I'm truly excited to see what I'll think of my next Coelho book.*That ending.... I genuinely laughed out loud when Santiago realized where his treasure was buried. And I kind of applaud the author for interweaving the intricate details of this tale in such a seamless way.I also listened to this songwhile reading thanks to the latest and most beautiful episode of This Is Us. (The “And I will remember you” from the song has me on the edge of tears every time.)3.5/5 stars Note: I'm an Amazon Affiliate. If you're interested in buying The Alchemist, just click on the image below to go through my link. I'll make a small commission! This review and more can be found on my blog.

4.5 starsThis is like a motivational speech tucked into the confines of a fiction story. Santiago’s inner turmoil is so painfully reflected in my own life and my conflict with doing what I want versus what i’m comfortable doing. This book really pushed my boundaries and, although set in a place and lifestyle I’ve never experienced, I heavily related to. It's inspiring and haunting all in one breath. It's lighthearted, but also thought-provoking. The setting begins in the fields of Spain but eventually switches to Santiago’s journey through Africa, so I found the scenery and conflict arising from their locations very fascinating. I rarely read classics set outside the US or England, which I should pursue more of, and this was very enjoyable with Islamic supporting characters. I grew frustrating in the middle of this book, because it seemed almost assaulting in its message. The dialogue is very transparent and this book says exactly what it means with little to no metaphor or embellishment, which I originally thought was tacky. The more I read, however, the more I realized how interesting of a tactic it is. This reads almost like The Little Prince or a children’s book where the moral is delivered to you in a wrapped package with a bow. It delivers its message up-front, but it gives the reader enough space to determine how he or she wants to absorb that message. It's brilliant.Santiago is a fascinating main character that I think anyone could relate to. This book is truly ageless because it’s about following your heart and your life’s destiny, and although this book does dabble in discussions about religion and how God plays into that role, it’s very subjective in its interpretation. Islam and Catholicism are both depicted in this story, but even as an atheist, I was able to recognize the intention that Coelho was putting forth: overcoming the obstacles that are barriers to your personal calling. (honestly, this entire book is so quotable.)Now that i’ve effectively turned into a philosophy professor, I’ll stop. But I did really enjoy this story. If you’re not a fan of literalness (is that a word?) in classics, then I would pass on this one, but its imagery and setting is so neat that I would nudge anybody else to grab it from a used bookstore. If anything, it’s under 200 pages, so just go for it.