Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the city where he now lives. His own life has in many ways been as varied and unusual as the protagonists of his internationally acclaimed novels. Like them, Paulo Coelho has followed a dream in a quest for fulfillment. His own dream, to be a writer, met with frustration throughout much of his early adult life, a time in which he worked at various professions, some of them materially rewarding but spiritually unfulfilling. "I always knew," he says, "that my Personal Legend, to use a term from alchemy, was to write." He was 38 when he published his first book.
In 1970, after deciding that law school was not for him, he traveled through much of South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe. Returning to Brazil after two years, he began a successful career as popular songwriter. In 1974, he was imprisoned for a short time by the military dictatorship then ruling in Brazil. In 1980, he experienced one of the defining moments of his life: he walked the 500-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. On this ancient highway, used for centuries by pilgrims from France to get to the cathedral said to house the remains of St. James, he achieved a self-awareness and a spiritual awakening that he later described in The Pilgrimage.
Paulo Coelho once said that following your dream is like learning a foreign language; you will make mistakes but you will get there in the end. In 1988, he published The Alchemist, a novel that explores this theme, and it launched him as an international bestselling author. Specifically, Paulo Coelho is recognized for his powerful storytelling technique and the profound spiritual insights he blends seamlessly into his parables. Since then, The Alchemist has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and has been translated into some 41 languages. In addition to The Pilgrimage and The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho has written luminous novels about the different streams of our lives, including By The River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept, The Valkyries, The Fifth Mountain, and Veronika Decides to Die. A winner of numerous literary prizes, Paulo Coelho is also a prominent speaker for humanitarian causes. In 1999, he received a Crystal Award for Artistic Achievement at the Davos Economic Forum Conference.
Like the one-time bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Alchemist presents a simple fable, based on simple truths and places it in a highly unique situation. And though we may sniff a bestselling formula, it is certainly not a new one: even the ancient tribal storytellers knew that this is the most successful method of entertaining an audience while slipping in a lesson or two. Brazilian storyteller Paulo Coehlo introduces Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he's off: leaving Spain to literally follow his dream.
Along the way he meets many spiritual messengers, who come in unassuming forms such as a camel driver and a well-read Englishman. In one of the Englishman's books, Santiago first learns about the alchemists--men who believed that if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the "Soul of the World." Of course he does eventually meet an alchemist, and the ensuing student-teacher relationship clarifies much of the boy's misguided agenda, while also emboldening him to stay true to his dreams. "My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night.
"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself," the alchemist replies. "And that 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." --Gail Hudson, Amazon.com Review
想读这本书总是在一两年前吧。当时偶然看到苏学长的荐书,最后列的就是这本《牧羊少年的奇幻之旅》。在校内上跟他提起读他硕士论文后记时的感动,他说:巧了,当时正好在看这本书。那时候就把这本书记在心间了。 不大么见学长写随感,不过那篇后记却是我迄今为止读过...
評分这是一个浮华喧嚣的时代,要多好有多好,要多坏有多坏。 这是一个真实的时代,大街小巷都没有一丝影子。 这个时代的每一处,奔跑的都是经济学家、律师、电脑高手、股票操盘手…… 这个时代既缺乏文青,也缺乏愤怒青。 这本书选择的来得有些不合适宜,因为读这本书,不会有任何...
評分这本书很有正能量,在追逐梦想的道路上我们会遇到很多的问题,但是只有心怀梦想,总是会实现的。 里面的一些句子让我有很多的思考。 男孩一直在追逐梦想,他遇到了一个人,这个人说“我害怕实现我的梦想,实现之后,我就没有活下去的动力了。我担心会大失所望,所以我宁愿只保...
評分2002年,这位世界级畅销书作家保罗·柯艾略曾访问中国。在接受媒体的访问中,他谈到了他与文学传统之间的关系。他认为自己不关心传统,他只与个别的作家发生关系,接受个别作家的影响,比如“博尔赫斯帮助我理解了人类的象征性语言,亚马多使我理解了巴西人的灵魂,亨利·米勒...
評分~~~纯手打~~~ 人一旦步入青年时期,就知道什么是自己的天命了。在人生的这个阶段,一切都那么明朗,没有做不到的事情。人们敢于梦想,期待完成他们一生中喜欢做的一切事情。但是,随着时光的流逝,一股神秘的力量开始企图证明,根本不可能完成天命。 那是表面看来有害无益的力...
People learn, early in their lives, what is their reason for being. Maybe that's why they give up on it so early, too. But that's the way it is.
评分I bought it at a book store in pokhara. that was the 37th eng version. maktub. i will always remind it to myself.
评分有象徵意義的書其實有點難讀,不是說書難懂,而是這種書對共鳴的需求。開始的部分有很多喜歡的地方,但是後半部分並不能說讓我覺得振奮人心。我想自己會不會受到激勵去追尋自己的destiny,首先還需要明白自己的destiny是什麼,這同樣是個巨大的難題。去wiki瞭destiny和fate的區彆,似乎有些懂瞭。我想destiny比fate更隱含瞭積極的意義,象徵的是光明的未來,是主動的去追尋,而fate仿佛是不可避免的歸宿,多少有瞭些悲劇色彩。也許有點跑題吧。中文版看瞭開頭,翻譯真是件苦差事,精準恐怕是永遠達不到的,style,風格。英文版雖然也是翻譯版,但是至少讀起來不像少兒讀物。看到中文版把baker翻譯成賣爆米花的,我很猶豫是不是要繼續讀中文版瞭。書很短,有興趣的讀英文版吧。
评分講述瞭一個boy是如何曆盡韆辛萬苦,放棄瞭已經得到的,為瞭自己的夢想,邁嚮未知的旅程,最終實現瞭自己的夢想。其中作者透視瞭一些人生哲理,這些哲理會讓人感到震撼,因為大多數人已經迷失瞭夢想。
评分The heart's journey in a metaphorical way.
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