What did you think of The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo?

A bit of a long winded reply, hope you don’t mind.

A few years ago, I was at Heathrow Airport waiting to go on yet another plane when I realised that I hadn’t packed a book in my hand luggage (my main luggage, in which I’d packed a couple of books, had already been checked in). I went to a bookshop in the departure lounge and started trawling through the usual travel guides, puzzle books, romance novels and the other pulp that one usually finds in such stores. Finally, I found The Zahir by Paulo Coelho. I’d heard of him and I’d heard of The Alchemist so I bought it. I then got myself a coffee, went to the departure gate and settled down to read while I waited for boarding to be announced.

The book wasn’t really holding my attention so I kept pausing in my reading and instead indulged in one of my favourite past-times, people watching. It was during one of those moments when in glided one of the most stunningly beautiful women that I’ve ever had the good fortune to see in real life and not on a fashion show catwalk or magazine. She walked to the front of the seating area and I spent the rest of the time before boarding was announced, debating with myself whether I should go and talk to her. Of course, I chickened out.

Finally, we all boarded the plane and, miracle of miracles, I was sitting next to her. I dumped the book on my seat and proceeded to load my hand luggage into the overhead locker when she spoke to me! I had to force myself not to look around to double check that this vision was actually talking to me.

“Oh, you’re reading Coelho. He’s my favourite author. Have you read The Alchemist?”

It was a five hour flight, in the middle of the night, and we never stopped talking. I had a hire car waiting for me at the airport so, rather gallantly, offered to drive her to her hotel. She accepted. I won’t bore you with the details of our friendship during our time in a foreign land or the relationship that blossomed after our return back to the UK.

The Zahir was OK and I did read The Alchemist. Sadly, I can’t say that I like his work very much and I found The Alchemist to be somewhat pretentious and even indulgent. But one can glean some pretty good quotes from the book. Well, they’re good in that they are conversation pieces. Not good in that I agree with any of them.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and didn’t mind my ramblings too much.