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The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It was a while back, so I can't remember exactly, but I do remember my friend not doing it any favours by really praising that book. Perhaps I was expecting too much, but by contrast, I found it to be a rather naïve, consensual, and superficial self-help book trying to masquerade as something more profound with a thin veneer of new-age spirituality.
Hope I don't offend someone who loves it. I don't feel strongly about it now, it was a while back, so maybe I missed something then. If someone disagrees with me I won't die on that hill.
I canceled reading it after 50 or 60 pages. It felt dusty and predictable. I also remember the language to be kind of prophetic, like it has something important to say, while failing at doing so.
The book might have proven me wrong, if I finished it. Who knows.
Don't think you have. If memory serves me right, it's about being mindful and focusing on what matters, but wraps it in a ridiculously artificial "spiritual" setting.
This book is to literature what Instagram inspiration quotes are to poetry.
interesting take. I don't remember much of the detail but I do remember it helping me to take big next steps more confidently when I read it at 16.
Totally fair.
We all seem to agree that we kind of don't really remember it though. It's at least reassuring that that's a shared experience.
Had to read that for summer reading in high school. All I remember about it was how utterly forgettable it was.
Is that the one where the boy has a bag of pebbles?
Paper factory or something?
I honestly couldn't remember any specifics beyond the fact I eyerolled many more times than one should when reading a book.
Something about a boy in a desert, meeting a wise old man who helps him find himself by telling him a few mystical stories...
That's so funny. I was in somebody's house and they picked up the alchemist and told me I should read it, and I asked them the same question.
"Is that about the boy who collects pebbles?"
And they told me
"Yea- well, no. I'm not really sure, i can't remember the specifics, but it was really really good".
And I was nice about it, but obviously if you cannot remember the main character or the point of the book at all it couldn't have been a very significant experience for you.
Yeah I mean, it's utterly forgettable. I've just not had that many book recommendations from friends, but I did really enjoy most of them, so I had to really scratch my head a bit. Best I could find to fit the bill was that.
I've read my fair share of shit books all on my own though, like a big boi.
The alchemist is a good shout out for being so uniquely forgettable.
So far, other commenters have a pretty clear reason they didn't like their book.
With the alchemist, we're all just shrugging into the void left behind by something we're sure was a disappoiintment.
I literally have that book at home because of how much I agree with this. A friend highly recommended it and borrowed it to me when I was ~15. I never gave it back purely to avoid having to tell them how eye roll inducingly fake deep I found it. To be fair though, I don't remember much of it either.
It felt like one of those sappy motivational posters, but dragged out over 200 pages.