book clubbing in December

This month my book club read The Alchemist by Paul Coelho. (I picked a short book because December is always so hectic).

Subtitled ‘A Fable About Following Your Dream,’ the book is:
the story of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. 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 treasures found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.

It received a pretty mixed response from our book club members: some loved it, some hated it, some were indifferent. I liked it, but probably just because I thought it was so much better than The Why Cafe, another one of these fable-about-following-your-dreams books.

I honestly don't really have much to say about it, for me it was forgettable. However, reading the book did make me wonder what Coelho's other work is like so I guess it did succeed in being a good introduction to the author.