Reading the Alchemist

Posted by Amy Baranski

It's 11:59 and I just finished my third book of the month, The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. What a wonderful transformative novella. How could I have passed it up all these years? I suppose I thought I knew the answer already.

As if a book must contain an answer.

This whole time I've been missing the simple pleasure of the text between its covers. How presumptuous to think I'd already know the moral of the story. How naive to think there would be nothing for me in this book.  But after having turned its final page I'm compelled to blissfully smile at my original prejudices. It's almost painful to say life is a journey, but Tom Cochrane was on something...break down the garden gate there's not much time left today ...

Santiago, our protagonist, sets out on a quest to see the world. As Cochrane might say "sometimes he bends, sometimes he stands, sometimes he turns his back to the wind." This story contains longing, existential angst, love, loss, danger, and triumph of the human spirit. Magical forces abound leading Santiago, our lovable and young Andalusian shepherd to Tangiers and across the desserts to the great pyramid at Giza. To say the least it's an interesting journey to take with him. I highly recommend it. Read it at night to your kids! I know I will with mine. 

Okay, now I have to shut eye.

-xo-

When to quit reading a book

Posted by Amy Baranski

Call me a quitter, a slacker, a blank--I don't care. I quit reading Shop Class as Soul Craft and I'm not picking it up again.

My husband's Good Reads review of it tells me what I need to know. Besides I'm not going to figure out the new direction of my life's work by reading this book--my expectations were too high. And do I really need some PhD-turned-craftsman's pseudo thesis-style book disguised with a cool title dissecting the value of the working class in which I grew up? I think not. I got 20 pages in, now I'm out.

But I wouldn't quit that piece of fiction you might be working if you're not at least 50-70 pages in. Because you are so close to 100, which is already a half, third, or quarter of the way through. That's my new rule. I'm not sure what the rule for non-fiction is. I suppose I'll have to try another and see how long I last.

So now I'm 72 pages into The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The Alchemist is also from my ridiculous stack of unread books. It's actually a book that someone asked me to give to someone I went to college with as a graduation present, and I never did. That was a LONG time ago. It's been sitting on my shelf all these years. I tried to pick it up once. But, I usually stray from anything that wreaks of moral high-ground or is explicitly about following your moral compass. We have the bible, and or the great religious texts for those stories. But this time with the Read a Book a Week challenge I needed something doable (so I could potentially squeeze in two more books to reach my four book quota for the month) by the 29th. Thank God it's leap year!

So far I'm liking it. The storytelling kind of reminds of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince. And I'll probably knock it off the list today since I have a few hours of free time (thank God for personal time on a Saturday and Sunday -- I'm going to miss that someday!)

So, if you're quitting a book to pick up and finish another one, consider yourself absolved. I do.