Now if someone can find a more widely read “crappy” book than this, please dont let me know . this is the second time I am reading this and both times out of compulsion. The first time I had to read this was because my girlfriends sister read it and recommended it to her and as usual it was shoved down my throat. This time I had to read again because it is a must read for one of the courses that I am taking. I almost dropped the course but I heard some good words about the course and the prof and decided to go through the pain of reading this book.
Let me tell you the ingredients of this sugary story . Take pantheism, Romanticism, mysticism, a little bit of Christianity,Islam and Zen, a poor kid searching for riches and lots of nice people helping him along the way and lots of mushy dialogues culled from all the lovey-dovey movies and voila you get a book called Alchemist, which a lots of chicks and girly-men (Schwarzneggar style) love.
I am sure any chick you meet if she has read this she will rate this as one of the best books she has ever read or if any of you guys want to get lucky get the chick this book and dont forget to tell her that this is the best book 
Lemme be brief and describe the story. This guy Santiago, who has good education in theology to become a priest decides to become a shepherd, goes on to consult a gypsy woman about his recurring dreams only to be told by her to pursue his personal legend of getting treasure hidden in the Pyramids. Our Santiago now meets king of Salem exhorts him to do the same and gives him a couple of stones. Santiago now lands in Africa but gets robbed of his money and has to work at a crystal store, where he works his azz off and makes enough money in a year to go back to Spain filthy rich, but instead heads to cross the desert to the pyramids.
OK before I proceed any further words like Personal legend, omen, Universal spirit, universal language,”Listen to your heart” and such crappy elements keep appearing in the book like viruses and makes your stomach turn inside out. So beware.
So now Santiago meets an English guy who is heading to an oasis al-fayoum in search of an alchemist, who can turn lead into gold. Both of them join a carvan which is crossing the desert and reach the big-azz oasis where they are put up for some-time. But wait a war breaks out between two tribes and it will be impossible for the caravan to move out, so our guy decides to fall in love and proposes to this girl whom he has not yet talked on their second meeting itself. Now our guy sees an omen(sic) where the oasis, which is considered a neutral territory is attacked, and he informs the chief, who awards him lavishly when it proves to be true and everyone is saved.
Now the alchemist makes a grand entrance and befriends Santiago and leads him on a journey towards the pyramids. Santiago reaches the pyramids, but not before he talks to the wind and the sun and transforms himself into wind and of course loses the gold(sic) only to be replenished by alchemist using his miraculous powers, and starts digging only to be robbed again(sic). One of the robber tells him about the futulity of this exercise and tells him about his own recurring dreams about treasure hidden in a place in Spain, which resembles the church at which Santiago put up for a night. So now Mr. Santiago goes back to Spain and digs and gets the treasure. Poor chap too much of effort for a box of gold which I suspect if the story had continued further would have been robbed again .
Well not that everything is bad about this story a few things worth noting are the explanation of disillusionment with marriage and the various Zen like statements. Interspersed with it are several fatalist and crappy inspirational statements.
The stupidest statement I ever heard about this story is it is romantic. Oh puhleez first of all the shephered girl whom Santiago loves and yearns to meet after a year. Mr. Santiago dumps her to go for the treasure hunt and then dumps his next love Fatima, to go for the treasure, but not before “Miss, who kisses in the wind” Fatima delivers a lecture on how she is a desert woman and how she will wait for him. I am pretty sure had the story continued further and Santiago goes again to Africa to get Fatima he will fall in love with some other chick. Moreover when he was just a shepherd he ditched his first love, now When he has so much money he has endless possibilites
Gosh let me go and throw out once more. It has already made me puke a million times.
One statement from this book which resounds is
‘Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.’
Screw it, I have read the book twice 
( and I dont think this is a good omen for me (
) 