Happy I Found The Alchemist

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. Just a page or two into the narrative, "lyrical" was the word that came to mind to describe it.

Not exactly surprising, considering Coelho worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist and journalist before  he claimed "author" as his full-time job. 

While the book is about pursuing your dream - and the story was lovely - I found the language itself as inspirational as the book's message. This is not a snarky way of saying I thought the book was weak (although quite a few Goodreads reviewers said just that). I'm very glad I read it. 

The Alchemist was on my radar several years ago, but so were dozens (hundreds?) of other titles, so I might never have gotten around to reading it if I hadn't gone grocery shopping downtown.

Happy Pharrell Mentioned It

That's a long unimportant story; the point of it is this: a magazine I picked up along the way had a great article about Pharrell Williams, in which he lauded the book. Currently, Williams is touting his own book, Happy (what else?), and his literacy campaign with FirstBook.

According to the article, Williams told Rhonda Price that before he read The Alchemist, he felt the universe might be conspiring against him. He credits the book for helping him turn around a general and pervasive frustration at the way his life and career was going.

Happiness is an attitude that is accessible to all people. It's a state of mind and it's real. You don't have to doubt it.  

Pharrell Williams said that, but it sounds almost like a page from Coelho's book.

You can read the whole interview with Williams in vol 26 of Extraordinary Health magazine, and see more quotes from The Alchemist on Goodreads.com. And if you're looking for a short, somewhat inspirational book that will make English sound almost as enchanting as a romance language, check out The Alchemist.