"The Alchemist" and My Thoughts

Hello everyone, it's already February but I believe it is not too late to say Happy New Year, I wish you happiness, abundance and everything you want to go smoothly this year.

With this blog I want to talk about the first book I read and finished by February 2024, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

Now I continue this blog in August, five months after finishing it haha. This blog will not be a review or summary on how the story in the book goes, instead I would like to take some of my favorite parts/lines of the book and write down my thoughts about it. It is not me if I am not telling TMI about what happened until I finally chose to read this book. It was early January that I was still on my days off. I wanted to read something and I first chose the book "Sastra Feminis", I kinda like it but it made me kinda sad as a woman to read the oppression women have to go through so I decided to give it a break and chose other book. I have bought the alchemist quite long time ago, but I don't know why I kept skipping that book from my reading list, and finally gave it a try. It was so worth it! I got drown in the first few pages of the book, and I instantly knew the book would be a bomb! Let me share the lines in the book that I want people to know how good it is! Alright, let's get started.

1. “The possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting”

It is! To realize that it is the possibility to have our dream come true is what keep us going. This line reminds me that, amidst all of the uncertainties this life holds, it still offers me the possibility of having a dream come true.

2. “A shepherd always takes his chances with wolves and drought, that’s what makes a shepherd’s life exciting.”

Honestly I forgot why I chose this line, probably when I was reading it, I knew what it mean, but somehow while the stories of the book faded from my memory, I slowly lose the meaning of the line. Anyway, I guess it is still about how life will not always be easy, the hardships do make our life exciting, too!

3. “…. And it ends up saying that everyone believes the world’s greatest lie.” 

“What’s the world’s greatest lie?” 

“It’s this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie.”

Now I'm questioning my own self, why did I choose this line. I think when I was reading it, I believed it mean that we do always have control of what's happening to our lives. However, I doubt it now that in the end, we do not always have the control, in my belief, it's all already written in our Qadar. How about you? Do you think we always have control over everything in our whole life?

4. “… : whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the universe.”

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

Woohooo. I love this piece. I do want to believe that if we want something, all the universe conspires in helping us to achieve it. This kind of words feels so reassuring, right? We will get it. We will achieve it and the whole universe will work well for us.

5. He had to choose something he had become accustomed to and something he wanted to have.

I think in modern say, it will be "do you want to leave your comfort zone and pursue your dream?"

6. “…. But that disaster taught me to understand the word of Allah: people need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want.”

“We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the sake hand.”

Well, no explanation needed.

7. “My heart is traitor, it doesn’t want me to go on.”

“That makes sense. Naturally it’s afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you’ve won”

As someone who's scared easily of everything, yes yes, this hits right. It does make sense that every time I have a new dream, 'fear' almost takes up the entire of my feeling, will I win this? Or will I just lose everything that I've built all these time. As it happens, do we really know the final answer of it? I guess we will never know what the right answer. Usually when it happens to me, I just force myself to go for it. Pray and believe that life won't be that terrifying. 

Alright, that's a long yap from me about a book. But don't worry, I think I'll come back with more books to yap hihi. Anyway, talking about books, this year at least until this month I've finished these books, let's have a quick rate for it:

1. The War that Saved My Life (I love it so much!!! 5/5)

 

2. Mata dan Rahasia Pulau Gapi (This one is suitable for kids! Fun! 4/5)

3. Restart (Um, I didn't really like the ending, but it is well-written and I pretty much enjoyed it. 3.5/5)

4. Logika Asa (It's a good novel, however, as a fan of Valerie Patkar, I prefer her other works like 'Game Over', 'Loversation' and 'Serangkai', so 3.8/5)

5. The Outcast (This book is kinda extreme I must say, but I read it easy and somehow I feel like I got what the writer try to say. 3.7/5)

 

Oke that's all, 5 books finished is like already so much for me. Anyway, I think I'll finish 3/4 more I hope until the end of the year. I'll come back with my other thoughts, bye!