The Alchemist

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This is a book that has been vaguely hanging around on my must-get-round-to reading list for quite a while now and when it happened to come up in conversation with my English group, my Russian student offered to lend me it.  I'm always very wary when I borrow things and don't like to take too long about it but I needn't have worried, I polished this little gem off in one day!

The book tells the story of a Spanish shepherd boy from Andalusia who sets out on a long journey to discover his destiny.  At first I was a little worried about the amount of religion involved.  I've mentioned before that I like to try to follow Buddhist principles.  I have the utmost respect for all religions but I don't like being told what to believe and I don't like to much of a religious focus in books unless it is essential to the story.  However, the more I read, the more I realised it wasn't really about religion but life itself and most religions are encompassed in there in some form.

The story really made me reflect on many things and I may even buy my own copy to flick through again later.  I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it yet, and I'd even recommend a re-read for those who have as it seems to be the kind of book that you can take a lot away from and that could develop over time.