# The Alchemist

by Paulo Coelho (1988)

**Verdict:** Stayed with me — It lodged, whether or not you'd inflict it on a friend.

**Who I'd hand it to:** Anyone starting a business

_ebook · finished 2026-09-01_

## Fingerprint

Positions between two named poles. Neither pole is the good end.

- Place: toward "the place is the book"
- Moral weight: far toward "pressing a case"
- Cleverness: far toward "the form does the work"
- Lift: far toward "left me heavier"
- Friction: between "reads itself" and "makes you work"
- Economy: toward "compressed"

## How it read

How much I wanted to keep reading, at each stage.

- Beginning: slow
- Middle: eager
- End: couldn’t stop
- Afterwards: rose (better in retrospect)

## Review

I read it because I had heard about it many times AND I was hoping that it would reveal the secret recipe for gold, SPOILER, it does not.  It did point me at so many people and situations that I ran into when running a business. It makes sense because it is the story of a young man who starts on a journey which is very much like running a business.

It is a quick read, and while translated from Portuguese, it is not a distraction at all. It does slow the reading down a bit, but not much.

Tags: allegory, business, epic journey

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https://paulhasread.com/books/o-alquimista · Paul Has Read