“A dazzing tale of the road traveled by ordinary people.” Coelho's book traverses the story and journey of a man (himself) learning to be extraordinary through the paradoxical beauty of simply understanding what is ordinary.
t
tWhat struck me as I gobbled up this book in a mere afternoon was the easygoing cadence and accessibility of language that Coelho employs throughout his book; he doesn't try to dazzle you with vernacular or prose, it's simply inherent in the story itself. And to me, that's the message the book is trying to impart upon us; that an ordinary person can achieve extraordinary things. It reminds me of a quote by Margaret Mead (Look this up) “Never underestimate the power of a small group of dedicated individuals to change the world, it's how it always happens.”

tThere is a little something in The Pilgrimage for everyone, and it doesn't take a philosopher or scientist to piece together the puzzles that Coelho lays out for us. I left this book with a feeling of empowerment, in a way that was spiritual, yet non-denominational. Even though the book invokes Christianity as its main base of argument, a so called “fighting the good fight,” in the words of Saint Paul, I felt empowered to do something to enrich and embolden myself on my own pilgrimage of life, and although I might not be fighting demons and climbing mountains, I am not so different from Coelho as I'd like to think; and I think therein lies the message.

I finished another Paulo Coelho book. I like the writings of Paulo because of the life in it. The Christian imageries he uses whole along his novel makes it more lively. I also was travelling all along with him to this pilgrimage to San Tiago. I too was fighting with the legion when he fought with it. He found his sword now it is my duty to find mine to find the purpose of it. Sometimes this type of novels gives us a power to fight a good fight. The we are living this earth demands a lot but in a world full of voices we forget to listen to the voice of silence. The novel was teaching to listen to the inner voice. This is my fourth experience with Paulo Coelho he is always inspiring me and go with full power. He is taking his own saint Paul in his writings. Many times the words of Saint Paul came alive in this novel. A great work, I recommend this to anyone who needs to go ahead with much inspiration and motivation.

I didn’t think I’d like this book when I first started reading it but after finishing today it’s left me with goosebumps! Such a heartfelt story of a genuine journey which really opens your eyes to the world around you and how simple spirituality can be.

The reason for the 1-star rating is the timing. It sucks. Had I read this prior to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons this could have earned another star. Had I read this right after reading a book on Harry Potter or Percy Jackson, there could have been another star. Had I read this when I was in my teens or 20's, there could have been another one.

The mention of Knights of Templar, ancestral rites done in midnight with those chantings, search for a sword, etc. just did not hit the right chords in me. I had enough of them while being fascinated with the Dan Brown books a few years ago. Just yesterday I was crying about how deeply touched I was reading the last chapters of Nikos Kazantzakis' The Last Temptation of Christ. Then right after, I spent almost full 24 hours (getting my usual 6-hour sleep of course), trying to finish this book chosen by my Filipino group read for March 2010. This novel, Paulo Coelho's first widely published one, at times feels like a travelogue, sometimes a how-to-do-it-by-yourself book on relaxation and at times like a fantasy novel: what with Paolo being able to talk to his "messenger" (guardian angel), fought with a dog by biting and behaving like a dog, climbing a waterfall naked and with his search for his sword (like Excalibur, my goodness).

Paolo Coelho (born in 1947) dreamed of becoming a writer even at a very early age. His parents did not want him to so he took up Law. Still he persisted despite getting hooked on drugs during the hippie 60's. In 1982 he published his first work, Hell Archives that did not make any impact. In 1986, he published his second book, The Practical Manual for Vampirism that he himself took off the shelves as he realized that it was of "bad quality."

In 1986, when he was 39 years old, he went to a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. This pilgrimage became the basis of this book. I am not sure if those supernatural experiences were just added to appeal to a fantasy, sci-fi young readers. There might be truth on the historical aspect of the pilgrimage like it was the route Ulysses, Don Quixote, Dante, Orpheus, Columbus, etc. once took but I am not sure about the others. Of course, I don't think I will ever have the chance to go there and verify as I would rather go to Nazareth, Jerusalem or any other more popular pilgrimage destinations.

This 1986 novel paved way for The Alchemist that was cited by Guinness World of Records as the most translated (67 languages) novel by a living author. Had Coelho not gotten the attention of readers by his supernatural-laden pilgrimage to Compostela, there could not have been The Alchemist which is also one of the best-selling books in history.

I read The Alchemist a few years ago and I rated it with 3 stars. Then early this month, I read his 1001 Must Read Books Before You Die novels: Veronika Decides to Die and The Devil and Miss Prym. After reading The Alchemist, I thought that Coelho is a serious no-nonsense writer. In Veronika, I got turned off by the masturbation scene but I took it lightly as it was relevant to the story. In The Devil, it was like a fable and intended for kids. Here in The Pilgrimage, coming before The Alchemist, he first tried the formula that worked well in afterwards: preach to the reader like a saint, put in some magic-fantasy, describe an exotic faraway place and presto: a bestseller.

There is no nothing wrong with that. Coelho hit a jackpot and laughed all the way to the bank (and with his other books, he will have an easy and financially secured retirement years). Yes, as he keeps on mentioning in his novels, let's all continue to dream as we will all die when we stop doing so.

I didn’t understand this book whatsoever, and as I’ve just walked this pilgrimage route (Camino de Santiago), I feel like that’s saying something. I began reading the book before I left for Spain, didn’t get all the way through, but picked it up again when I returned. I figured it might speak to me differently now, after all I’ve seen and experienced, both around me and within. It did not. It’s full of incomprehensible, unexplained supernatural happenings that frankly just leave me feeling lost at best, bored and condescended to at worst. Only finished it because it was an easy read, and I was expecting some kind of revelation and understanding in the end - but in that regard I was also disappointed.

The moral of the story that I actually could discern was – ‘you need to figure out what you’re going to do with the rest of your life’. Would definitely recommend actually hiking the camino instead of reading this book, as that experience will bring you much closer to that conclusion than this book did, even though it might take a little bit longer.

The thing that will stay with me forever will be Petrus's prayer from the "Personal Vices" chapter. Coelho proves once again his awesomeness.

This was a truly dreadful, embarrassing book. I wish I could give it negative stars. To say it was self-indulgent navel-gazing is too good. As I got into it, I became furtive when reading on the train, for fear someone who knew the book would see me and conclude I was a moron, or hopelessly seeking life's meaning in all the wrong places.

"Everything is contained in sounds - The past, the present and the future. The person who doesn't know how to listen will never hear the advice that life offers us all the time. And only the person who listens to the sounds of the moment is able to make the right decisions"

So, I have finished this novel or let's say autobiography in 12 days, but I couldn't digest the whole story!! So I asked for help from my old friend "Google" and he was of a great help as usual.
As far as I understand, Paulo tried to attain " The tradition" which is a new higher level rank in his christian society, he failed as a result he didn't deserve the sword of this level, his fraternity master orders him to perform a "redo" of the final test by making the santiago pilgrimage. If he succeeds by finishing the pilgrimage and learning some basic life lessons, he will receive his sword and rank as a MASTER.
Throughout his spiritual journey. Paulo came to rediscover new meanings to basic notions such as :
Believing in God and Religions
Dreams
Death
Best ways of facing threats
The real power of Teaching
Viewing personal objectives
In every step of his spiritual journey, paulo was experiencing " Agape"or total love

Before reading this book, I knew that there is only one sacred place or a pilgrimage center which Jerusalem. However, it proved to be two other routes which are: The tomb of saint peter in Rome and the other one which Paulo traveled through.
I failed to keep up with most of the heretical concepts and Paulo didn't introduce them well so the novel lost a whole star
The fourth star was lost because of the poor writing style and poor development of characters
The third star was lost because there were some " panoramal" details that I couldn't believe
One star gained due to the spiritual aim of this novel
A second star goes to the fascinating passages and wisdom that paulo included in his first work
There is no religion that is capable of bringing all of the stars together, because if this were to happen, the universe would become a gigantic, empty space and would lose its reason for existence. Every star and every person has their own space and their own special characteristics. There are green stars, yellow stars, blue stars, and white stars, and there are comets, meteors and meteorites, nebulas and rings. What appear from down here to be a huge number of bodies that are similar to each other are really a million different things, spread over a space that is beyond human com prehension.

Camino de Santiago ile ilgili oldugu icin okudugum ama hic keyif alamadigim bir kitap oldu. Hristiyanlik tarihi ile ilgili dini meditasyon bilgileri ve dili hic cekici degildi.

لا بأس
ثلاث نجمات و زيادة عليها

Przetrwałam gdzieś pięćdziesiąt stron tego pierdololo. Nie mnie oceniać, jaką literaturą kto się fascynuje, ale naprawdę trudno mi zrozumieć do kogo Coelho tym bełkotem dociera.

No ... non fa proprio per me, libro noioso e lento. Ho fatto veramente fatica a terminarlo, sarebbero servite anche a me delle pratiche di pazienza per affrontarlo.