Books I Loathed discussion

I've never read a more overrated book in my entire life. (I've never read the Bible, to be fair.) The only concept that I took away from the Alchemist is how to stretch a ten minute children's parable into a full on 100+ page book. There is no way that so many lives have been changed by this book. It's fifth grade book report material at best.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one! We read it in 9th grade literature and I was very underwhelmed. I tried to read it again recently to see if the effect was different when I was not being forced to read it but no- I still hate it.

It also couldn't have helped that my teacher pronounced Andalucia as "And-uh-luz-a" rather than the way to say it in Spanish. I'm twitching thinking about it.

I really hated this book and felt like it had just wasted my time. I kept expecting it to get better, for it to justify all the hype, but it never did. Actually, it was kind of like a really pretentious hybrid of a self-help book and The Horse and His Boy. But I actually like The Horse and His Boy.

Terribly overrated, indeed! So tedious!

I got a free download of the audio version off iTunes a couple of months ago. I listened to a bit, but it bored the heck out of me. It sounds so much like the narration in the movie version of "The Old Man and the Sea" that I couldn't stand. Maybe I'd like it better on paper.

I never read any Paulo Coelho before and many people suggested The Alchemist to start. Now I'd like to hear from The Alchemist's haters. What other Coelho's book would you recommend?

I thought the messages in this book were contrived and preachy. It really frustrated me. Fair enough for an author to deal with philosophical issues, but Coelho just went about it the wrong way.

Novi- although I wasn't a fan of The Alchemist, I have bought Coelho's Eleven Minutes which is apparently excellent.

Ah,then. Maybe I liked it because before I picked it up, I had heard nothing about it. I found it a bit elementary, but nevertheless, I thought it was a 'nice' story. I can understand why it would be required reading. Look up Coelho's biography (RIP), his story is fascinating.