Apr 19, 2009

A must!

PAULO COELHO - the Brazilian artist. The remarkable author. The talented poet. He writes about simple things in a flowery language. The most obvious truths become magic when wrote by him.

I love his books because of hope they bring. Here is a quotation to prove my words:

Also, he talks about love showing it from different angles. The most significantly, he is not afraid of writing about God and His presence in our life.

I found out about his talent somewhere in the lower secondary school and then started buying his books. I've already read:

  • THE ZAHIR - about the real love


  • ELEVEN MINUTES - very bravely about the mysteries of physical love


  • THE DEVIL AND MISS PRYM - about the fight between good and evil


  • VERONIKA DECIDES TO DIE - about discovering the beauty of life


  • THE FIFTH MOUNTAIN - about the faith in God's might


  • BY THE RIVER PIEDRA I SAT DOWN AND WEPT - about finding the 'second half'


  • THE ALCHEMIST - about the importance of following our dreams


  • THE PILGRIMAGE - about the author's pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

There are two others waiting on my shelf:

  • THE WITCH OF PORTOBELLO


  • LIKE THE FLOWING RIVER

Has anyone read them?

The books I own are in Polish as I wasn't confident with my English enough to take up a challenge of reading Coelho's works in my L2. I suppose my next purchase will be in English though ;)

If you are interested in Coelho's life take a look at his official site where you can find not only his splendid biography but also his blog, photo gallery and much more!

To close with, food for thought for all of us, I guess.

4 comments:

Anouk said...

Hey, I've read 'Eleven Minutes', 'The Alchemist' and 'By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept'. It was a loooong time ago and I was simply curious, because so many people told he's an amazing writer. To be honest, I don't think I read them deeply enough. But since another person tells me he's so great, I shall re-read at least one of them.

k.t said...

I like him, even've got veronika decides to die in English. One of the first book that I wrote in English.

beti86 said...

As I'm not a fan of philosophical books, or should I say books in general :P, I have to admit that when on the first year of political science, I had a marathon of very boring, but obligatory lectures and I borrowed 'By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept' form my friend and I basically read it whole on that day. I really liked this book, or at least I think it was the book and not the need to escape with my mind somewhere away from the lecture, or maybe a bit of both and a friend cheering me on to read it :P

hannah.bundle said...

Well, I read about Veronica and Piedra River, but it was also ages ago. I nibbled Alchemist but it didn't bring me to my knees. All in all, pleasant spiritual lecture, even though some critics believe Coelho is a lightweight.