Quote:
“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
This is a refreshing (and classic) novel. The book is about a shepherd boy Santiago’s quest for a treasure. He meets an old king who tells him to sell his sheep and travel to Egypt to accomplish his “Personal Legend”. Despite hardships, he continues his journey, and eventually finds the treasure in a surprising place.
Reading the book in the midst of grad school frustrations, I had mixed feelings. I did appreciate the optimism a lot: “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” However, I don’t believe in fairy tales in life – is the book saying “just hang in there and fight the fear and you will be fine?” I don’t think this is how it works…
The book club discussion finally made me enjoy the fictional elements of the book (e.g. the shepherd boy once had to turn himself into a dust storm using magic before he is allowed to proceed; he knows nothing about it but eventually succeeds).
Apparently, everyone relates to the book differently due to their different life experience. Why we should still dream and be hopeful? “It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”
-- Lisa Liang
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