Any Paulo Coelho readers?

PJG

Hi Folks,

Having read and really enjoyed Paul Coelho's 'The Alchemist' I decided to pick up a few more of his titles, so far I have been a little disapointed.

The Pilgrimage and Zahir were average and I stopped reading 'Eleven Minutes' about half way.

Has anyone read any of his other titles and how did you got on with them?


Cheers

Zynks

The Alchemist is very different from everything else Paulo Coelho wrote. I find his books always have an interesting angle, although some are better than others. While the Alchemist is a book about intuition and destiny written almost as a tale for children, most of his other books are deeper and have far more complex themes. In general I would suggest you read his books in the order they were writen:

The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream (1993)
The Pilgrimage: A Contemporary Quest For Ancient Wisdom (1995)
The Valkyries: An Encounter With Angels (1995)
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (1996)
The Fifth Mountain (1998)
Veronika Decides to Die (1999)
The Devil and Miss Prym (2001)
Eleven Minutes (2003)
The Zahir: A Novel of Love, Longing and Obsession (2005)

Edit: The order above is for publishing in English the Original books were published in this order:

The Pilgrimage: A Contemporary Quest For Ancient Wisdom (1987)
The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream (1988)
The Valkyries: An Encounter With Angels (1992)
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (1994)
The Fifth Mountain (1996)
Veronika Decides to Die (1998)
The Devil and Miss Prym (2000)
Eleven Minutes (2003)
The Zahir: A Novel of Love, Longing and Obsession (2005)

Other books that I am not sure if they were translated to English are:

Brida (1990), I really liked this one. It is all based in Ireland.
Maktub (1994),
O manual do guerreiro da luz (1997),
a coletânea de contos tradicionais em "Histórias para pais, filhos e netos" (2001)

Nea

Try Veronica Decides To Die.
I love Coelho but I do think The Alchemist is the best of what I have read.
I am just starting The Zahir now.

growler

read the alchemist and thoroughly enjoyed it, went and got Valkyries and it was such a load of pseudo-new age religious claptrap that I had to leave it on the bus when halfway through , total drivel, the man is a loon and I refuse to give him any more of my money :-)

PJG

cheers folks for you feedback,

have any of you come across similar authors ?

Dades

growler wrote:

read the alchemist and thoroughly enjoyed it, went and got Valkyries and it was such a load of pseudo-new age religious claptrap that I had to leave it on the bus when halfway through , total drivel, the man is a loon and I refuse to give him any more of my money :-)

Eek!

I thought The Alchemist was preachy - just as well I haven't picked up any of the other stuff!

GumDropButtons

Try Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Fantastic writer, kinda similar to Coelho. I'd start with One Hundred Years of Solitude.

iguana

Have only read Veronika Decides to Die and The Alchemist. Veronika is quite good although nothing hugely special imo.

The Alchemist is a relatively entertaining read, but it isn't exactly original. The story is one I had in a book of fairytales when I was a kid.

PJG

GumDropButtons wrote:

Try Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Fantastic writer, kinda similar to Coelho. I'd start with One Hundred Years of Solitude.

cheers will look him up

Tiddlywinks

Veronika decides to die is Amazing you should defo look it up