The Alchemist

The other day, while waiting to get a blood test at Clinica Manila, Megamall, I managed to finish about 2/3rds of Paolo Coellho's best-seller The Alchemist. I finished the last 1/3rd during a 15-minute bathroom break back home. It was a short book. Lots of people have raved about how good it is. What do I think? It's okay, but nothing overly special. Maybe I didn't get too much of it because it didn't have much new material for me. All of this - having your own "personal legend"; searching and/or fighting for it instead of deciding to accept and be content with you have; communicating with the "Soul of the World"; -- most of these things are not foreign concepts to me. I think the book would appeal most to those who are feeling a bit down or lost, and looking for something inspirational to give them a slight push and help them find their way. Or something. :D

One of the interesting things presented in the book is the concept of "beginner's luck". Basically the book says that the universe conspires to make your personal legend come true, because of this, when you're starting out on something, the universe will give you a small taste of success, so you're enticed to follow-up. I guess I've never heard of beginner's luck described this way before.

The book also talks about how most people will disregarding their personal dreams to settle for whatever contentment comes their way in life. Personally, I think I'm the sort to prefer to go out and learn new things, or strive to make things better than to just be satisfied doing the same thing day in and day out. In fact, that's one of the things I like about my current job: things often stay interesting. I'm almost always learning something new, or doing something different. The only times I don't like my job are when I have to do something similar repeatedly for some time period, that's when I entertain thoughts of quitting. (No real plans though, not anytime soon at least.)

One of officemates describes me as having a strong personality, and also as someone who wants to live an exciting life. The problem with that however, is that I'm also quite lazy. So, I'm easily bored and I'm also lazy. Quite a paradox...I like to experience new things, but I also like to spend a lot of time by myself mulling over different things (or sometimes the same thing over and over...)

Man, that was a random rambling post if I ever saw one. G'night.