The AlchemistThe Alchemist

Santiago is a shepherd boy in Spain who keeps having the same dream, about treasure waiting for him at the pyramids in Egypt. So he sells his sheep and goes. On the way he gets robbed in Tangier, spends a long time working for a crystal merchant, crosses the desert with a caravan, falls in love at an oasis, and learns from an alchemist. The treasure, in the end, is buried back where he started, under a tree by a ruined church. He had to make the whole trip to find that out.

Coelho's big idea is the Personal Legend, the thing you're meant to do with your life. He says that when you really want something, the whole universe conspires to help you get it. I don't read that literally anymore. What I do think is true is the smaller version: once you commit to something, you start noticing the people and chances that help, where before you'd have walked straight past them.

The character I remember best isn't Santiago. It's the crystal merchant. He's dreamed his whole life of making the pilgrimage to Mecca, and he never goes. He says he's afraid that if he makes the trip, he'll have nothing left to live for. I read that as a kid and it scared me more than anything else in the book.

I finished it a long time ago and haven't reread it. The idea stayed anyway. It's part of why I'd rather try the big thing and be wrong than keep it safe as a dream.