The Alchemist

I'm not really sure what to think of this book. The back cover says that it's going to change my life forever. I'm pretty sure that it didn't do that.

From what I could understand, its about a shepherd who seemed pretty content with his life. He wanted to travel so he became a shepherd, had a crush on a girl in another town and was all excited to see her again, and then one day he stops in a town to rest and goes to see a gypsy to see about a dream he keeps having. She tells him that he has a treasure waiting for him at the Pyramids and he must go to it. Then he meets a king who tells him the same thing and how to get there. Of course the boy can't get anything for free and has to promise the Gypsy that he'll give her some of his treasure and he sells some of his sheep to the king for his advice. As far as the sheep go, the whole time all the author did was say how sheep only cared about food and water. I'm no Dr. Doolittle, but I think that sheep and all animals feel more than just hunger and thirst.

Anyway, so the boy starts his quest for his treasure and ends up getting all his gold stolen so he starts working at shop selling crystals. He does this for about a year and makes enough money to continue his journey. The whole time he's going on about how he wants to be a shepherd again. He was happy with that then the desire to find a treasure changed everything. Stupid boy.

He finally makes enough money to continue his journey and meets and Englishman who is on the same quest, but in search of The Alchemist. So they and a bunch of other people travel through the desert and end up at an Oasis and the boy meets a girl and falls in love. And then he meets the Alchemist. Then the boy and the Alchemist travel for many, many, many days to the Pyramids, along the way the boy learns stuff about life. So he gets to the Pyramids and starts to dig for the gold, and some bad guys show up and one mentions had dream that he had had. Thus brings the boy back to church the boy had stayed in back when he was a shepherd. And there he finds his treasure. It was at the beginning of his adventure the whole time.

The only thing I could think of as to what the moral of the story is that maybe you need to take chances and have adventures in order to find what you are looking for