the alchemist

it's been some time since i read a fictional novel. well, mika said it was nice and i should read it. yeah. so i read it. quite nice... so i put some excerpts here.

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"What's the world's greatest lie?".....

"It's this: that a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie."

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(Basically, the main character is a boy, who became a shepherd. Here he met an old man in a town.)

"Why do you tend to a flock of sheep?"

"Because I like to travel."

The old man pointed to a baker standing in his shop window at one corner of the plaza. "When he was a child, that man wanted to travel, too. But he decided first to buy his bakery and put some money aside. When he's an old man, he's going to spend a month in Africa. He never realised that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of."

"He should have decided to become a shepherd, " the boy said.

"Well, he thought about that," the old man said. "But bakers are more important people than shepherds. Bakers have homes, while shepherds sleep out in the open. Parents would rather see their children marry bakers than shepherds.

...

"In the long run, what people think about shepherds and bakers becomes more important for them than their own Personal Legends."

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Hmmm. As you might guess, the book goes onto describe the boy's adventure to fulfill his Personal Legend. Like what mika pointed out, the book expounds that when one tries hard to realise his/her dream, the "whole universe conspires" to help him/her. There'll be numerous signs/omens along the way.

When I was reading it, I was wondering, "Is this book an omen?"

2 years 21 days.