I love The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, it will always be my favorite book.  My first time reading it, I thought a little part of me was the Shepherd boy Santiago seeking his destiny by listening to his heart and following his dreams.  If I had to pick only three things I could keep, they would be my Cat named Alchemy, my laptop, and my first edition signed copy of The Alchemist.

“At that moment, it seemed to him that time stood still, and the Soul of the World surged within him.  When he looked intro her dark eyes, and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and silence, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke-the language that everyone on earth is capable of understanding in their heart.  It was love…”

“…Something older then humanity, more ancient then the desert.  Something that exerted the same force whenever two pairs of eyes met, as had theirs here at the well.  She smiled, and that was certainly an omen-the omen he had been awaiting, without even knowing he was, for all his life.  The omen he had sought to find with his sheep and in his books, in the crystals and in the silence of the desert…”

“…It was the pure language of the World.  It required no explanation, just as the universe need none as it travels through endless time.  What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only women in his life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing.  He was more certain of it than anything in the world Read More→