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alchemist
November 2009 
Celebrating The Alchemist!
Posted on Oct 20th, 2009
by 
Gaia Team
Gaia Team
Beautiful Gaia beings!
2009 marks the second year in a row that The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho's incredible parable on the wisdom of following one's heart, has been on The New York Times Bestseller list.
It's been on our list even longer, as this community launched in 2006 and The Alchemist has been in the 'Our Favorites Books' section since the beginning. And as most of you have likely noticed, Coelho is one of our most oft-quoted authors.
In celebration of this, HarperCollins, the publisher of Coelho's fiction, have given us five of their recently-released paperbacks of this beautiful book to give away on the site.
You can enter your own behalf (if you're one of the rare souls who's not read the book!), or, better yet, submit a nomination for someone else. After all, I'm sure each of you know of someone starting out on a new leg in their life's journey, or needing a little inspiration or encouragement to follow their dreams. And given the number of people who've already had their lives changed by this wonderful novel, chances are it'll end up making an incredible difference for them as well.
To enter, just send an email to books@gaia.com, letting me know why you'd like to win, or why the person you're nominating should receive a copy. We'll choose the winners at the end of the month, so there's plenty of time to enter.
And just to make this more fun, you'll get bonus points if the email comes in the form of a 'Gaia Greeting' with a Coelho quote as the card. To send one, just visit the Coelho quote page here and select one of the short quotes using the "Send as Greeting" button.
We'd love to see this celebration continue through the rest of the month, so we'll be having another fun contest next week. Until then, I'd love to hear your stories about how this book has affected you. When did you first read it? What's your best Alchemist story? If you feel like adding quotes or reviews to the book page on the site, even better.
And I'd almost forgotten about this, but the last time I was flying, a woman sitting two seats over, with a soft voice and long black hair, spent most of the flight reading aloud from the book to a young boy. It was one of the best trips I remember taking. :)
Love,
Access: Public
Love that story about the mama reading The Alchemist to her boy :)
I love all the books you mentioned above! There is a beautiful magic in the books of Paulo Coelho and also of Don Miguel Ruiz who wrote The Four Agreements. That book changed my life.
I believe there are no coincidences. I was recently guided to read this book and finished it a few days ago (it was a quick and wonderful read). The themes in it are so reflective of the ones I am dealing with right now. It's an absolutely validating and inspirational read. I thank goodness for Paulo Coelho and will be reading his other works in the coming months. The Alchemist is utterly validating and life changing for me.
Matthew: It was wonderful to listen to. I wish all my travel could be so sweet.
manitoubluecat: Oh, it's been ages since I've read The Four Agreements! I'd nearly forgotten about that book, and now you've made me curious about picking it up again.
LaBelleDominque… thank you so much for that additional recommendation, and sharing that sweet synchronicity. And I think I can safely say you'll love Coelho's other books, too. The Alchemist is just the beginning.
Also, I've emailed the winners of the book (you'll be receiving them shortly, lucky ones!), but will share their names here, too. In the order in which the names were drawn, the recipients will be–
Danielle Frechette
Sara Firman
Elizabeth Kiebzak
.