The Alchemist

Written by Paul Coelho, The Alchemist is the story of a boy's life and journey, based on a dream, or as said in the book, his Personal Legend.
The protagonist of the book, Santiago, is born into a poor family and doesn't want to pursue the family occupation, but wants to see the world. Accordingly, he becomes a shepherd, travelling to different places and seeing many things - in Andalusia.
As part of growing up, he experiences his first crush and exhilarations of seeing new places, until he gets a dream, that shows him the location of the treasure in a faraway place in Egypt. Unable to decipher the meaning of the dream, he approaches a fortune teller, who also interprets as the dream might lead to something real.
He decides to take the risk and take the journey. He meets the King of Salem, who provides him with a black and white pebble, which he advises the boy to use when faced with making a decision. He continues the journey and he reaches Tangier. There he gets robbed and almost loses hope, until he comes across a crystal shop. He cleans crystals in exchange for food, with the owner. While the boy is around, customers come in to buy merchandise. Pleased, the owner decides to hire Santiago.
For a few years, the boy continues to work at the store and when he has enough money, he leaves for his dream and joins a caravan. He meets an Englishman, whose dream is to find the Philosopher's Stone. The Englishman claims he has tried it many times but never succeeded.
On the way, they hear of the war that is happening in the deserts. The caravan decides to stop by at an oasis.
Here is where Santiago finds his love. While reading omens, he helps the people in the oasis to protect themselves from an onslaught. Rewarded for his actions, he becomes a prominent figure amidst the people and his love grows for the woman, he is in love with.
But, he decides to leave to fulfil his Personal Legend. He leaves with a man, whom he later discovers to be the Alchemist, the Englishman was looking for.
After some trials along the way, he reaches Egypt, the location of his dream, only to be beaten up badly, but he hears the place of treasure in Andalusia, by his assailants. He finally fulfils his Personal Legend.
The book was short, sweet and easy to read. As expected, there was some strangeness in the sentence structures, as translated books often do, but nevertheless, the philosophies that the suthor introduced were really good to go through. If you visit the wikipedia website for this book, some of the passages are provided. The storyline of the book seemed to be a slow read of Santiago's walkabout, but it seemed realistic and normal for a shepherd. A good, quick read.