The Alchemist

Alright, new favorite book. I loved The Alchemist! Of course I guess that's about par for the course.

p. 3 "He told himself that he would have to start reading thicker books: they lasted longer, and made more comfortable pillows." I clicked with this, right off the bat I'm being shown that my lust for more books and "thicker" (meaning denser, or high brow for me) books.

p.4 recognizing that he might not have accustomed himself to the sheep's schedule but that he might have accustomed himself to theirs. Cool perspective!

p.7 Sexson/Socrates knows "how to find the best pastures in Andalusia," and as long as he does, we will be his friends. Or rather, we will be his students.

p. 12 "recurrent dream" Wake up Neo.

p.15 "I told you that your dream was a difficult one. It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them." Dr. Sexson is trying to teach us all to be wise.

p.16 Maybe it's just me but I had a moment of Beckettesque deja vous. I spotted a place where I fell out of the narrative. "If he ever wrote a book, he thought, he would present one person at a time, so that the reader wouldn't have to worry about memorizing a lot of names." Which is exactly how The Alchemist is written.

p. 18 Personal Legends? Which story are we in again? What story am I in? Aw jees...

p. 24 Think like a child. Remember Dr. Sexson said something about this at the beginning of the semester? Every day i wish I'd been in one of his Oral Traditions classes so that I would have tricks for remembering things better.

p. 30 Urim and Thummim, I wonder if Alecia remembers these little guys from Bible as Literature class and has any more info on them?

I love the little story between 30 and 32. What a great parable.

p. 43 "There must be a language that doesn't depend on words." Indeed. This is elaborated on on p. 62

p. 64 "He had worked for an entire year to make a dream come true, and that dream, minute by minute was becoming less important. Maybe because that wasn't really his dream." Sometimes the path is the treasure, not the goal's realization.

p. 74 "Maktub" Plato's anamnesis, or Jung's Collective Unconscious?

p.75 The realization that the book the boy got from the library was Finnegan's Wake. "... the boy had developed a superstition that each time he opened the book he would learn something important,"

p.77 and 78 Is research or action more important? This is a struggle I've had with myself for a long time. I have a deep and powerful wanderlust which sometimes drives me to simply pack a backpack and walk across the US for a month or so. Right now I've exhausted it after several years of travel and I'm enjoying having a home base and a purpose while I'm rooted. We'll see how long it takes to kick back up but when it does, will I go? Will I listen to my heart and heed my Personal Legend? Or will I stay and attempt to put off the travel until I accomplish my goals of obtaining my bachelors and moving on for a Doctorate of English Lit? I suppose only time and my heart will tell. "The Englishman said, 'I'd better pay more attention to the caravan.' 'And I'd better read your books,' said the boy." p. 79

p. 84 and 85 live in the now. It is so easy to say and so hard to do.

p.88 A Thousand and One Nights, I really have to read this...

p. 115 A favorite quote: "'It's not what enters men's mouths that's evil,' said the alchemist. 'It's what comes out of their mouths that is.'"

p. 127 - 131 The language of the heart. I love these pages. Hmm :)

p.134 "stimulus"

The names of the wind: "sirocco" p. 146, "levanter" p. 146, "simum" p. 148.

p. 156 This is something I used to say, better worded but the same concept! "Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time."

I actually have almost as much highlighting in The Alchemist as I do in Finnegans Wake!