reading it...

I loved it because, even if the characters and the plot is a bit, um , well, unbeliavable, Coelho made me understand what poetry is. This is mild phylosophy, and i can see why some find his work completely annoying. it depends what you're looking for in a book, and it surely satisfies those of us who have embarked into a journey of understanding towards ourselves.

Also, his style is a bit repetitive, sometimes it got me really bored, but this is not a marathon book to read only to satisfy that thirst of what's gonna happen next,what's next what's next' , but a book to take page by page and use it as a mirror to inner life.

To those who attack the fact that his stories are so unrealistic,the beginning paragraph could offer an explanation to that:
'Once upon a time,there was a prostitute called Maria. Wait a minute. 'Once upon a time' is how all the best books for children begin and 'prostitute' is a word for adults. How can I start a book with this apparent contradiction? But since, at every moment of ourlives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss, let's keep that beginning'
Ditto.