The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)

Hello everyone!

Today I decided to upload this book, which is in fact one of my favorites of Paulo Coelho.

I think it's a beautiful story that teaches you a lot. I guess most of you know it, Coelho used intuitively and with dexterity, the most primitive structures of the fairy tale. So here you have it .

"At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie"

- Paulo Coelho -

Spot:

The story follows a Spanish shepherd boy named Santiago whose dream was always to travel and see different people and cultures. Since he was a boy, he was used to being a shepherd and taking care of his sheep; but still, his desire never went away . Santiago goes to an old gypsy woman to interpret the dream he had had for two nights in a row. The gypsy tells him that his dream is telling him to look for a treasure buried at the Great Pyramids in Egypt. Santiago doesn't really believe her but she tells him if he does find the treasure he must give one tenth of it to her.

He agrees and goes on his way. He sits down on a bench to wait until the sun goes down and takes out his book when an old man named Melchizedeck, who calls himself the old king of Salem, sits down right next to him. He teaches him the basics of searching for his dream and about the Personal Legend. Santiago decides to travel towards the pyramids in search of his dream. As he sets off towards the pyramids, Santiago learns that he will have to sacrifice a lot of things to get there. So he sells his sheep and begins his journey. At first he did not know where he was traveling until he arrived in Tangier, Africa. There he is robbed of his money by a thief. However, he meets a crystal merchant in the streets of the marketplace. They become good friends and the merchant allows the boy to work for him.

Within a year, the boy inspires the crystal merchant to change things in his shop.As a result, more customers come by to purchase more crystal and business improves so much that Santiago receives enough money to cover his loss. Eventually, Santiago leaves and starts his journey home. En route, he meets a group of people, including an Englishman who searches for knowledge about alchemy and a two-hundred-year-old alchemist, as they begin to march through the desert in a caravan towards the Pyramids. The Englishman's words inspire Santiago to continue his search for the treasure and join the caravan. After a few months, they arrives at an oasis in the middle of the desert. There, he meets a girl named Fatima, with whom he eventually falls in love. The boy believes that he has found his treasure, as he is in love, and wants to stay with his lover and the people he has just met for the rest of his life. Meanwhile, a war is raging around the oasis. A masked stranger on his horse, reveals himself to be the Alchemist, and begins asking the boy questions on alchemy.

After a day of warfare, the boy sees the Alchemist at sunset, who tells him to pack up and travel with him away from the oasis to the pyramids. After Santiago and the alchemist leave the enemy camp, they stop at an old church near the Pyramids to use the kitchen.After receiving the gold, the boy and the alchemist go their separate ways and Santiago makes it to the Pyramids within three hours. As he listens to his heart, it eventually cries with joy because he has finally made it. The boy begins digging, but is attacked by some muggers. They beat him almost to death. He saves himself by telling them that he has a recurring dream about a treasure buried at this location.

I hope you enjoy this book.

Kisses!

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Hamlet (William Shakespeare)

Hello everyone!

The recommendation of the day, is a classic of English literature, written by William Shakespeare ( I really love him! ). One of my favorites, really makes you think... "be... or not to be" Well, this is the tragedy of Hamlet.

"I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams."

- Hamlet -

Plot:

Hamlet is the son of the late King Hamlet (of Denmark), who died two months before the start of the play. After King Hamlet's death, his brother, Claudius, becomes king, and marries King Hamlet's widow, Gertrude (Queen of Denmark). Young Hamlet fears that Claudius killed his own brother (Hamlet's father) to become king of Denmark, greatly angering Hamlet. Two officers, Marcellus and Barnardo, summon Hamlet's friend Horatio, and later Hamlet himself to see the late King Hamlet's ghost appear at midnight.

The ghost tells Hamlet privately that Claudius had indeed murdered King Hamlet by pouring poison in his ear. Hamlet is further enraged and plots of how to revenge his father's death. In his anger, Hamlet seems to act like a madman, prompting King Claudius, his wife Gertrude, and his advisor Polonius to send Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet and figure out why he is acting mad. Hamlet even treats Polonius' daughter Ophelia rudely, prompting Polonius to believe Hamlet is madly in love with her, though Claudius expects otherwise. Polonius, a man who talks too long- windedly, had allowed his son Laertes to go to France (then sent Reynaldo to spy on Laertes) and had ordered Ophelia not to associate with Hamlet.

Claudius, fearing Hamlet may try to kill him, sends Hamlet to England. Before leaving, however, Hamlet convinces an acting company to reenact King Hamlet's death before Claudius, in the hopes of causing Claudius to break down and admit to murdering King Hamlet. Though Claudius is enraged, he does not admit to murder. Hamlet's mother tries to reason with Hamlet after the play, while Polonius spied on them from behind a curtain. Hamlet hears Polonius, and kills him through the curtain, thinking the person is Claudius. When finding out the truth, Hamlet regrets the death, yet Claudius still sends him to England, accompanied by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with orders from Claudius that the English kill Hamlet as soon as her arrives. After Hamlet leaves, Laertes returns from France, enraged over Polonius' death. Ophelia reacts to her father's death with utter madness and eventually falls in a stream and drowns, further angering Laertes.

En route to England, Hamlet finds the orders and changes them to order Rosencrantz and Guildenstern killed, as does occur, though Hamlet is kidnapped by pirates one day later. The pirates return Hamlet to Claudius (for a ransom), and Claudius tries one last attempt to eliminate Hamlet: he arranges a sword duel between Laertes and Hamlet. The trick, however, is that the tip of Laertes' sword is poisoned. As a backup precaution, Claudius poisons the victory cup in case Hamlet wins. During the fight, the poisoned drink is offered to Hamlet, he declines, and instead his mother, Gertrude, drinks it (to the objection of Claudius). Laertes, losing to Hamlet, illegally scratches him with the poisoned sword to ensure Hamlet's death. Hamlet (unknowingly), then switches swords with Laertes, and cuts and poisons him.

The queen dies, screaming that she has been poisoned and Laertes, dying, admits of Claudius' treachery. Weakening, Hamlet fatally stabs Claudius, Laertes dies, and Hamlet begins his death speech. Though Horatio wants to commit suicide out of sorrow, Hamlet entreats him to tell the story of King Hamlet's death and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's deaths to all. Fortinbras, the prince of Norway, arrives from conquest of England, and Hamlet's last dying wish is that Fortinbras become the new King of Denmark, as happens.

I hope you enjoy this book ! ^^

you can allways write me at: tinta_color@hotmail.com

Kisses!

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Twilight Saga (Stephenie Meyer)

Hey Guys :)

Who doesn't know Twilight Saga?

In the last year, this book has been really mentioned because of the movie. And I admit to be in love with Edward Cullen, even before the movie came out. So let me share one of my favorite sagas. :)

About three things I was absolutely positive:

1. Edward was a vampire.
2. There was a part of him-and I wasn't sure how dominant that part might be- that thirsted for my blood.
3. I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

- Bella Swan -

Plot: (Twilight)

Isabella "Bella" Swan moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona to rainy Forks, Washington to live with her father, Charlie, while her mother, Renée, travels with her new husband, Phil Dwyer, a minor league baseball player. Bella attracts much attention at her new school and is quickly befriended by several students. Much to her dismay, several boys compete for shy Bella's attention.

When Bella is seated next to Edward Cullen in class on her first day of school, Edward seems utterly repulsed by her. He disappears for a few days, but warms up to Bella upon his return; their newfound relationship reaches a climax when Bella is nearly run over by a fellow classmate's van in the school parking lot. Seemingly defying the laws of physics, Edward saves her life when he instantaneously appears next to her and stops the van with his bare hands.

Bella becomes hellbent on figuring out how Edward saved her life, and constantly pesters him with questions. After tricking a family friend, Jacob Black, into telling her local tribal legends, Bella concludes that Edward and his family are vampires who drink animal blood rather than human. Edward confesses that he initially avoided Bella because the scent of her blood was so desirable to him. Over time, Edward and Bella fall in love.

Their relationship is thrown into chaos when another vampire coven sweeps into Forks. James, a tracker vampire who is intrigued by the Cullens' relationship with a human, wants to hunt Bella for sport. The Cullens attempt to distract the tracker by splitting up Bella and Edward, and Bella is sent to hide in a hotel in Phoenix. There, Bella receives a phone call from James, who claims he is holding her mother captive. When Bella surrenders herself, James attacks her, but Edward, along with the other Cullens, rescues Bella and destroys James. Once they realize that James has bitten Bella's hand, Edward sucks the venom from her system before it can spread and transform her into a vampire, and she is then sent to a hospital. Upon returning to Forks, Bella and Edward attend their school prom and Bella expresses her desire to become a vampire, which Edward refuses.

Hope you like :)

Kisses!

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The Little Prince ( Antoine de Saint Exupery)

Hello to all my readers!

Today, I bring a book that I had already share with you, but this time in English, so those english speakers can be able to enjoy the wonderful world of reading.

It has been translated to a hundred and eighty languages and dialects. This is one of my favorite books, it must seems like a children's book, but actually teaches us a lot.

Hope you like!

Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

- Antoine de Saint Exupéry -

Plot:

The Little Prince is a fantasy about a pilot, stranded in the Sahara, who meets a small boy from another planet. The boy, who refers to himself as a prince, is on a quest for knowledge. The little prince asks questions of the pilot and tells the pilot of life on his own very small planet. This story is told in a simple fashion, as children's stories typically are, but it is not really a children's story. It is a story of a grown-up who has almost forgotten what is important. It is the story of the pilot's reconnection to his own sense of imagination and wonder. It is the story of the re-opening of the pilot's heart.

The action of the story is preceded by the pilot's recollection of his first attempt at drawing. He describes both the drawing and the reaction it inspires in the adults to whom he shows it. The lack of enthusiasm for his work, coupled with the total failure of grown-ups to comprehend it, is so disappointing to the author he stops drawing altogether. When he finds himself stranded in the Sahara many years later, it is with some irony the first request he receives from the little prince, who has appeared out of nowhere, is: "If you please--draw me a sheep!"

From that point on, the pilot and the little prince become inseparable. As the pilot continues to fumble with his aircraft, in hopes of repairing it before his supply of water runs out, the little prince tells him of all the places he has been and about life on his own small planet. In one story, the little prince recounts his realization that his lovely flower, his single prize possession, is in fact one of millions just like it. It is only after a series of new experiences that the prince comes to realize that his flower is truly special--not so much because it is a rose, as there are many, many roses--but because it is his rose. It is the time and care he takes with "her" that makes her special to him.

The novel follows the prince through an encounter with a businessman, a snake, a king, a fox and more. In each encounter, we see the little prince confront the limitations of the so-called "grown-up" mindset. We see the prince learning about life from flowers and animals while the grown-ups he encounters show him little more than what to avoid. In the end, therefore, it is fitting that it is the pilot who learns more from the little prince than he is able to teach the boy, in spite of the fact that throughout the book the boy is asking most of the questions. This point is emphasized on at least three separate occasions, when the author points out that the little prince ". . . never in his life let go of a question, once he had asked it."

When the story ends, the little prince has chosen to leave earth and return to his planet. He does so by enlisting the help of a poisonous snake, the same snake he met earlier in his travels. He allows himself to be bitten and he prepares to leave his body. The pilot is distraught and tries to save the little prince. He fails.

The pilot then comes to realize that something his little friend told him in the very beginning of the book is true: If you love something, sometimes just knowing it exists is enough to make you happy. The pilot looks up at the stars and knows that somewhere out there, the little prince is back at home, on his own little planet, tenderly caring for his beautiful flower. He wonders about the sheep they both feared might eat it. He thinks to himself how important it is to ask oneself that very question: has the sheep eaten the flower? The story ends as the pilot says to himself "no grown-up will ever understand that this is a matter of so much importance!"

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