That's actually a bit harsher than what i actually think of the book, but it is what i think of the majority of New Age material, which this book has in abundance. The Alchemist was the first book by Coehlo that i read, and will probably apply to everyone else. The first time i saw it a Sgt in the National Guard was reading it and recommending it to me. This was the summer of 02 but i don't think i read it till 03/04. I thought it was an awesome book and made Paulo a very good writer in my eyes. Next i read "A Orillas..." which i liked and thought was OK but at this point after looking at the description of his other books realized that he was a catholic romantic with devotion to the "Sacred Feminine" (I wonder what he thought of "DaVinci code"). The only other book that got my interest was "The Pilgrimage" but i flipped through it and the little bit that i read, about the sword, RAM, exercises, etc turned me off the book. I thought it was going to be the same as all the other New Age books I've read/skimmed through, although i was still curious about it since an article came out around the same time i was into Coehlo books about The Road (Synchronicity). That was all around 2004.
Now it's 2010, i heard that a friends was going to work on a documentary about the "Road to Santiago" which Paulo walked and talks about in the book. I thought this was perfect synchronicity. I can read the book which i was still curious about and it might help me get some work on the documentary and/or get to walk the Road which i wanted to do the moment i read about it. Having finish reading the book i can say that it disappointed me as expected. In the same way that Wolverine did. There is nothing wrong with the book technically or with writing style, but its message/content is basically Castaneda for Catholic romantics, and i don't like Carlos Castaneda.
My Background on Castaneda: I read his books around 2000, right out of the Army, all of them. I also read books by others that claimed to be extensions of Castaneda's or Toltec Indian teachings etc. I basically absorbed everything i could, like i always do when a subject interests me, until i got to the criticism and examination of Castaneda's idea's, teachings and himself. That's when i learned that it was all B.S. and since then I've had my B.S. meter constantly on and fine tuning it all these years. Unfortunately now that I've read "The Pilgrimage" i can say that my meter was right the first time i flipped through the book.
My Background on Castaneda: I read his books around 2000, right out of the Army, all of them. I also read books by others that claimed to be extensions of Castaneda's or Toltec Indian teachings etc. I basically absorbed everything i could, like i always do when a subject interests me, until i got to the criticism and examination of Castaneda's idea's, teachings and himself. That's when i learned that it was all B.S. and since then I've had my B.S. meter constantly on and fine tuning it all these years. Unfortunately now that I've read "The Pilgrimage" i can say that my meter was right the first time i flipped through the book.
My main problem with it was everything Petrus said, the RAM exercises, and all the stuff about The Tradition, including the ritual at the end, the prayers etc. What did get on my nerves, and that I will place on Coelho's feet, was the constant mentioning about the (stupid) sword and that he's traveling "The 'Strange' Road to Santiago". I'm not dismissing Paulo's experience or narrative and I'm glad that he found happiness and purpose in his life. Unfortunately his way, at least based on Petrus' ideas and the tradition is definitely not for me. I still don't even know what RAM stands for.
I would still love to walk the 'Strange' Road and i think reading the book now made sense in a Metaway, my experience "fighting" the German Shepard, taking in Gigi and Foxy and keeping Foxy in the end could be parallel with Paulo's continued experiences with 'Legion' along the walk. There was also some similarities in some of the stupid exercises with the way i just think of life and everything around me. I don't really need to act out a seed being born, my imagination works fine, especially if I'm meditating which a lot of these exercises amount to in the end. I've been performing the "Music" Exercises for years every time i listen to music (especially Vivaldi). The water exercises, just me playing with water since i was a little kid., etc.
Another Meta about this book is that it will make a perfect bookend to my search for spiritual knowledge. Everything from here on out will be actual experience, from meditating to actually walking The Road. I also like the fact that I'm 33 now and when Paulo walked the road he was 38 so i think I'm ahead of the curve. :-)
It took me 18 days to read the book, bought on 01/25/10 (When i also found the dogs), done reading on 02/11/10 and it took me the entire day to write this review. I also want to comment that this review is of the book w/o having read any other commentary. The edition of the book that i bought has pictures and reflection by Paulo after 15 (?) years which I'm looking forward to reading and of course everything i can find online abut the book and The Road itself. I might do a follow up on that.
Stay tuned!
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