The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho – Episode 37

The Buddies may be legends in their own mind, but learn about their ‘personal legends’ in the classic Brazilian novel, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.  This book which is full of metaphors and symbolism, had the Buddies asking deeper questions like: ‘How fragile are crystal cups?’, ‘Are oases real?’ and ‘Should you be a total piece of shit?’ Fill up your tea, sell your crystal, and join us for this deep introspective journey.  

Intro: (0:00-1:41)
Stock Up/Down (1:42-29:56)
Favorite Character (29:57-30:49)
Love/Hate (30:50-39:05)
Listener Email (39:06-42:52)
Casting the Movie (42:53-45:41)
Conclusion (45:42-48:30)

Next Book: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT by ERICH MARIA REMARQUE

Transcript for SEO purposes 🙂

All right. Welcome, buddy. Look Huff. I’m Dylan, here with my own personal Fatima. Keith, what’s up, buddy? Hey. Are we doing good? Good. We’re breaking down some this week. We’ll be discussing the Alchemist by Paolo Coelo. If you like to recommend a book for us to read or reach out to us about our past episodes, you visit our we*****@go*****.com or sign to our DMs and Twitter or Instagram Buddy Book Club podcast. You can listen to the on itunes and Spotify. So please download and subscribe. You are actually a listener and you haven’t already. Can you review, please? That actually helps. All right, well, The Alchemist is kind of a move for us. It’s a different genre, I guess, than we’ve previously explored. So this should be interesting in one way or another. But Keith, we are doing this as part of kind of Return to School section of the podcast where we’re going through. We did the giver last time. We’re going to do this. We’ve got some other stuff coming. But did you actually read this in school? Negative. I don’t remember hearing of it. It was definitely on my mom’s bookshelf because my mom was really into this kind of stuff. So I never read it because I just was like, no, I’m too cool for that, or something along those lines. The Alchemist is pretty much the story of Santiago, a humble shepherd who refuses to settle for a six and goes in search of a ten. Yeah, that’s pretty much it. But really, the story of The Alchemist is about this Santiago who is a humble shepherd, but he goes in search of his treasure and his personal legend, which if you drank every time the personal legend was said in this book, you’d be a drunkard and your heart would listen to you. All right, let’s get to the stock up. Stock down. What do you got? What do you have for stock upkeep? Stock up. Oasis. I’m going to start off right. We can do that first, but yeah. I honestly didn’t know they were real. The only time they’d mentioned them are in cartoons in the desert when people are seeing Mirages. So I was like, they’re just, like, made up things, but apparently currently support 10 million people in the Middle East and North Africa. I looked up some of this stuff about, like, how they forms. It didn’t make any sense to me. And I’m pretty sure the people that write on this just make it up. Also, they just use all this jargon. They’re like underground aquifers pressures. Does that make sense? And surface. I’m like, yeah, but you’re in the middle of the desert. Why is there water there? They’re like aqua fires. I’m like, but either way, I think it’s aquifer but, like aquifena I mean, Jeremy Irons didn’t read that to me, so I don’t really know what it is. Yeah, that’s Jeremy Iron is doing the audiobook. Oh, he crushed it. He absolutely crushed it. No, it kind of makes sense in that there’s underground water right throughout the world, and even in a desert, there’s places where the water table is higher or lower than others. So there are places where the water table is higher and it creates an oasis. You’re just throwing jargon out there. That doesn’t mean anything. I mean, if you dig deep enough, you’re going to reach Boltonhot Magma. As far as I know, everything I’ve seen from Austin Powers, that’s how things work. So I don’t know where this water you’re talking about comes from. Also, is it Oasis or Oasis? I think it turns into oases when it’s plural. Got you. This is exactly what Paolo wanted us to discuss when he wrote The Alchemist. That’s for sure. Yeah, 100%. So stuck up Oasis because you didn’t know they existed. Yeah. That’s pretty sick that they just are, like, in the middle of the desert. They’re like, all right. And here’s this big community of random people based around the water. If you look at pictures of them, they’re pretty awesome. Just this huge desert, and then all of a sudden, it’s like you’re on a Palm Beach. The hell? Yeah, it’s so cool. Just Aladdin and Agrabah just hanging out all of a sudden. Yeah, it is interesting you say that, because my knowledge, similarly, is really just from, like, Lunitunes and movies like that. It’s the same with quicksand. Quicksand isn’t in the news anymore. If someone was like, oh, Quicksand actually doesn’t exist, I’d probably believe them because I say, yeah, well, I only really know about it from cartoons. It’s like when TNT blows up, it doesn’t just make your face black. It actually kills you, you know? Indeed it does. That’s fact. My first stock up is hearts. Hearts. Human hearts. See, I personally thought they were just for pumping blood, but in fact, hearts can speak to you. They can tell you of your strengths, your desires. I mean, heck, they can even warn you of imminent danger. According to the text, hearts only talk to those who are trying to realize their personal legend. But if you’re moseying through life, don’t worry. They also protect children and the elderly. If you still don’t fit into those categories, don’t fret. Don’t fret. No, they also protect drunkards. So stay thirsty, my friends. That sounded interesting. He’s like, oh, yes. The Alchemist is like, oh, so do Hard talk to everyone? Like, no, only those in search of their personal legend. He’s like, oh, well, also children, elderly and drunk. There was a whole second half of the book where they’re just, like, traveling in the desert, and he’s just complaining. Okay, I have a question for you before we get into anything deeper. Did you read this, and were you going through it fairly literally, or were you embracing the metaphors, the symbolism, the ether, all that stuff? Not smart enough to understand the deeper message of the allegory or whatever it’s going on. I liked it when it was like the rags to Richard story. Give me that. I like that all day. You wanted Raga Dick. Pardon? Ragged Dick. It’s a different school book about a little boy named Dick. I think you’re talking about something different that I’m not aware of. No, from my memory. Because we did read it in school. He like, is a poor kid in New York or something like that. And then saves someone on a ferry and because of that, like, befriends a rich guy and goes on with his life. So he got some positive moments there. But all right, I guess. Obviously I took it very literal and yeah, the parts where it was just mystical and magical, I was like, all right. It wasn’t for me. I kind of went both. I read it, obviously, as the story itself, but it’s almost like a self help book tied into a regular story, you know, it wasn’t just necessarily a linear book of this kid going on a journey to find a treasure. It was life and how to approach it and things along that nature. But whatever. What else you go for? Stock up. Stock up. Living in the moment. I think this quote is probably pretty popular. I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living now. And I was like, Fuck you. So you were reading this not as a story, but a self help to some degree, yeah. I mean, that idea has become way more embraced, I feel like, since this book has been written. I mean, the whole idea of mindfulness is really about living in the moment and enjoying the moment for all of its greatnesses and hardships. Because that’s what makes you alive. That moment is when you’re alive. I’m a big anti. Let’s pull our phone and videotape. Or let’s get a picture. I don’t mind a picture, just like other boys need a picture type of thing. But let’s sacrifice the fun we’re having right now in order to do something for the future. I fucking hate it. It’s bottom of the barrel for me. I think this idea, obviously mindfulness, or whatever you want to call it, living in the moment is difficult for everyone. I really think that if we could all achieve that, then everyone would be I’m not going to say happy, but like, content and alive. Something I struggle with and I actually have because audible you get these freaking things, they add up and then you lose them if you don’t use them in time. So I do a lot of great courses on there because also it’s like a good bang for your bucks. They’re like 40 hours and one of the ones I got was Mindfulness, and I was doing a good job of in the morning, going for a walk and just listen. They’re 30 minutes lectures and I was listening to it and it was really enjoyable and I was trying to practice it. But then you kind of get down on yourself. But you’re not supposed to get down on yourself. So it’s an emotional cycle. But in terms of your question, if you’re at a concert and someone pulls out their phone to film their favorite song or something along those lines, it’s like, this band might not play that song again for the next eight trips. If they’re coming back to the city, they might never play it again. Just sit there and enjoy it. Or at a sporting event when it’s fourth down in the Super Bowl, what, are you pulling your phone out? Like, bite your fingernails and enjoy that. Because how often do I ask people this? All the time when they’re doing that. Like friends, obviously not random people. But I’m like how often you do this all the time, right? Like, this is your thing. It’s like, yeah, I have all these great memories. Do you go back and look at that? Are you going back and saying, oh, that video those fireworks was awesome. It’s like, no, just sit there and enjoy the fireworks. Whatever you experience through your phone isn’t going to be as good as what you’re experiencing through your iPhones. And I mean, the eyeball phones 100%. I think it’s good to summarize or capture events. So it’s like, end of a golf round, you take a picture, it’s like, oh, I remember that round was great. You just remember, you bring back flashback to the round, but taking a video of every swing is like, all right, what have we been doing here? Or the same thing at the concert before the band goes on, take a picture of the set. Get ready. But like, videotaping every song is like, all right, yeah. There’s nothing wrong with taking a picture to remind you of that moment. Because memories formed in all sorts of ways through things you see, through things you hear, things you feel. So sometimes seeing a picture of something will bring that memory back stronger than you had in your mind’s eye. I get that. But taking like a two minute video of some fucking fireworks on 4 July, you just relax. Yeah. I mean, that’s why I never videotape any sort of sexual acts. Also, too, because first of all, it’s going to be short than 2 minutes. And then secondly, anyways, objects and camera appear smaller than they do in real life. Exactly. I put that in the footnotes of any video. Yeah. Be like a tik tok video for you. You only get 15 seconds. That’s what I call it. Too TikTok. A little tik tok. I actually don’t know if that’s how tik tok works. Maybe it’s long. I don’t know either. My next stock up is alchemy. Obviously. This book is titled The Alchemist. Okay? And I feel like we don’t get enough alchemy talk in our lives. This alchemy stock has to be weighed down. I’m pretty sure it’s been done. I actually bought it. You bought what? I bought the alchemy stock. Remember? In fuck in missborne. Remember? She has the alchemist. Good. You got to be listening to the stock market like I am. I have a finger in the polls ready to buy these things. Oh, snap. So you had because the metal are just in Missborn or maybe it was the second one. It was a second one where she just, like, writes to some guy and it’s like, hey, let’s try this metal. And it works. It’s like, all right. That guy’s pretty valuable. Yeah, I remember. I also remember that on your blog on our site, bu*@bo******.com I read that. That was interesting. But alchemy in general, in terms of our knowledge from this life, I thought it was turned the lead into gold thing. And I’m pretty sure we’re, like, super smart people. I’m thinking Einstein. Newton. Newton? That guy. There you go. I’m pretty sure he died of lead poisoning or something, because he got into alchemy, like, late in life. And obviously he could be talking a bunch of bullshit, but someone really smart. All these old guys were, like, really into the idea of alchemy. My remembrance of alchemy is only from Harry Potter, nicholas Fomel, my boy who had the philosopher stone. He was really into alchemy, but it’s not about turning lead into gold. It’s about penetrating to the soul of the world and discovering your treasure. So alchemy is really about transformation. It’s not just let into gold, get rich. I try. And 50 cent. It’s about transforming. And it can be not only objects, but yourself and this whole idea that all objects are looking to transform. I mean, the guys talking about the seashells always looking to become the sea again, all that stuff, it’s all a metaphor, right? So we have to bring some alchemy into our own lives and discover our own treasures. I found that to be insightful. You’re going way deeper than I’m ready for kids. I don’t know what’s going on. Anyway, how do we read this book and just read it as the story of this kid? That’s what I do with literally every book. I don’t know what you mean. We’re 38 episodes, and you’re like, you’re taking this as literally? I’m so shocked. That’s weird. I don’t know. You went a little deep on the body. I mean, I get with, like, missborne. It’s not like I don’t even know what the metaphors would be in that or the allegories for humanity. But with this, that’s, like, the point of this whole thing. Yeah, this is a top ten book to read before you die type thing. But I didn’t get that as much but if you were on your deathbed or near your deathbed, I think this book would either make you at peace or, like, frighten the hell out of you. It’s really one or the other, because a lot of times when death is dealt with in this book, the idea being, don’t be afraid to die if you’re in pursuit of your goals, like, what a better time to die than you died trying to achieve something? If someone had kind of reached their own whatever they thought, their own personal legend, like, if they’ve felt like they had gotten close to it or at least embarked on that journey and were on their deathbed and say, hey, you know what? I know the Lupus got me, but here we are. On the other hand, if you were just like me, you’d be like, God damn, I’ve done absolutely nothing besides put a couple of shekels in the bank. Like, what? This guy got conned multiple times and robbed three times. Three or four times. It’s like, wasn’t really that good of a legend. I don’t know. He found all that treasure and married Fatima. He found her kiss on the wind. That’s special. The last one I had was and you’re gonna hate me for this one too, but it was metaphors because there were so many freaking metaphors in this book that I felt like an idiot. Didn’t we read another book that was all metaphors? Probably any book that I didn’t like. Yeah, but this one, they’re telling a story, and I’m just sitting there the whole time. It’s kind of like looking for the boogeyman over your shoulder when you’re watching a horror movie. The whole time I’m trying to read. Is there subtext here or is this just about a crystal shop? Is this just about a guy buffing glasses at a crystal shop? It’s like where there’s got to be some sort of symbolism when you’re reading one of those kids books and you’re supposed to find the hidden things over the shoulders. I think I know the answer to this. D man. It’s been staring you right in the face all the time. He’s working at a crystal shop. Yeah, he’s working. What’s really happening is he’s starting to see crows talk to him and his kings are coming to him and all these magical things are happening. Yeah, crystal kids meth. Crystal meth is what’s happening, dude’s. Like a journey on crystal meth. He’s seen all this shit that’s really happening. It’s been staring in the face the whole time. I’m not getting connected dots. There’s no metaphor. It’s just him high on fucking meth all the time. This is an interesting idea. He never left Spain, ever. It was just the king who he met that he shared his drink with. The king slipped him a Mickey the Sheep is a metaphor for drugs. His dad’s like, what do you want to do with your life? He’s like, I want to do sheep and take on sheep and travel around the world. He’s like, all right, here’s some money. And then you just went and done tons of drugs the whole time. And then that’s it. Really stock up for good parent. Because if you told your mom or dad, you said, hey, I’m going to drop out of school. I want to become a shepherd, they’d tell you to go fuck off. Where his dad said, you know what? I’ve been hiding this gold coin. I was going to give it to you for your inheritance. Go buy a couple of sheep and travel the world. That’s amazing. Good for him. It’s like the version of someone saying they wanted to go surf in Hawaii, and the parents being like, all right, here’s enough money for a plane ticket and a van you can sleep in. Go surf. Who does that? Imagine, too, if you’re a parent. Now, I have to imagine. And you save up, put away a ton of money for your kid to go to college, and he decides, or she decides, I want to be a plumber. That’s my life’s work. They don’t need to go to college. They don’t need this advanced degree to get this huge amount of money. They’re going to make good money, and then you can just get them that money. That’s the best thing ever. You don’t go into any debt. You’re doing what you love, and you have $200,000 in the bank, potentially, right? That’s what you basically trades in general. It’s good, honest work, and you can make a good amount of money. So, yeah, I’m with you there. I’m also anti college in general. It’s just absurd, and it’s really one of the worst investments you can make. But that’s a whole nother story. Okay, let’s get stuck down. What do you got? Selfhelp book stock down, since you’ve already mentioned how dare you. Well, this is actually really more a stock up for this book, if anything. But you mentioned it. The New York Times described this book as more of a self help book than literature. Have you read self help books before? I’ve read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, the Four Hour Work Week, maybe like Rich Dad, Poor dad, if that counts, which was like, that guy ended up blowing all of his money and is now bankrupt, so it’s hilarious. Oh, is he? Yeah. And it was all fabricated stories, obviously, which is totally fine. I don’t mind if it’s entertaining. I don’t care if it’s true or not. It doesn’t bother me. But that’s my length of self help. If you’re going to do a self help book, I’d much rather have it disguised as a story. Then basically what self help books are from. The ones I’ve read, too, are. Here’s my theory on things. Now, I need to write 150 pages in order to sell a book on it. So I’m going to stuff this book you could read the preamble or the preface or whatever and know exactly what to say. But I need to write 50 pages. So you’re going to get 150 pages. But this is a large story. I liked it because of that. And I’d much rather have this like Rudy. Rudy, I think was a self help movie, right? That movie. I remember that scene by scene. I love that message in that it’s like number crunchers or something like that. One of those games used to play in elementary school to learn math. I don’t want a teacher on a chalkboard, teach me math. I’d rather be playing a video game where there’s math involved and I have to do the math to solve it. Or the idea of a little spoonful of honey helps the medicine go down. You know, you got kids disguise that medicine with honey or whatever the case is, and it just goes down easier. Being sick is 100% mental anyways. So they found studies d man, that says whatever you think makes you feel better when you have a common cold will make you feel better. So if you traditionally have chicken noodle soup, that will make you feel better. If you have ginger ale, that’ll make you feel better. Just whatever you think makes you feel better. They’ve also had studies that show that chicken soup actually does have properties that make your cold better. Mental properties. Yeah, mental. But I 100% agree with you on your point of stock down South Ale books, because I’ve been in the same book and you know who does this really well, and I don’t even know if they’re categorized necessarily selfhelp books, but like learning books and they do have some self aspects, is Malcolm Gladwell. All of his books are super interesting and there’s definitely kernels to take away from those that you can apply to your own life. It’s not get out of bed and do 20 push ups and make sure to make your bed because that keeps your brain together. It’s like, oh, that’s bullshit. Yeah. Making your bed also increases your chances of bedbugs. So justify. Is that right? Well, if you have bed bugs or you have a little bit of bed if you have bed bugs. But let’s just say you had a little bit of bedbugs and you had your bed unmade, it doesn’t create a great environment for them. But if you make your bed, you still have some residual heat and moisture, so creating a great environment for them to proliferate or any sort of bacteria. Got you. So my first knock down is being a total piece of shit. So yeah, stock is definitely pretty low. But in the book they say when we strive to become better, then everything around us becomes better too. But if that’s true, then the opposite must also be true, which is, you know, when you strive to become a total piece of shit, then everything else becomes a total piece of shit. And it reminds me of a great Simpsons episode. And I don’t even know the episode, just like all the Simpsons stuff, but they’re just these quick things that hit you in the head. It was showing how Bart had to stay back or go to this special needs class or something because his grade was an F, and it showed how he affected the class around him. And it just showed him in the middle of the class with an F, and then all around him was like, DS. And then as you got further out, it was like BS. And Marge and Homer at the pair of conference me, and were like, oh, my God, they’re so appalled. And then Koba was like, I also made a 3D rendering of it, and it’s just a black hole in the middle. It was a great scene, but actually that’s pretty true. In life, as much as we hate those Johnny Dukeoods who are trying to show how much better they are than all of us, I think if you try to manifest that in your own life, it does kind of leech off onto those around you. And the same with shitty behavior and shitty attitudes and stuff like that. We’re in football season right now, and you see that kind of happened within these football teams. Once you go on a losing streak, things kind of get let out in the media, and then the teams just crumble, where now you got guys like Brian Daval, head coach of the Giants, who’s not a very good team on paper, but he’s bringing this energy and these ideas and these schemes together, and everyone is buoyed up like they all play better because of that. So it’s just so funny when you’d think so much of things are based on natural talent and ability, and that’s definitely important. But mentality and purpose is something that’s contagious as well. I was on a basketball league out here. I joined a random free agent team when I first got out here, and there was one kid on the team that was the best player. Complete dickhead. Just the worst person ever.

He’s a guest of the program, sir. We don’t speak algorithm magic, but he just was negative to everyone. Just brought the whole team down, and I would try to do the opposite, anything he said. And at one point, he called me a positive patty, which I think was a racial fucking thing. I don’t know. He was basically making from my Irish heritage that was the nicest insult that I’ve ever been called a positive patty. Yeah, that’s the guy you want to hang out with. That’s the guy you want to beer with, right? I was like, Why would I be insulted by that? My pickleball group is all old people, and there are a lot of them aren’t very good. But I just go out there, play like I’m just so happy to be able to play. It really doesn’t matter to me. Like, obviously I want a fun, competitive game, but sometimes people will be like, I’m sorry, I’m not very good. Like, you probably don’t want to play with me. I’m like, are you kidding me? I’m having a blast. And I believe it. So it’s not putting on airs or something. I feel better after that exchange, and I get the feeling that they do as well, and I kind of enjoy having that aspect in my week. What else do you have for stock down? Business ideas? Stock down? Okay. I like to think of myself as an idea man. You are an idea man. I’m like Kramer in Seinfeld. Not the best ideas, but I throw ideas out there. That’s all I’m about. You’re driving to Michigan to turn in camp. Ten cents. Yeah. Obviously, Santiago, the boy, he’s pretty much like an entrepreneur in the beginning with the crystal shop, but I didn’t really get his business idea and why it worked. He was like, this is what we need to do, is we need to lug up this crystal, these crystal cups up the top of the hill, and then pour tea to people and give them tea. And then they’ll want to drink tea because they’re tired from climbing up the hill, and they’ll want to buy the crystal after they’ve had the tea, which isn’t really a good idea to me. You drop one time, you fucking lose all your money. The tea you’re not making much money on, right? And then who, when you got to the top of a hill, big hill, is like, what I want on the wave down is to have to carry this crystal down with me, this delicate crystal that could likely break. Well, I’m sure I would never want to do that. They wrapped it up. It’s crystal. Kids. My parents like crystal we never brought out, ever. Not one time. I don’t even know what the point of it was. It just stays in the cabinet. You don’t have to touch it because it’s going to break somehow. You know that’s what crystal is, right? My mom has a couple of those glasses and stuff like that, and she’s like, I just want you to know these are very expensive. You’re going to get them when I die. And I’m like, mom, sell them. I don’t care. I’m sorry. Did you ever use them? No, of course not. It’s too nice. What’s the enjoyment of using something that it’s like, if you break this, you just lost this money. Yeah, give me a fucking plastic cup there. I don’t care. It’s a weird part of and this book kind of touches on, too, just the materialistic nature of human beings, where we want to say that we have some crystal or, like, break it out once a year. Listen, if we did a book club in person, I’d fucked up with some. Crystal cups. Let’s be honest. At the same time, I didn’t thought the business idea was poor. I don’t know if you agree with me, but they made them a lot of money. It didn’t make sense to me, though. Well, I think the idea was travelers who come up the hill are thirsty, and in that area of the world, they’re drinking lots of tea, so we should offer them tea. And in these crystal cups they’ll go, oh, this is nice. I should get me some of them cups. If you went hiking at the top of the hike, right, you got to the final of the peak and they were like, hey, do you want this really expensive stuff to carry down? It might break on the way down. Would you want that? Well, considering there’s no booze in Africa or this Islamic place, if I got to the top of a hill and someone said, hey, here’s an ice cold Miller Light in a souvenir cup, I’d say, oh, okay, that’s great. And they said, yeah, you can keep the souvenir cup for a dollar that says you made it to the top of the hill. And I’d say, all right, I’ll throw you the dollar. It’s the same idea. But the cup you have to carry carefully the whole way down. Yeah, they wrap the cup. Why is this so hard to understand? Crystal breaks, kid. It breaks. I looked it up too. I was like, Am I crazy? Crystal is like, really fragile, right? And literally the first thing it shows is like, crystal will break if it hits anything hard. I said, yeah, exactly. All right, just drop your D on it. What are they wrapping it in? So now they have to sell pillows? What are we talking about here? On paper? Whatever. They didn’t have newspaper back then. The printing press was even around. I don’t even know what war they’re in, by the way. Do we know? Is it world War I? No, this has to be before that, right? I had no idea what war was going on. What’s? Not a war? It’s just like tribal warfare. Oh, there was like a world war going on in the desert. There’s a big North African campaign. World War Two, maybe. I don’t know. Irwin rommel the desert. Fox, my boy, why’d you say like that? The best Nazi to ever exist. Unfortunately, it’s true. He was up in that he was more for country. He was all about Germany and he wasn’t about Nazism. But that’s just kind of the way it went. He was just a good general. Yeah, I don’t know. Read up on it, Fox. He wasn’t down with Hitler. He wasn’t down with all that shit. My next and last talk down is books. So the reason why this is a book podcast, but I’m talking physical books, and the reason why it has taken us a while to get this one out is because it took me a while to read this book, and it’s not a long or difficult book to read. I just have been so into audiobooks lately. It’s fall here in New England. I got a lot of yard work to do. I’m driving around, all that stuff when audiobooks are great. I love an audiobook because I can really focus on it when I’m doing boring yard work or stuff like that. And it keeps my mind interested in something while I’m doing a monotonous task. And I just found that I don’t really love reading a physical book anymore. There’s a time and place for it, usually on an airplane on the shitter, but you really only get a couple of minutes when you’re doing that speak for yourself on the beach, like in the summer. I enjoy sitting there reading a book, although you get a better tan when you’re listening to an audiobook. But I have a tough time as a kid. I used to love going to bed early and having a cup of this aforementioned tea in a crystal glass and reading a book for an hour. But now, as an adult in football season, I just have no interest. And so that’s why I apologize to the listeners out there. I apologize to you, Keith. But that’s why it took me a while to get through this. Even though I enjoyed the book, I wanted to keep reading it. I just didn’t find a great time to be able to pick it up. If there was an audiobook, I would have been done with it. And look at he split. So that’s my personality. Jeremy Irons. That’s the thing too. I’m reading this in my own dumb head and I’m hearing my own stupid voice when I could be hearing Jeremy Irons. Maybe one of the oh my he made a five times better. I believe it. There’s no real character. I guess you could pick Santiago or the alchemist. I picked his dad. You already mentioned it. Okay. Yeah, his dad was a straight Homie for sure. I was hoping that at the end of it, we’d see them again. He’s also right. The ending was basically, oh, your treasure is back where you started. Which is what his dad said. His dad’s like, you can travel the whole world, you’re going to have a good time, but really, your treasure, your life, is where your home is. So that’s basically what happened. You want to see homo naked? What did I say? Those two aren’t mutually exclusive, but they might both be true. You remember Joe Dirt where he says homies where you make it, but it’s the guy who has what, homo’s naked? Yes. I don’t know why, but that Joe Dirt scene has always stuck with me. Just what Paulo Koala thought when we were talking about his book. Okay, what do we love? What do we love about the Alchemist? I was a fan. That was whimsical. It felt like a bedtime story as a kid. Jeremy Irons. Just those lustrous pipes. Yeah. I just appreciate it. I thought that was a fun part of the book, the short. It was easy to get through. Yes. I thought the setting was really interesting. I liked that a lot. There’s nothing beats, really, this, like you said, this mystical African desert, like North African desert. I guess maybe because I saw Aladdin at such a young age, and they talk about genies and stuff in this book. And obviously there’s a lot of magical elements of this book. I guess you could call them magical. Well, he turned himself into the wind, so that’s pretty magical, right? Yeah. I just think that area of the world and magic go really well together. So I enjoyed that. Yeah. I also thought the book, when you get beat up and robbed by those people, that was the end of the book. I was like, holy shit. This book starts it went from being like, follow your dreams, follow your journey, to like, don’t get conned by people. Stay at home and keep your sheep. Like, be happy. I thought that was the end of the book. I was like, holy shit, this is dirt. Because how did you think when you’re reading it, how did you think it was going to end? Do you think there was an actual treasure? Did you think there was a physical treasure or an emotional treasure? Yeah, I thought he was going to get there and he was going to be like, inspired. The Alchemist was like, my personal legend is being an alchemist, and you got to find yours. But we still don’t know what his is. Right? What is it? His personal legend was to find that treasure. But I thought the treasure was finding your personal legend, like what it is. So he went there and he’s like, oh, my god, these pyramids are amazing. I want to be an architect now. That’s why I realized this whole time I’ve been missing it’s like, oh, that’s a treasure he found. Exactly. But in the end they’re like, he’s got the shipping. It’s like, go back home, buddy. It’s like, wait, what? That’s it? Yeah. I thought based on how all the metaphors and stuff like that throughout the book, I thought it wasn’t going to be a physical treasure. I thought similarly to you, he’d see this and then say, oh, I’m going to get into engineering or something based on this and go back to the oasis and make, like the most efficient well, or something along those lines. But the idea of being with the personal legend is like, he’s in search for this treasure. But once you find it, it’s not like now your personal legend is done and you can die. You go onto the next personal legend. Like, you just keep moving forward. There’s always another one until there isn’t. So who knows what his next personal legend was, but he got that bag, as the kids say, because he went home and found his treasure. Also, like, a really great situation. You go to find this treasure and they go like, oh, it’s actually just back home. And then once you’re home, it’s easy because you’re not worried about people coming and killing you to get sustained treasure. I also wonder, who do you fence for? That like, when you have a mask made of gold, what do you do with that as a farm boy? What do you mean fence or like, sell it to your like, who do you battle with? Fence would be like the middleman who you used to sell it. Yeah. I don’t really know how things work back then, honestly. The other thing I loved, and we already kind of talked about this, so we don’t need to go any deeper, but how? It’s a lesson, disguises a story, disguises a lesson kind of thing. I enjoyed that. What else you got? I like to love the journey with the overall message, too. It’s just like, things might be go down, you might get rob and con multiple times, but just love the journey, enjoy it and embrace it. Maybe the meaning was like, the treasure is the journey. No, that’s definitely a message. And that ties right into living in the moment, is if he was only thinking about the treasure in the future, he would never have seen The Omens, been able to do this stuff day by day to get there. And it also would be extremely less meaningful. And similarly, if he was just always in the past and they gave out Spain, he would have never continued forward. So you really just have to be in the moment. And I think that’s definitely a good message. This guy says he’s only reading the story for the linear storyline. He’s dropping stuff like that. Paolo himself probably did this. He had a very interesting life. I don’t know if you read anything about that, but he went into psychiatric hospital and he was a kid because his parents put him there. And then he kind of traveled the world and became like a hippie in the then came back to be like this musical recording artist. But basically he had money and felt good and whatnot, had a life, and then went on this 500 miles walk across some countries or whatnot and found purpose in there. Would you hate? I thought it was a bit redundant, all the soul talk and like the heart talk, that whole passage where they’re walking. And I was like, all right, I kind of get this. And you were talking about how you can kind of interpret your own way, whereas that was kind of just speaking at you, which I was like, all right, this isn’t a story anymore. This is like, actually the only people that can do this is this and this and the heart does it. I’m like, alright, let’s get away from this part of the story. I like the first part better, where it was like a lot more of his journey, you know, him changing jobs and journey and traveling and like, bad things happening to him, good things happening to him. And you can just then interpret things as you want there, whereas when they’re just telling you what’s going on, it’s like, all right. I guess I hated how the book made me feel at times because, I don’t know, I was looking at it from the metaphorical perspective and being a cubicle monkey. Granted, things have changed since the pandemic, and even before that, you get to work from home a lot more. It’s really just working for corporate America. I feel like it’s kind of a Debbie Downer. You’re really not doing anything for fulfillment. And it often bothers me when other people that I work with are finding fulfillment in what they’re doing. I’m like, how is that possible? I’m doing something that’s making me feel purposeful. But I guess I get how some big swinging dicks are, or whatnot if they’re deciding things? This book about going out and trying to find something that’s meaningful and purposeful was like, shit, that all sounds really good, but I got a mortgage, so I did enjoy that. But it definitely was like, fuck this Santiago guy’s, little shepherd, he was able to give up everything he owned like four times just to go and do something. And I’m not willing to risk this paycheck because I need to pay my mortgage, I need to feed my family. I didn’t like the whole, the universe is conspiring to help you and Omans will tell you what to do. I think that was actually a really good message. I feel like there are a lot of times where you feel like the universe is conspiring against you. If anything, if something is that easy and that things are just being handed to you or like, guiding you in the right direction, then it’s probably not your personal legend. Right. Stuff should be difficult. If you really want something, there should be like a trial and tribulations before you get that success. Yeah, well, I think there was that too. Right? Well, he had that, but he kept on being like, anything you do, the universe will help you get it, and there will be omens. What if there is no omen? What if BBC has fucking ten downloads one week? What does that tell me? I just give up? I’m not going to say fucking omens here. Yeah. I think the idea is more of when bad things happen, don’t put your head down and stop paying attention to what’s going on. Because when you do that, you won’t be able to hear and see what’s happening around you, and you’re also not living in the moment anymore. All right, good spin zone. Yeah, do it. But I am with you that this I think that’s what the book The Secret is all about, that people really liked, was that if you put it out there, the universe will give it to you. And I don’t know. I mean, I’m a little bit of a pessimist and a cynic, so I don’t know if I necessarily believe that, but maybe I just have my own problems to deal with. What do we have for listener mail? You’ve got mail. All right, we have Pete from Greenville. I read somewhere that this book was for, quote, the 37 year old that’s always wanted to become a writer, aka BBC podcaster, but feel stuck in their office job. Did you feel that this book was for that person, AKS? Because that’s what we are, right? Yeah. I was like, holy shit. So basically this book is meant for people that are stuck in a dead end job or office job that need to be, like, quit and fucking go off and do their own thing. Were you inspired after reading this book? I wasn’t inspired to quit my day job, that’s for sure. Yeah, but I want to find a price if someone did. Let’s just say if you’re Paul, picture your hands in his writing hands or his typewriter or whatever, and you write this book and you get a couple of letters, which I’m sure he has, about people that said, hey, this book allowed me because some people just need that push, right? Maybe we all do. But this is their own. Yeah, exactly. Maybe they were in that rut and were on the train driving, going to their shitty job on their shitty commute and said, you know what? Fuck it. I’ve always wanted to be a plumber, like you said before, and they went back to the trades and they started their own business and they run a great plumbing business and they’re helping local people in their community. Good for you. If that was us, I would be jazzed. You know what I mean? If I was Paul, I’d be jazz, for me, at least, I enjoyed talking about this stuff, and I think that your perspective is different than mine. And I think when we bounce things off each other, it makes me think about things in a different way. So don’t focus on the end goal so much. I’m not necessarily focusing on the end goal. I’m just focusing on the moment, on enjoying these books and having a chat. But I do think that whether it was intended to or not, people are in search of answers. And if people are in search of answers, they’re going to look at stuff like this. So that’s just kind of the way it is. If someone feels lost, they’re going to try to find something. They’re going to find their light. I also feel like I’m more the I think most people are more the crystal owner, shop owner, because Santiago was already a risk taker he’s, like, done multiple risks. It’s much easier to take a bunch of risk when you already have proven that you can dump out the ledge and it works. It’s like it’s easier to do that. It’s much harder when you’re a mortgage, you have a couple of kids, and it’s like, I can’t really risk a lot here because otherwise I’m screwing over more than just myself type of thing. Yeah, well, I did hear an interview with Paula Coylo and he said something that I thought was interesting, which was people that are in those positions, because he was talking about people that have mortgages, kids, family, whatever. He’s like, your loved ones want to see you happy and in pursuit of something. If you’re living this life that you don’t want to live professionally or whatever the case is, then that negative energy is going to scratch off onto the people around you, too. Reminds me of that bill Berkeley. You know that one? The futon one? No. He says realizing that sleeping on a futon when you’re 30 is not the worst thing. You know what’s worse? Sleeping in a king bed next to a wife you’re not really in love with. But for some reason you’re married and have a couple of kids. It’s really depressed. Like any other job you hate, you’ll be fantasizing about sleeping on a futon. There’s no risk when you go after your dream. There’s a tremendous amount of risk. Playing safe. I like that. That’s a great quote. That should be in the alchemist. We should just read that quote. We would never have to read the book. Are we going to cast this movie? There’s really no movie here, right? Or did you want I did some, but no spit. We’re not doing good actors. But I was thinking desert. I was thinking tatooine. I was thinking Star Wars. I was singing Santiago. John Boyega, I think his story didn’t get finished early in the Star Wars. And I like him as an actor. I liked his character. Yeah, he’s great. Bring him out to the fucking desert again. We’re giving a fucking journey. We’re giving him the hero’s journey that he deserved. And I fucking finish off his thing. Another dumbass ending he got in the Star Wars. I’m not going to be upset. I’m getting upset. Give me that for the Santiago. What do you got? The only thing that I would possibly have for Santiago is Deb Patel. Oh, okay. What’s been a bunch of things, like lion. I mean, it’s not famous on Sundae Millionaire. Oh, some Doug Millerier. And I do think that this would also if you wanted to go instead of North Africa, you want to go like Far East kind of vibes. I think India would be also an interesting place to play. Yeah, you could do this anywhere. I don’t think it had to be I mean, I still think it should be in the desert or in this journey, but it doesn’t the journey could start in the Amazon. I think you open up the world more if you want to. For sure. Did you have anyone else you would want to cast? I did, Jeremy. Iron for the alchemist. I just had to put him on Movie after hearing his voice all time. Give it to him. And then the British dude. I was just thinking jude Law. He’s a Jude Law guy. Yeah, that checks out. He’s also been the character I feel like before. Yeah. That is his character. Will Smith has the rights to it, by the way. Really interesting. Yeah. 2021. He got him. But I think that might be paused a little bit. I feel like it would be tough to make into a movie because it’d be like a big fish, that movie, which I did not like. I haven’t seen it, but I’m a huge you and McGregor fan. I might have to re watch it, but I just remember thinking it was very similar to this, where it’s like, whimsical. And I remember describing it as the opposite of Death of a Salesman. It was like, this guy telling all these tall tales and all this ridiculous stuff, but in the end they’re all true. They’re all, like, ridiculous things. Like, I caught a fish with nine Eyes. And it’s like, all these things, and it’s like, oh, he’s just like a complete liar that thinks he’s bigger than he is. And then he’s like, Nope, I am this good. It’s like oh, okay. I didn’t care for that kind of messaging. What does that tell about you? Just a braggart. Like, who fucking cares? Yeah. I feel like this would be almost like a will Smith wanted to make it with his own money or something. Like a low budget, but like a passion. I could see it. Yeah. I don’t think it’s bringing people out of the it’s not like, oh, sure, the Alchemist, what a great book. Movie theaters and try to make it bigger than it is. It loses all of its meaning. Yeah, agreed. All right, Keith the Alchemist, would you recommend it not only to our high schoolers out there, but to everyone else in the world? I thought it was good. I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it, but if someone said, have you read it? I said, yeah, that’s solid. It was a good book. I wouldn’t have a really strong opinion on it one way or the other. I did think it was a cool, whimsical bedtime story book. I think you read these once in a while. I think they’re worth it. I wouldn’t say no. I wouldn’t overwhelmingly say yes. I would just say right in the middle. Okay. I would say yes. I like books that make you think. I mean, I don’t love them all the time, but I like books that make you think a little bit. And this one definitely did not think normally, how we like to think like, oh, who’s the killer? Or what’s? The twist? Which I love that stuff, don’t get me wrong. But we’re going to read 30 books this year or something like that. So having a book like this in there is nice. I would suggest let’s just say if I had a kid and they were going to college or something like that, I would recommend this book to them. And I would also say, hey, read this book now, and it’s quick, which we love. And I’d say, in ten years, read it again, because I’d be interested because I have this on my bookshelf. It’s the SGF. And she said, you know, I read that at least every couple of years or something. I was like, really? Like what? And this is a book that I feel like changes as you age and learn stuff. So I like that. I like that idea that the messaging and the way you interpret it can change because most books just aren’t like that. So it’s fluid. I enjoy that. So I think it’d be interesting to read it different times in your life. Yeah. Now that makes sense. All right, well, that was the Alchemist. Keith, what do we have coming up next? I think this would probably be the end, potentially, of our return to school series, considering it’s almost Halloween. Maybe we should read a horror movie after this next one, or horror book. Excuse me. Anything but the fucking vampire. Let me just read. I know I feel, like, bad suggesting it at this point, but what do we got going on next? We got all quiet on the Western front by Maria remarket. Movie is coming out, or it’s just about to come out on Netflix. I think this one is. When I read in high school, I didn’t really remember it, though. Cool. So it should be Love war movies, war books, all that stuff. That’s right up my alley. Right up. It says this is a four to 6th grade level. What? This book was way harder than a four to 640 6th grade. Right in our wheelhouse. Nine to eleven years. This isn’t an easy read. I don’t know why they would ever put it well, there’s a war in murdering people. You want that? All right, well, as always, it’s great talking to you, and we’ll touch base. We’ll talk soon on Aquarius, on the rest of the front. All right, thank you. Bye now.