Essentially The Alchemist is like The Celestine Prophecy and The Peaceful Warrior. Nice story, easy read, and half-way interesting ideas. That being said I wouldn't read it unless you wanted to kill some time or just have a nice fuzzy feeling in your root chakra. :-D

Funny thing is, is that I just read it for a class i had last semester. Probably wouldn't have picked it up otherwise.

Okay - so it doesn't compare to, say, Snow Crash?

:)

Actually I've never read Snow Crash myself... From what I've heard they are pretty different. That being said, I need to add that to my wishlist! Dude, once I get out of school there are going to be two dozen books waiting for me.