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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
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I'm not sure what I feel about this book. It's going to take some time to digest. It's very well written and easy to read but the underlying meaning is heavy. My immediate thoughts are: philosophical, spiritual, cerebral and a very small touch of Indiana Jones type adventure.
Some of the immediate lessons seem to be: trust your gut, your intuition, ask questions, nothing is too small or too big, there are no such things as coincidences, find the silver lining, and everyone has a message for you. Things I'm not sold on are: tithing, manifesting your goals. Unfortunately due to events over the last few years, humans have continued to disappoint and we seem to be regressing instead of evolving. Although, I appreciate the vision of Celestine for humans and Earth and I hope it can happen I am hesitant to believe it.
Some of the immediate lessons seem to be: trust your gut, your intuition, ask questions, nothing is too small or too big, there are no such things as coincidences, find the silver lining, and everyone has a message for you. Things I'm not sold on are: tithing, manifesting your goals. Unfortunately due to events over the last few years, humans have continued to disappoint and we seem to be regressing instead of evolving. Although, I appreciate the vision of Celestine for humans and Earth and I hope it can happen I am hesitant to believe it.
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed this book. I thought the concept of this book was intriguing and liked how the insights where explained through a story so it could better be understood. Found it very interesting and have been reflecting on my own life from what I’ve learnt.
I first read this as a teenager when a copy was gifted to me by a coworker at my summer job. That was a long time ago and I really didn't remember very much of it at all. I don't think a lot of it must have stuck the first time, probably because I didn't have enough life experience to apply these ideas to and truly understand them. It's fiction, but the story is really just a vehicle for presenting spiritual ideas, which does help with giving some context to these often somewhat abstract concepts. There is some light action and adventure, but I recommend not expecting too much from the narrative and just treating it like a parable where you understand that the message is the real focus.
Some of the ideas presented in the book are weird and even creepy (there's a whole thing about how males and females are drawn to each other to complete their masculine/feminine balance, with some weird Freudian stuff thrown in about how kids connect with their different-gendered parent. I know this was written in the '90s, but wow is it hetero- and ciscentric and kinda gender-essentialist). However, there are a lot of other ideas which really align with things I have learned elsewhere or through my own experience that I think would be thought-provoking or enlightening to a lot of people. My recommendation is to not take the book too literally and just glean from it some of the ideas that speak to you and stay open to the ones that may not. Even in the weird stuff I just mentioned that mostly turned me off, there were aspects I could think about or learn from. You don't have to accept it all equally to get something from it.
If you're a cynic who thinks anything "New Age" or "spiritual" is automatically trash, then don't read this book. You'll hate it. If you're interested in opening yourself to new ideas that might help you connect better with yourself, other people, and the external world, then give it a try.
Some of the ideas presented in the book are weird and even creepy (there's a whole thing about how males and females are drawn to each other to complete their masculine/feminine balance, with some weird Freudian stuff thrown in about how kids connect with their different-gendered parent. I know this was written in the '90s, but wow is it hetero- and ciscentric and kinda gender-essentialist). However, there are a lot of other ideas which really align with things I have learned elsewhere or through my own experience that I think would be thought-provoking or enlightening to a lot of people. My recommendation is to not take the book too literally and just glean from it some of the ideas that speak to you and stay open to the ones that may not. Even in the weird stuff I just mentioned that mostly turned me off, there were aspects I could think about or learn from. You don't have to accept it all equally to get something from it.
If you're a cynic who thinks anything "New Age" or "spiritual" is automatically trash, then don't read this book. You'll hate it. If you're interested in opening yourself to new ideas that might help you connect better with yourself, other people, and the external world, then give it a try.
This was lent to me by a friend, and I have to say, I really loved it. The concepts are so aligned with how I view the world, so I found it really easy to understand.
Read it during university. Starts off with some interesting ideas around spirituality but just gets ridiculous
I know this is fiction, but even fiction needs to have elements of reality in order to make the story believable. This author clearly did very minimal research about Peru when choosing this country as the setting for his story. It was obvious he wanted to pick a country with a mystical quality to it, but didn’t really care about being accurate when describing the setting. While I realize the prophecy and the corresponding insights are the main focus of this book, there were several inaccuracies about the setting that constantly pulled me out of the book. I’m not an expert on Peru, but I’ve been there, and when a detail didn’t sound quite right with the setting, I did a quick Google search to see if perhaps I was wrong. Everything I’ve found confirms my thinking.
1. The author describes a setting with a grove of oak trees. Peru has a large variety of trees, but in real life, oak trees do not seem to be one of them.
2. The characters visit a Victorian-style home. While I suppose some ex-pat might choose to build a Victorian-style home in Peru, this style of architecture is not usually found in South America.
3. This is the big one—the Maya never lived in South America.
Besides these inaccuracies, the author was also very vague in describing the setting. He often did not describe the plants the character saw, instead just calling them “tropical plants.” While it makes sense the character wouldn’t know what the plants were called, not being from Peru, surely the author could have done more research so the character could describe specific plants using the five sense.
It also bothered me that certain side characters were referred to as “Indians” when they could have been referred to as Quechua or one of the other cultures. And then to describe the Maya (who did not live in Peru) and the Inca as primitive people also misses the mark. It’s pretty clear these were pretty advanced and civilized societies in real life. I get that this was written in the 90s, but the terminology was still annoying. There’s definitely a bit of a white superiority feeling in the book.
The story itself is just boring, and I don’t feel like the insights are really that insightful. I didn’t even bother to read the afterward about “How to Create your Own Celestine Experience.”
Oh, and it was never really clear why the manuscript was written in Aramaic. I guess that was just way for the author to say “Hey, you don’t have to lose your religion to follow my spiritual paths.” Although it seems he’s really just trying to appeal to Christians rather than all religions.
Changing this to one star. This is the worst book I’ve ever read. Seriously, he did no research.
1. The author describes a setting with a grove of oak trees. Peru has a large variety of trees, but in real life, oak trees do not seem to be one of them.
2. The characters visit a Victorian-style home. While I suppose some ex-pat might choose to build a Victorian-style home in Peru, this style of architecture is not usually found in South America.
3. This is the big one—the Maya never lived in South America.
Besides these inaccuracies, the author was also very vague in describing the setting. He often did not describe the plants the character saw, instead just calling them “tropical plants.” While it makes sense the character wouldn’t know what the plants were called, not being from Peru, surely the author could have done more research so the character could describe specific plants using the five sense.
It also bothered me that certain side characters were referred to as “Indians” when they could have been referred to as Quechua or one of the other cultures. And then to describe the Maya (who did not live in Peru) and the Inca as primitive people also misses the mark. It’s pretty clear these were pretty advanced and civilized societies in real life. I get that this was written in the 90s, but the terminology was still annoying. There’s definitely a bit of a white superiority feeling in the book.
The story itself is just boring, and I don’t feel like the insights are really that insightful. I didn’t even bother to read the afterward about “How to Create your Own Celestine Experience.”
Oh, and it was never really clear why the manuscript was written in Aramaic. I guess that was just way for the author to say “Hey, you don’t have to lose your religion to follow my spiritual paths.” Although it seems he’s really just trying to appeal to Christians rather than all religions.
Changing this to one star. This is the worst book I’ve ever read. Seriously, he did no research.
When I read it and n 1994, I would have given it a 5 star rating. Today, I’m bothered by the imbedded colonial attitude and the subtle sexism and racism.
This is quite possibly the worst book I have ever read. It attempts to explore spiritual ideas and concepts through a truly terrible fictional story.
The plot is flimsy, the characters are utterly boring (and frankly, I couldn’t tell the difference between any of them) and I found myself giggling at the dreadful dialogue.....
“Feel that energy”, I asked, whispering into her ear.
“It’s incredible” she said. “What does it mean?”
“I don’t know. We have some kind of connection”
CRINGE!
A good friend recommended this to me, and after I savaged it she went back and read it again and laughed heartily at her 19 year old self who lapped up this crap many years ago.
The plot is flimsy, the characters are utterly boring (and frankly, I couldn’t tell the difference between any of them) and I found myself giggling at the dreadful dialogue.....
“Feel that energy”, I asked, whispering into her ear.
“It’s incredible” she said. “What does it mean?”
“I don’t know. We have some kind of connection”
CRINGE!
A good friend recommended this to me, and after I savaged it she went back and read it again and laughed heartily at her 19 year old self who lapped up this crap many years ago.