The Pilgrimage: A Contemporary Quest for Ancient Wisdom [Paperback]

Paulo Coelho (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 265 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins (2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060736291
• ISBN-13: 978-0060736293
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,953,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The Brazilian author PAULO COELHO was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist and journalist.

In 1986, PAULO COELHO did the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella, an experience later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage.

In the following year, COELHO published The Alchemist. Slow initial sales convinced his first publisher to drop the novel, but it went on to become one of the best selling Brazilian books of all time.

Other titles include Brida (1990), The Valkyries (1992), By the river Piedra I sat Down and Wept (1994), the collection of his best columns published in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S'o Paulo entitle Maktub (1994), the compilation of texts Phrases (1995), The Fifth Mountain (1996), Manual of a Warrior of Light (1997), Veronika decides to die (1998), The Devil and Miss Prym (2000), the compilation of traditional tales in Stories for parents, children and grandchildren (2001), Eleven Minutes (2003), The Zahir (2005)

During the months of March, April, May and June 2006, Paulo Coelho traveled to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella in 1986. He also held surprise book signings - announced one day in advance - in some cities along the way, to have a chance to meet his readers. In ninety days of pilgrimage the author traveled around the globe and took the famous Transiberrian train that took him to Vladivostok. During this experience Paulo Coelho launched his blog Walking the Path - The Pilgrimage in order to share with his readers his impressions.

Since this first blog Paulo Coelho has expanded his presence in the internet with his daily blogs in Wordpress (http://paulocoelhoblog.com), Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/paulocoelho) & Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Paulo-Coelho/11777366210). He is equally present in media sharing sites such as Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=paulabraconnot) and Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulo_coelho/sets) , offering on a regular basis not only texts but also videos and pictures to his readers.

From this intensive interest and use of the Internet sprang his bold new project: The Experimental Witch http://paulocoelhoblog.com/experimental-witch where he invites his readers to adapt to the screen his book The Witch of Portobello. You can still subscribe in this experiment!

Indeed Paulo Coelho is a firm believer of Internet as a new media and is the first Best-selling author to actively support online free distribution http://piratecoelho.wordpress.com of his work.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Spirtual...., April 28, 2000

By 

Qualaqube - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pilgrimage: A Contemporary Quest for Ancient Wisdom (Paperback)

If you're looking for another Alchemist this is not the right book for you... it is about Mr. Coelho's personal experiences, it is written in the first-person, and it is more spiritual. But its events are so mind-boggling that you can see where the author's inspiration comes from for his literary masterpieces. It gives you a profound respect for Mr. Coelho and his achievements. It is NOT FICTION. It contains "Meditation" exercises at the end of nearly every chapter. The main aim in my opinion of this book is to remind us of the mystery of the world and that not everything is clear to us as humans, but that despite this, it remains our duty to fight for what we believe is right. Most importantly, this is not a self-help book nor does it spoon-feed you theories about life... DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS about its deeper meanings...but read it.

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very interesting book for the message and story alike., October 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Pilgrimage: A Contemporary Quest for Ancient Wisdom (Paperback)

I have read Brida, the Alchemist, The Valkyries and The Pilgramage which is the most outstanding (all of them are great).I thank Paulo Coelho very much for his messages. Just say, it is worth it to read it, but if you dare to believe, as I do, you can go further, if not, don't worry, it's in no way a boring book. I suggest you to take the Road to Santiago after reading it. This book has made me to change a lot, and I promise, it's being a great change. I strongly recommend this book for those who don't know what to do with their lives or are full of doubts about their future. This book is helping me to find my way and to look at the Road and pay more attention to myself and my inner soul. But it's not just to read it, it needs practice, faith, will and time. I think it pays off, because what really matters in life? what we have in the material world or what we can achieve in the spiritual and psycological world? This book deals with the latter.It's your choice. Good luck!.

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good travel book, interesting personal perspective, March 7, 2003

By 

Denis Benchimol Minev "Amazonia" (Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Pilgrimage: A Contemporary Quest for Ancient Wisdom (Paperback)

This was Coelho's first popular book, and as such denotes his evolving magical style. It is about his trip in the Santiago de COmpostela trek that goes from east to west across Spain. I found the travel perspective of the book to be fascinating, and since I read it I have thought many times about doing the trek myself.

As for the personal revelation the author encounters in the trek, I foudn them interesting, not overwhelming. The lessons learned are presented in many different books aside form this one; what makes this book a little special, I believe, is that the story involves the reader in such a way that the lessons are driven effortlessly.