I tried to read that a year ago. It was too boring in the beginning of the book so I quit that one.
i read about half of it, loved it. Never finished it though 
Wow. That one’s pretty good. Really liked the ending to it… It’s… well, I don’t think it’s predictable, but it’s still pretty sad.
Non literary: Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (literary criticism); Erving Goffman, Asylums (sociology); Lúcia Santaella, Teoria Geral dos Signos (“A General Theory of Signs,” semiotics); Andeu Mas–Colell, Microeconomic Theory (science fiction 
).
Literary: Italo Calvino, Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore (“If on a winter night a traveler,” fantastic realism, metaliterature); Edgar Alan Poe, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (portuguese translation, romanticism, symbolism, modern short–story). Also skimming through the Pantchatantra (portuguese translation, the original is in Sanscrit); as far as I know, the oldest remaining book of “short stories” or “tales” or whatever—somewhat similar in structure and whatnot to the good old Arabian Nights.
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip Dick, the plot even contains a drug that is able to create a solipsistic world exactly like the LD world.
I started The Big Bang by Simon Sing(sp?) on sunday.
I just finished The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and I’m about to dive into The Valkyries by him as well. Really great books, I enjoy his stuff a lot.
Seriously? I hate him! 
/me has been reading:
Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore (If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler) by Italo Calvino, a romance.
Vestido de Noiva (The wedding dress) by Nelson Rodrigues, a play.
Asylums by Erving Goffman, a sociological treatise on total instutions, such as hospices, prisons and convents.
Uncle Toms Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
I think I spelt that right 
Why?!
I’m still reading The Brothers Karamazov, but only barely… school doesn’t leave much time to really concentrate on it. Speaking of school - we’re reading Macbeth (we will finish it tomorrow) and, for a separate project, I am reading Michaelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling, by Ross King.
Same here. That makes me sad, because it was starting to get real interesting…
Dexters dunkla drömmar(original title: Darkly Dreaming Dexter)
I watched the show Dexter so I started to read the book it was based on too.
In short: Dexter is the main person, he is a serial killer who only kills bad people.
He’s a fake, a poser. And writes terribly not well. And it’s not only me, no one here in Brazil likes him. He’s like a shame to our literature.
I was reading Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol (and it was really boring) when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published in french. Now I just finished Harry Potter (it was great 
) and I’ll continue to read the last pages of this Gogol’s most uninteresting book. 
Same thoughts about Coelho here. The story of the Alchemist is taken from another book (it was just a short tale and Coelho developped it) but I don’t remember where I read it first.
Ahhhh, I’ll take your word for it. Sometimes my literary ignorance astounds me.
Can you recommend me something (obviously non-posuerISH) that’s related to the theme of the Alchemist? Regardless of the author’s insecurities, I still enjoyed the book.
I’m reading “Exploring the world of lucid dreaming” 
Hm. He’s not really my type of literature really, not the theme I’m the craziest about. But good stuff I read with similar theme (and, of course, easily available in English, as I would otherwise be recommending Raul Seixas and Julio Cortázar) comes from William Blake and Aldous Huxley (not Brave New World, but Doors of Perception, or Heaven and Hell, both of which seem to have an influence in Paulo’s fiction).
That guy who wrote Clockwork Orange, what’s his name come again? Anthony Burgess! His later books are real nice, in my opinion, and somewhat similar too. The Yank Beats, like Kerouac and Ginsberg and Burroughs, are also very similar and (ironically) more contemporary than Paulo.
Who else? Well. If you want “crossing the path” “metaphor of life” books, the greatest (although seriously difficult to read) would be [i]The Odyssey /i, In Search of Lost Time (Proust), [i]Ulysses /i, Grande Sertão: Veredas (Guimarães Rosa, in English published as “The Devil to Pay in the Backlands”), Berlin Alexanderplatz (Döblin). Still in the list, I could recommend you Dostoevski’s Brothers Karamazov, as well as Crime & Punishment.
If what you’re asking for is Romance Literature, Ítalo Calvino’s work (remarkably Invisible Cities and If on a winter’s night a traveler), as well as Cortázar’s (Bestiario, Historias de cronopios y de famas, Hopscotch) and Guimarães Rosa’s (Sagarana, First Stories, Tutaméia), not to mention Umberto Eco’s stuff (Name of the Rose, Baudolino…) are a must–read.
I’ve been reading Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. It seems a little far-fetched at points, is rather one-sided, and seems a little bit too detailed at points, but I can honestly say it’s one of the best books I’ve read. It’s theories on capitalism and socialism are quite thought intriguing. It is a bit lengthy - 1100 pages with small type, but is a very worthwhile read.
Ain’t that the Russian lady who ran away to the States at some point? I think I’ve heard those names (the lady’s and the book’s) before.
It’s not exactly about alchemy, but have you read The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov? It’s about the theme of Faust and it’s one of the best books of the XX century (and by the way one of my favourite books). 
Mr. Vertigo by Paul Auster is a rather good book too. It’s about magic and I think you could enjoy it if you’ve liked The Alchemist. Another interesting and curious books are Princess Brambilla and The golden pot by E.T.A. Hoffmann (more romantic cause it’s german XIX century litterature) and why not? The Swedish Cavalier by Leo Perutz.
All these books are really curious and it sounds like there is a second and spiritual meaning behind them (especially the Hoffman’s ones).
In the same style, I think you could enjoy some Hermann Hesse’s books, for instance Steppenwolf, Narcissus and Goldmund and The Glass Bead Game which are certainly the books whose “esoteric” content is the nearest from The Alchemist.