I’m not really a book critic, but I really love books. I thought I’d share my opinion of some of the books I’ve read. Hopefully, someone would find this useful when they hop along to some Book Heaven like FullyBooked or PowerBooks or even National Bookstore.
The first book I’d like to start on is The Manual of the Warrior of the Light by Paulo Coelho but before that a bit about Coelho and his wonderful books.
Now Coelho is simple an amazing writer. Teens like me may or may not be fond of the Bible, or those books about finding God, and things like that because it’s supposed to be corny. However, Paulo Coelho, a fiction writer, does a great job of making a somewhat spiritual book into this inspiring novel that I’m sure many many many people can relate to. His books don’t portray a life of some ‘perfect’ person which we should copy. It doesn’t tell us what is right or what is wrong. His books are open to self-interpretation, and to some effect, they don’t really have endings. His books are like journeys where you have to find out which way you want to go after reading the book. They talk about humans with very imperfect lives, wherein they, the characters, would struggle. Just like everyone who is human. We aren’t perfect, and neither are the characters. Most of the time, we struggle to the find the path which is least painful to us – the right path. The characters are the same, sometimes they too go astray, but there is hope, hope that they too will find their way back to the path where they belong.
If you’re the type of person who likes Chocolate for a Teen’s Soul, or books like that, I would recommend Paulo Coelho’s book. His books require some deep thinking so I would recommend it to teens… and everyone who’d still like to believe they’re teens. :D In short, teens and above… and way above. Haha! Kidding :)
The Warrior of the Light: A Manual, is actually a companion book to the Alchemist. Now The Alchemist, is one of the best, if not the best, selling book Coelho has. Most people I have met have read it and liked it. Now, I’ll save the review of the Alchemist for some other time if you want me to talk about it, but I’m assuming you’ve read it already since it really is famous. The Warrior of Light is literally in a manual format. It first starts off with a short story about a boy who sat in front of the ocean, hoping to hear the bells a mysterious woman talked about. Next, is the manual part. We could also describe it as a manual of wisdom. There are many quotable words of wisdom in this part which could be applied to one’s life if one wished to live a good life with no regrets. It’s like the 10 commandments, if you will. It isn’t God’s words, and it isn’t God’s law, but it’s common sense of what is right, except just a bit deeper than the obvious. Many of these words of wisdom contradict each other but that is life. Life is filled with contradictions, however, we as humans have the capacity to make choices. (Apply what I learned it Theo. OMGoodness. :o ) Freedom is having the capacity to choose. God gave us freedom, but this freedom is free yet morally obliging. (According to Theo class) Humans are free to do what they want, but we’re all bent to do what is morally correct – to do what is good. God gave us freedom, but He also gave us Wisdom. Wisdom is different from Intellect, and according to my handy dandy Mac Oxford Dictionary, Wisdom is “the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.”
So as you can see, I’m really a Paulo Coelho fan because for me he writes really really well. And as for my opinion on the book, I’d give it a 10/10… but if I really want to be critic-y. I’d give it a 7/10. I’d recommend spending the money on some other Paulo Coelho books such as The Alchemist. The Warrior of the Light: A Manual is not really a story so one might feel bored after reading a few quotes, but then if you think you won’t be bored and are one of your inspirational moods, I think you’d really like this book.
According to one of my current favourite sites:
FullyBookedOnline
http://fullybookedonline.com/productdetails.asp?id=1383
Price P249.00