The Archer
By Paulo Coelho
Paperback | Hardcover
You can become a master of your art by following the tenets of “The Archer”.
In “The Archer” Paulo Coelho talks about how you can achieve perfection in your art by following the principles of archery. He calls it ‘the way of a bow’.
Paulo Coelho is known for his poetic and philosophical style
of writing. I have always been inspired by his books. Sometimes I learned from
his characters, sometimes from the story and sometimes just his words did the
magic. This book is about the magic of
his words.
What is the Story About?
The Story
A legendary archer narrates the principles to become a master
archer to a boy keen to learn about archery.
He starts by talking about connecting with the right people ,
about the basics of archery a bow, an arrow, and the target. He goes into
details like how to hold an arrow, how
to draw the bowstring, how to look at the target, and how to observe the flight
of an arrow?
Of course, this is a symbolic language where the bow is your
life, the arrow is your intention and the target is the objective to be
achieved in life.
Paulo Coelho uses
archery as a metaphor to talk about achieving mastery in life both personally
and professionally.
About the Book
The book comes with a very good quality binding, 130 pages, illustrations,
and paragraphs some just 7 – 8 lines on each page.
At the first glance, you might think it to be a quick read,
but it is not. The book is profound. While I was reading, I had to pause after
reading some paragraphs to understand the deeper message the author was trying to
give.
What makes “The Archer” different from Paulo Coelho’s other books?
The illustrations.
This book has a lot of abstract paintings from the
award-winning illustrator Christopher Niemann. That is why buying hardcover
book is recommended over an e-book.
Did you know all the Paulo Coelho books that we read in
English are translated? Yes, including the very famous “The Alchemist”. Paulo Coelho writes in Portuguese and his
work is translated into more than 59 languages.
“The Archer” is translated to English by Margaret Jull Costa
a British translator to Portuguese.
Some Quotes from “The Archer”
“An archer who follows the way does not need a bow or an arrow or a target”.
“If you never take the risk, you will never know what changes you need to make”.
“The arrow will be affected by the wind and by gravity, but that is part of its trajectory; a leaf does not cease to be a leaf merely because a storm tore it from a tree”.
“Use your bad moments to discover what makes you tremble. Use your good moments to find your road to inner peace”.
“The snow is lovely because it has only one color, the sea is lovely because it appears to be a completely flat surface, but both sea and snow are deep and know their own qualities”.
“Learn the technique in such a way that it becomes intuitive. Intuition has nothing to do with routine, but with a state of mind that is beyond technique”.
My Recommendation
“The Archer” is meant
for reflection. Pick up this book in moments of despair when you are looking
for guidance or feeling lost. This book will help you to find what went wrong, where
did you fail ? which rule was not followed ? so that you can start all over
again.
This book can be interpreted in many ways both for personal
and professional success.
It is an ideal book to be carried while traveling. A very
good book to gift to your friends and family.
Do check it out.
Book Buying Link
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Do let me know by commenting in the comment box below.
Excellent Prajakta.
ReplyDeleteI am going to read the book soon. Thanks.
thankyou so much!
DeleteThe review gives complete idea of what actually the book is all about.
ReplyDeletethanksyou so much
Delete