How long does it take to read The Alchemist?
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho takes about 3 hours 37 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 3 hours 37 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1988. 197 pages, about 54,175 words.
8 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 6 hours 1 minute |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 3 hours 37 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 15 minutes |
The page count is the median across 141 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
The Alchemist details the journey of a young Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. Santiago, believing a recurring dream to be prophetic, decides to travel to the pyramids of Egypt to find treasure. On the way, he encounters love, danger, opportunity and disaster. One of the significant characters that he meets is an old king named Melchizedek who tells him that "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." This is the core philosophy and motif of the book.
Subjects: Voyages and travels, Fiction, Portuguese Fiction, Self-realization, Alchemists, Young men
