** spoiler alert ** 
 The Alchemist had so many great pieces of wisdom and I really enjoyed it. However, I could not get past the way women were treated in the story. First Santiago is in love with a girl he meets and talks to for two hours. Then he is in love with a girl he meets in the desert. It was her destiny/personal legend to fall in love with him. That's it. But Santiago's destiny is this great adventure, not simply to love her back. 
 Why couldn't she have her own great destiny or quest on top of loving him? Or she could be his partner in life and go with him on his adventure to realize his destiny? 
 It felt like women were trivialized way too much. To get through the rest of the book after Santiago met Fatima I had to swap the gender roles as I read and imagine the man was waiting in the desert for the woman to return while she went on her great quest. But then I thought I wouldn't want a man who was like I love you now go on a wonderful adventure that will probably take years and I will just sit here and wait and do nothing while you are gone. Not my kind of guy! 
 As much as this story contains great wisdom and advice on the way to view and think about the world and the self, the author, Paulo Coelho, is missing a great chunk from his perspective and that his viewing women as equals who are given a destiny just as rightfully as mean with just as great of a scope. 
 I did rate the audiobook performance 5 out of 5 stars audible as it is read by Jeremy Irons (the voice of Scar in the Lion King) and he does a magnificent job! I went back and forth between listening to the audiobook and reading the physical book.