Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence

[Annthecat]

I am reading this currently, for the first time.

I am enjoying it, but struggling with some of the ideas.

What do others thnink?

It is a bit of a challenge of a book. Do you know anything about the author? It might help

oh yes, I struggled. As soon as he got in too deep with his nervous breakdown and philospohical pondering, I struggled.

I think the author suffered from some kind of breakdown and this is reflected in his narrative...the son in the book, Chris, is based on his real son, who died tragically in the 70's. he went on to have a daughter who he thought was a reincarnation of his lost son.

In my copy there is an afterward by Pirsig explaing his rationale and reasoning....it took me about three tries to read it, but was completely worth it...pretty heavy going though, especially all the Phaedrus stuff. Think I definitely need to reread it to get my head round a lot of the ideas in there.

This is a bump from WAY back but wanted to see if anyone else has read or is reading this?

I'm almost finished and just blown away by it so far.

I read it when I was a young chap with my first bike, and found it almost entirely useless. The photo-articles in Motorcycle Mechanics were far better.

I read it when I was 16 or 17 and loved it. Not sure how I would feel about it now, may get round to rereading it one day!

Piglet

Meg you should! Wonder how much of it you'd remember?

My first ever Job was in a bookshop, an Austicks, someone came in and asked for this book and I loudly pointed them towards the transport section, never forgotten that and always meant to read it.

Downloaded it on free audio. Is it worth a go whilst on holiday?

Ths was one of my favourite books when I was doing my A levels.

Am I the only person who loathes this book? I can't abide it. Pretentious, badly-written...it was rejected by about 130 publishers before he found someone willing to take it on, and I can see why.

It is not fiction. It is a philosophy paper.

For most people, it will be the only paper on a philosophical topic they will ever read, so if only for that, I am happy that it is well-known.

I have struggled through many of the philosophical papers and theories that he mentions in the book. (As a total layperson with an interest) I was quite impressed at his command of the concepts and how he explains them. Did feel it was a bit overdone in places but the nature of something like subject- object duality is that it's bloody hard to get a grasp of!

I was blown away by the way he describes phaedrus's descent into madness, it rang true. The pace was blinding at times and it was easy to imagine thoughts racing by at two hundred miles an hour. I liked some of the gentle explanations for behaviours just thrown in there without too much fanfare- when he describes Sylvia's suppressed rage at a dropping tap and how we always suppress anger for things we TRULY hate.

I loved lots about this book and glad to have finally got around to it. Can anyone recommend anything similar ?