I just started to re Read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence...

[WCGreen]

What a wonderful book.

I read it when it first came out back in the 70's and got some stuff from the book.

But now, it really expands as I read from the experience of 35 more years of life.

[RoyGBiv]

1. It's a wonderful book ...

A professor recommended it to me when I was 18 and said it would be something I'd want to read several times at different stages of my life.

She was right.

Each time I read it now, I get something else out of it. It means something different depending on your life's experiences.

It also helps that I now recognize all the philosophers in it. At 18, I just went with it and hoped those parts made sense.

[WCGreen]

2. I feel exactly the same way...

His explainations of the development of philosophic thought is really enlightening.

It helps that I am also reading a book about the development of Alexandria as the intectual seat of teh ancient world.

It's starting to fall into place now.

[kid a]

3. I love that book.

I made sure both my daughters read that before they graduated high school.

It's one of those books that keeps creeping back into my life often (I live in Montana most of the year and ride a motorcycle through Miles City a few times a year too)

Thanks for bringing that book up - I'll have to dig it out for another read.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Well, you inspired me...

I walked down the hall, to the bookcase outside my bedroom, and there it was, right where I remembered seeing it.

I am now re-reading it too.

It's been 20 or 30 years since I read it the first time, and I loved it then.

I'm curious as to what insights I'll get this time...

Thank you...

[DemoTex]

10. ZMM is much easier to read the second time around.

I read it in the mid-1970s and just re-read it last month.

Here is Feininger's "Church of the Minorities" that Pirsig describes in Phraedrus's old Bozeman office in ZMM:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. What a beautiful painting!

Thank you for posting this...

I actually have put the book down. I just could not get into it...It seemed too weird for me now...

The philosophical passages were getting stranger and stranger. I found the reading tedious.

I don't remember feeling that way about it before.

I put it back in the bookcase where I found it; maybe one day I'll try again.

[az chela]

5. I still have that book,havent read it since the 70's

Loved it then.I Plan on getting it out and reading it again

[Enthusiast]

6. I have two motorcycles.

I try to do as much of the maintenance as possible, myself. Is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance relevant?

[WCGreen]

7. It discusses the difference between the classic approach to

problem solving, which is devoid of emotional connecting to the process and the romantic approach to problem solving...

There are details about distilling the process of maintenance into segments...

It's presents a cool way to Lock at things...

[Enthusiast]

8. Okay, thanks. nt

[david13]

15. No

There is no maintenance in it. It is philosophy, and rather hokey and ill defined philosophy at that, if I may say so as to my opinion.
Check for Zen and Now, listed elsewhere with regard to getting a good critique on Pirsig.
For maintenance, you need Clymer's, Haynes, model specific, and/or the manufacturer's model specific manual.
Sometimes available in libraries, depending on your make and model and year.
dc

[Ikonoklast]

17. I disagree.

If the above poster has ever owned a motorcycle built in the British Isles, the known laws of physics have very little to do with trying to keep the ignition system on a 1956 Triumph in a functional state, even on a intermittent basis.

A philosophical approach to the problem presented is quite frequently the only way to approach the vast enigma that is Lucas electrics.

[codjh9]

9. I need to give that a chance again. I read it just a few years ago, but either couldn't finish

it, or at best, lost interest, which surprised me. My dad read it in the 70s, and enjoyed it. And I rarely don't finish a book. Could have been my mindset at the time... not sure.

[WCGreen]

12. It's slightly corny now, but still full of neat ways of looking at stuff...

[david13]

13. I didn't read it in the old days, but

six months ago did. Blah. Kind of demented or scattered.
However, I have just come across "Zen and Now, On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." (Mark Richardson).
It looks good so far, and as I am a motorcyclist, rider, biker, (but car too) I like the rides, the redoing of the ride, the travel book of it.
However, Paul Theroux new book "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star" was superb, and excellent travel writing, not tourist writing.
dc

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. Weird story about that book

Back after it had come out, I had read it.
Gave it to my then 18 year old son,
He took up to his bedroom and was invisible for 2 days.
He came down looking stunned after reading it, kept the book when he moved out.
I moved a year later.
Found a copy of it in my bookcase.
I had not bought that copy, have no idea how it ended up in my books.
I passed it on to someone.

Later found it in my bookcase, paperback version, after 2 more moves.

Still have a copy in my bookcase.

re-read at least twice over the past 20 years.
Damn thing keeps showing up.

[JitterbugPerfume]

16. I tried it a while back

but I just couldn't get into it.

but I think I will give it another go .