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I was replacing this book as my last copy had wandered away with a borrower, but I could not stand the thought of it not being in my library. I have owned and read this book numerous times in my lifetime so I already knew what I was getting. This book was a life change for me; one of the most profound moments in my life and I recommend it to anyone.
probably the most over-hyped book of all time.i like practical books.check out Live Like A Fruit Fly - also on amazon
Greatbookdeals get well I don't have enough thumbs on my hands to give them a thumbs down.Would not recommend greatbookdeals to anyone. Greatbookdeals have to have the worst communications and shipping on planet earth. The book is good, however, I would not recommend ever buying any products from the company I purchased this book from- (greatbookdeals). This is by far the worst place I have ever made a purchase from and I am saying this in a nice way. Please save yourself a headache and buy from anyone else.
It's said that 147 publishers passed on this before it became a best seller, which should inspire confidence that the waste of enough time will ultimately result in something, kind of like the billion monkeys who type the Bible at random.Pirsig admits this book has NOTHING to do with Zen and NOTHING MUCH to do with motorcycles. Why then, was this coma-inducing pile of typing so successful. It's also self-indulgent, ego-ridden, rambling, and completely dry. During the trip he ignores the boy utterly (except to emotionally abuse him), and spends 99% of his time in flatulent speculations on the nature of existence. About 6,999,999,998 of those subsequent books are better, and should trace their lineage to Eugen Herrigel's ZEN IN THE ART OF ARCHERY which is a great book, and which inspired Pirsig's title. I can remember only one moment of any lyric beauty, when Pirsig describes the scent of honeysuckle.
Kids. This was the first "Zen and the Art of" book, and its inexplicable popularity is reflected in the fact that seven billion subsequent books hijacked the title. If Pirsig really did know anything about Zen he would have burned this book once he'd typed the dedication page. This is probably the best selling philosophy book ever, but I'm still trying to figure out what Pirsig's "philosophy" is. Pirsig's story revolves around a motorcycle trip taken with his son. He's pathologically critical of others and addicted to self-praise and superficial examination of his own problems.
In ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE he's trying to write objectively about what are subjective experiences. The importance of Quality in our lives is illustrated by this book, which has none. Trying to make it dance, he ends up with something that clanks when it walks heavy-footed across your frontal lobe. The problem with Pirsig's approach is that he's an objectivist first and a subjectivist second. Firstly, it represented the high-water mark of, and epitomized, the "Me Decade" that gave birth to it. Truth be told, the title is the most memorable thing about this book.What's wrong with ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE.
It's got something to do with "Quality." That's all I could glean from it. I read this book in 1974 and 1980. Well, it's a long, long boring read. It remains a biggie because it lives off its reputation as a "classic." What this all boils down to is that Pirsig made millions convincing people that they were stupid and that he was smart. Secondly, it was just dull enough and filled with enough funny names and five dollar words to have readers believing it was really good and they were really dense for not getting it. What tripe.
and 1994, and 2009---Okay, so I only read it cover-to-cover once, in '74, when I didn't know any better and I thought it was deep. Yadda, yadda.
I had long since forgotten why I came to that conclusion until I relived my young experience on page 176 just a few days ago. Read the book, Pirsig will tell you. a lot of sense. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is still every bit the masterpiece it was back in 1974. In those days I was brash, arrogant, and full of gumption, as Pirsig would call it. No matter what you may hear, no matter what you may think, this book defines for us that which can never be expressed through words and rational thought alone.
At that point I knew it had nothing to do with Zen and even less to do with motorcycle maintenance, but Pirsig has always told us that up front.Fast forward sixteen years.a family, a company, a new career, a fresh read. No need for that. What I do remember very clearly is that when I emerged from my room I knew I was going to college to become a Mechanical Engineer. I also owned a motorcycle and had completed an active duty tour in the military.
Experience this book and understand why. It must be experienced. I was working as a systems engineer for the DoD and was in school working on my second Master's degree. Since we were well before a simple Wikipedia search, it would be years before I would hear most of their names again.
It was my third reading of this great book.My second reading came in 1992, I was 28. The book still made sense. But then what is it about - if it's not about Zen or art of motorcycle maintenance. Experience is the life changer, not thoughts or deeds.
I first read this masterpiece of fiction when I was fifteen, I remember clearly it was 1980 and I spent days in my room trying to understand the big words and attempting to figure out all the characters Pirsig would reference, Kant, Hume, Poincare, and the ancient Greeks. I knew a lot more about philosophy and theology and engineering then I did my first time through. Certainly much has been written over the past four decades attempting to define exactly what Pirsig was trying to tell us.
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