Name: Zen und Kunst ein Motorrad zu warten.
Rating: 3.809090909090909 (220 reviews)
ISBN: 3596220203

Roberty M. Pirsig

Zen und Kunst ein Motorrad zu warten.

Robert M. Pirsig

A book which speaks directly to the confusions and agonies of existence, detailing a personal, philosophical odyssey.

An Inquiry Into Values

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Just an absolute masterpiece, the kind of favourite book you can't actually read too often because it haunts you.

Doug Belshaw

Robert Pirsig

Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance

This is a challenging read but rewarding. There are pages upon pages of philosophical extrapolations which can be hard to keep up with, because of this it is a book best read slowly. I think if you read it quickly you will lose sight of the lessons that can be learned from it. 

I think this may be a book I look back on as having had a big impact on me, I think lots of it will creep in to my thoughts for many years to come. 

If everyone read this book the impact on society would be quite profound.

Liam Richardson

This is a challenging read but rewarding. There are pages upon pages of philosophical extrapolations which can be hard to keep up with, because of this it is a book best read slowly. I think if you read it quickly you will lose sight of the lessons that can be learned from it. 

I think this may be a book I look back on as having had a big impact on me, I think lots of it will creep in to my thoughts for many years to come. 

If everyone read this book the impact on society would be quite profound.

One of the most important and influential books written in the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live . . . and a breathtaking meditation on how to live better. Here is the book that transformed a generation: an unforgettable narration of a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest, undertaken by a father and his young son. A story of love and fear -- of growth, discovery, and acceptance -- that becomes a profound personal and philosophical odyssey into life's fundamental questions, this uniquely exhilarating modern classic is both touching and transcendent, resonant with the myriad confusions of existence . . . and the small, essential triumphs that propel us forward.

Steve C

While cycling through the western states, a disillusioned American questions the meaning of existence after confronting the ghost of his former, uninstitutionalized self.

Gabriel Ayuso

Gavin

Manages to put forward an actual critique of rationalism without being either vague and platitudinous, or irrational and irrationally proud of it. Smooth read, some beautiful bits, but a failure if it's primarily a vehicle for a metaphysics.

Matthew Royal

Very little fresh philosophical content; mostly name dropping. There is some small value in introducing some basic philosophical ideas, but there's quite a lot of garbage here to stumble over along the way. This book provides an insufferable meditation on how brilliant Pirsig considers himself: 
 - teaching Rhetoric by first convincing students of their need for it, 
 - driving himself mad by getting hung up on an apparent logical contradiction, rather than stepping back and reexamining his assumptions,
 - redefining the word "Quality" to mean a 3rd category, separate but equal to "mind" and "matter,"
 - inventing a useless, near-religious belief rather than investigating the real meaning and underlying mechanisms of quality.

Rather than switching tracks when he came to the end of the line in his "quality" investigations, Pirsig bashes his head into the buffer stop, and desires his readers to admire his maverick, intellectually honest attitude.

Systems engineering possesses most of the tools for what he was looking -- balancing the interaction of the objective and subjective to arrive at what Quality means for any given thing. The field has existed since the 1940s at Bell Telephone Laboratories and most recent triumphs to Pirsig's time were the Apollo missions. Pirsig should have realized that quality was more of a question of "how" rather than "why" -- "why" leading to the synonymous question of "What is good?" -- "how" leading him to a field of thinkers perhaps disjoint with the group of academic philosphers. 

He may admire the rowdy kids in the back of the class, but it's because he, like they, is guilty of not doing his homework.

An Inquiry Into Values (P.S.)

Jowanza Joseph

I learned a lot from reading this book about values and how to think through many situations I encountered in life.  It's certainly a book I wouldn't read cover-to-cover all the time but one that I turn to for guidance.

Michael Burkhardt

The collected rantings of a lunatic who doesn't realize he's a lunatic.

Jk Jensen

One of few books that will leave me digesting its concepts for the foreseeable future. I loved the storytelling, I loved the philosophy. The writing is magnificent. The insight into thinking in systems is invaluable.

Barry Hess

This was a challenge. I can't say I'd recommend it. The philosophical stuff (most of the book) is not something I have a strong background with. In the end I did take away some interesting ideas.

Fred Rocha

Quite the epic read. I feel this could be unfolded into 20 other books, such is the diversity of ideas and moral ground covered in it. 

Probably the best book on how to be a better craftsman that doesn't aim to instruct in said craft.

Nat Welch

An amazing look into everything in life. I need to read this again it is so awesome.

Meniah

Philosophical and deep in nature but one can get a lot of life lessons from it.

Juozas Salna

i had zero knowledge about this book before going in. did not know what to expect. but wtf is this?

Frank Meeuwsen

Ik heb dit boek ooit gelezen als 18jarige. Ik dacht het natuurlijk helemaal te snappen maar ik vermoed dat ik bij een herlezing weer nieuwe inzichten zal krijgen. Samen met On The Road een boek wat me het meest is bijgebleven.

Zen und Kunst ein Motorrad zu warten.

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