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.

Believe me when I say: This book will change your life. It can get challenging at times, but in the end, it's an amazing, amazing book. You will have at least questioned the basic and yet important tenets of intelligence, morality, and what it means to be good or bad and what it means to live, to really live, by the time you're done. I first read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance when I was sixteen...it changed the way I thought about the world and about ideas. I don't think i've ever read anything quite like it. There are some that argue that Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is 'mental masturbation' of sorts; or a 'pretentious philosophical work' whose ideas are just all over the place. The truth is, this book is probably one of those few who deserve the oft-thrown around appraisal, 'this book will change your life' - because, at its heart, the book is about ideas and covers tremendous mental territory. It's a challenging read, but highly recommended.

I really tried with this book, but it was a SLOG. Just clunky and unreadable to me at times.

Piles on the philosophy pretty heavy; I wasn't ready for that. The plot advances when the reader is suffocating from the lessons -- sometimes only lines at a time -- but I find subjects, such as the section on "quality," to be unrelenting. Worth a re-read, but not any time soon.

Tragic and beautiful.

Too much philosophy for my taste.

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.

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.

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.

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

pompous af...

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.

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.

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.

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

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

I'm trying to read 36 books in 2013 (3 per month--one fiction, one nonfiction, one poetry). And I'd like to review these books a bit after I've read them, and to select a quote or two that I liked. "Nonrepresentative art is one of the root experiences I'm talking about. Some people still condemn it because it doesn't make 'sense.' But what's really wrong is not the art but the 'sense,' the classical reason, which can't grasp it. People keep looking for branch extensions of reason that will cover art's more recent occurrences, but the answers aren't IN the branches, they're at the roots." (p. 163) "Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you're not longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn't just a means to an end but a unique event in itself. THIS leaf has jagged edges. THIS rock looks looks. From THIS place the snow is less visible, even though closer. These are things you should notice anyway. To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here's where things grow." (p. 195-6) "When you learn not to do 'just what you like' then the System loves you." (p. 225)

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

A philosophy book told through first person is extremely interesting to me -- especially a travel memoir. Many of the conversations hit on specific points that I was nodding in agreement at. Specifically many of the ones that included frustration when getting points across to others, or taking pride in upkeep and finding a way to enjoy it. The only reason I'd rate it lower was due to the long periods of time between enlightening moments.

Chaotic, sometimes downright disturbing but a beautiful window into a beautiful mind. Can't wait to reread it.

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.