I’ve been reading this in stops and starts since I was in Vietnam at the start of the year. I’m enjoying it, but obviously it’s taking me a while to read!

The only worthwhile moments of the book come when Pirsig talks about motorcycles or the father-son relationship. The philosophy is blunt and fails to make an impact. The book hardly talks about the zen, and the ideas about eastern philosophy is mostly absurd.

Close to a century behind its times—the philosophical issues with which it deals are purely nineteenth century, and it is completely uninformed by recent developments; nor does it even deal with eastern philosophy or religion in any significant sense, as one might guess. While the motorcycle maintenance tips may or may not be useful (I wouldn’t know), the intellectual content of this book is pure masturbation.

I just finished reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I had an “aha!” moment well before I got halfway through the book and was already satisfied with that but then the author just kept hitting me with more of them. It rekindled some things I’d once known but from which I’d been swayed and inspired me to see life in new ways. I look forward to the sequel.