Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance

LB · 12th January 2004, 05:02

Following on from the "sunday ride" thread, comments by Jim2 and MikeL. Thought I'd start a new thread.

Didn't ever get around to reading it first time around (though have a fuzzy memory of buying it and loaning it/losing it). About a year/18 months ago I bought a copy. Have tried a couple of times to read it, am up to about page 7 but just can't seem to get into it. It's been sitting on my bedside table ever since...perhaps tonight I might give it another try.......

**Lou Girardin** · 12th January 2004, 06:13

It is a bit hard going. Not really a motorcycling book, more a philisophy text.
Lou

**Shafted** · 12th January 2004, 07:11

Hey team

Yeah it is more philosophy- but it is philosophy that bikers can relate to

Lots about the journey rather than the destination, lots about how we relate to technology and technological ways of living and thinking

It is worth reading i think

A book that is much more directly about motorcycling - and probably more what most people would have expected from Zen - is 'The Perfect Journey: What is it about motorcyles' by Melissa Holbrook Pierson

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0393...35#reader-link

Nice read

Read Che Guevara's 'The Motorcycle Diaries' at the beach - not too bad - the motorbike dies a bit to early in the piece

Anyway, enjoy your reading

**Sharkey** · 12th January 2004, 08:12

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance........ Love it, marry it.

**Motu** · 12th January 2004, 08:14

Even though I was into that sort of crap back then,when I read it there only about 3 paragraphs in the whole book that were worth reading - not a bike book...how many motorcyclists have bought that book just on the name alone - great marketing ploy for the 70s eh?

Yeah,The Perfect Journey is more like it.Actualy Richard Bach's books do it for me...his books about flying that is,he's describing riding a bike for me.The Reluctant Messia is a high point of his for me,I think everyone should read it and often give it to people as a present.

**James Deuce** · 12th January 2004, 08:44

I've never approached it as a motorcycling book per se, I was just using the title to illustrate that feeling that k14 was talking about. Put my bike away dirty this morning and feel very baaaaaad.

Neil Peart's book Travels on the Healing Road is the best Motorcycling/Personal redemption book I've ever read. Neil is the drummer for Rush, their lyricists and a very gifted writer. His only daughter was killed in an MVA and then his wife died of cancer. Neil bought a bike and rode around North America, Mexica, and Belize as an escape. The book is the story of those travels.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...42547?v=glance

Happy Monday everyone!

Jim2

**jrandom** · 12th January 2004, 09:13

weeeeeelll

ZATAOMM isn't really about bikes; if you haven't gone through it yet, Pirsig wrote it as a pseudo-autobiographical novel and had his protagonist develop and espouse his (Pirsig's) own philosophical system (the 'Metaphysics of Quality'). Most of the narrative in the book takes place on a bike trip across the US so it does have a motorcycley flavour to it. If you enjoy metaphysics and 'nature of reality'-style ruminations then it's not a bad book, although I've never been able to bring myself to read his more-formal sequel (I forget what it's titled).

I read it a few years back, spent a few days thinking 'gee, this is deep' and then realised that it fundamentally didn't make any difference to anything and was, like most things of the ilk, basically an exercise in intellectual masturbation.

Still a good read though.

**MikeL** · 12th January 2004, 10:22

Originally Posted by jrandom

I read it a few years back, spent a few days thinking 'gee, this is deep' and then realised that it fundamentally didn't make any difference to anything and was, like most things of the ilk, basically an exercise in intellectual masturbation.

True enough, but the same could be said of most philosophical speculation. I tend to agree with the Greek philosopher who said "The unexamined life is not worth living".

**Hitcher** · 12th January 2004, 10:29

Good reviews team. I can't anything more to the ZATAOMM discussion, other than recommending it as a read. I will be ordering a couple of books as a result of this thread.

I can also recommend "Riding the bullet" -- written by that dude on Waiheke Island who takes hosted motorcycle tour groups to India (read something recently that he has just scoped out Turkey and plans his first commercial tour there mid-year).

Another similar book I have had recommended and am trying to source is "Riders to the midnight sun" about a couple of guys who rode across Siberia.

**Coldkiwi** · 12th January 2004, 11:57

I got given a copy a few years ago and agree that it can dwell into things a little more philosophical than the average text. Takes determination to get worked into it but a rewarding read. Felt smarter afterwards even though a fair swag of it went over my head at times!! (well, I couldn't really force myself to understand every sentence to its fullest at least , I tend to skim read more than I intend)

**Blackbird** · 12th January 2004, 16:53

I read it a few years ago and just felt sad for him. It just charts his mental disintegration and I'm still not sure whether there was any road to redemption. I felt very sad that his son went along as there is no way that he'd have understood his father's condition.

Interesting, but not uplifting.

**inlinefour** · 17th January 2005, 02:26

Originally Posted by Lynda Blair

Following on from the "sunday ride" thread, comments by Jim2 and MikeL. Thought I'd start a new thread.

Didn't ever get around to reading it first time around (though have a fuzzy memory of buying it and loaning it/losing it). About a year/18 months ago I bought a copy. Have tried a couple of times to read it, am up to about page 7 but just can't seem to get into it. It's been sitting on my bedside table ever since...perhaps tonight I might give it another try.......

But the haynes bike manuals are pretty good...

**merv** · 17th January 2005, 08:17

My daughter gave me a copy months ago (from 2nd hand bookshop) and I just can't finish it. Got about half way through but didn't find it rivetting enough. Mind you, I'm a typical engineer so I'm a slow reader if there aren't enough pictures.

**moko** · 17th January 2005, 08:35

I persevered with it then wondered why I`d bothered,mind you I didn`t laugh out loud like I did at "The Celestine Prophecy",half-arsed pseudo philosophy and very badly written,truly lives up to the "Best-seller in America" blurb on the cover,the equivalent of the "Smoking Kills" bit on fag packets.
Not sure if it`s really the same sort of thing but "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran is a favourite of mine,dont really know whether it`s a parable,poetry or philosophy but there`s loads in there about the important things in life.

**Yokai** · 17th January 2005, 09:00

Originally Posted by jrandom

ZATAOMM {snip} Pirsig wrote it as a pseudo-autobiographical novel {snip} 've never been able to bring myself to read his more-formal sequel (I forget what it's titled). {snip}basically an exercise in intellectual masturbation.

ZATAOMM - great book if you like thinking about abstract concepts for no reason other than to think about them. Yes it is an exercise in mental masturbation.
My suggestion is that it is read as 2 things: the Chautauquas (sp?) and the journey... Story Ok - Thoughts pretty good.

Formal Sequel - Lila ... good book - harder though - more about Quality.

Read "Long Way Round" - Loved that book - read it in 2 days straight.