Robert M. Pirsig
Mass Market Paperback | Pages: 540 pages Rating: 3.77 | 186082 Users | 8159 Reviews
Present Regarding Books Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Phaedrus #1)
| Title | : | Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Phaedrus #1) |
| Author | : | Robert M. Pirsig |
| Book Format | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 540 pages |
| Published | : | April 25th 2006 by HarperTorch (first published April 1974) |
| Categories | : | Fiction |
Narration Concering Books Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Phaedrus #1)
Maybe it's unfair to give a poor rating to a book I read in high school. However, I like to think that I was wise beyond my years and knew a phony, self-congratulatory, pretentious buffoon when I saw one. On the other hand, I did wear baggy overalls with Birkenstocks every day back then and wondered why I didn’t have a boyfriend, so clearly I didn’t know everything.But as I read through the reviews here, I am confronted by a rush of unpleasant memories about this particular reading experience. The narrator did indeed seem like a dick. And he may have been okay with that, because I got the impression that he’s one of those guys who doesn’t care if he comes off as a dick, because his purpose in life is to Figure It All Out, and disseminate his impressive knowledge to the masses of sheep-like mouth-breathers who wandered into Waldenbooks and picked up a mass-market paperback copy of his masterpiece. Their lives will be changed! The narrator is too busy unraveling the mysteries of the universe to bother with being likable. It’s a sacrifice, but someone has to do it. We should be thanking him!
And this is just an aside, but part of me always wonders if there is something wrong with me, or if I’m an elitist or delusional because I’ve never read a “life-changing” book. That’s right: a book has never changed me. I read as a kind of re-affirmation of what I think I already know, somewhere deep down. Or I simply read to experience the pleasure of a good story. I’ve put a book down and thought to myself, “Boy, that was a good book. I’m in such a pleasant/ponderous/gloomy mood now. Well done!” But never have I put down a book and thought, “Before I read this, I was wandering around on this thing we call Earth with the wrong ideas about life/people/religion/mechanical engineering, but now I have been enlightened. From this point forward, my life will be different. I will be a better person.” I don’t know. Maybe I just have a bad attitude, or think that I’m smarter than everyone else. Maybe I’m no better than our friend Mr. Pirsig. If you think that may be the case, I suppose you can just ignore this review completely and read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
But! If you think I’m just like Pirsig, you would want to heed my advice about this book and avoid it, wouldn’t you? Aha! You see, you can’t like us both, otherwise the universe will implode. Or will it? Perhaps it is no more than a conundrum I have devised out of sheer malice and a masturbatory sense of self-importance. Perhaps I am full of shit. You’ll never know for sure.
You can’t escape this philosophy-ninja’s intellectual trap. Don’t even try.
Identify Books To Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Phaedrus #1)
| Original Title: | Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance |
| ISBN: | 0060589469 (ISBN13: 9780060589462) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Phaedrus #1 |
| Characters: | Phaedrus, Sylvia Sutherland, John Sutherland, Chris |
| Setting: | United States of America |
| Literary Awards: | National Book Award Finalist Nominee for Contemporary Affairs (1975) |
Rating Regarding Books Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Phaedrus #1)
Ratings: 3.77 From 186082 Users | 8159 ReviewsNotice Regarding Books Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Phaedrus #1)
Maybe it's unfair to give a poor rating to a book I read in high school. However, I like to think that I was wise beyond my years and knew a phony, self-congratulatory, pretentious buffoon when I saw one. On the other hand, I did wear baggy overalls with Birkenstocks every day back then and wondered why I didnt have a boyfriend, so clearly I didnt know everything.But as I read through the reviews here, I am confronted by a rush of unpleasant memories about this particular reading experience. TheI must start by saying that this is one of my favorite books ever. Although it is deep and complicated and takes a lot of focus to read, I feel that there are a lot of great messages here in the authors search for Quality. This was my second time reading this book, and I liked it more this time. Interlaced with stories from an across-the-west motorcycle trip with his son and some friends, Pirsig tells the story of his past in an almost former life before being admitted to a mental institution
When I was quite young my brain said to me, after a particularly long and stoned session listening to Pink Floyd and discussing philosophy, 'oh give me a break'. So I said to my brain, 'there's no need to be so rude,' and my brain said, 'no seriously, I can't handle this anymore, really, let me take a break'. So it did and I've been operating on brain-stem alone ever since. I don't know it's made that much difference.I wonder if the author's brain was thinking like mine was? Certainly when I was
This book is far more pretentious than I remember it being when I first read it. It gets downgraded from "love" to a mere "like."
I get that some people are put on a path for different reasons, and I'm very happy for all of the people who have found enlightenment or comfort with this book or any other. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.And that's the only reason I'm giving this 2 stars; it's strictly for all the good it has done for so many people.I tried, ok? But I just can't with this hullabaloo about how gravity doesn't exist. Don't feed me garbage and tell me it's steak. I simply cannot suspend logic to buy into
This book is one of those books that I want to rate way higher than 3, but I don't think I'd quite give it a 4. I always have this problem with Netflix too! By reading the random reviews posted about this book, many of them are extremely negative, focusing on the "arrogance" of the narrator or his "absurd" search for quality. I think if you go into this 400 page novel with the expectation that it will be a light read about a motorcycle trip out West with a couple philosophical insights, you'll
You know, just to give you some perspective, I was somewhere in the middle of Act III when I recognized a horrible habit of mine. I like to find out how many pages are in the current chapter that I'm reading. It seemed like, possibly multiple times in a single page, I'd double check how many pages I had left until I finished it... or how many pages left until the next act.Pirsig said:To the untrained eye ego-climbing and selfless climbing may appear identical. Both kinds of climbers place one
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