Rating: 
Summary: brilliant
Review: i used to wonder how anyone could fail to appreciate this book and the issues it covers. then i realized that the answer is right there in the work itself. Pirsig takes you beyond the world you're comfortable in, whether that be classical or romantic in nature. i cannot really describe how powerful the message of Zen is; read it for yourself. but it's definitely one of the greatest books i've ever read, along with the Tao Te Ching and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. read it, it's amazing.
Rating:
Summary: A Necessity for College Freshmen!
Review: This is one of those books that you start because you feel that you should and finish because you love it. It has a telling message for students just entering the realms of adulthood and of higher education about the truly important things in life. It's easy to maintain the status quo, but Pirsig will influence you to pursue your own Holy Grail.
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Summary: As Hard to Ignore as a Harley Revving Up at 7 a.m. Saturday
Review: Work...Family...Relationships...Technology...Philosophy...School...Life. This is every entry on a best-seller list rolled into ONE GREAT BOOK. I should have listened to Dr. Herndl (my English professor) when he told me to read this in 1975. However, I do not think I would have appreciated its meaning as much then as I do now. Keep at this book, just as you would keep at any long task worth completing. "Lyfe so shorte, crafte so longen to lerne." Most of you will be glad you did. The rest of you will just throw the book against a wall. When you need a break, go for a ride and come back. Phaedrus will be there just like your father...alive or in spirit...to help you through the journey.
Rating: 
Summary: A tremendous book -- must read!
Review: Pirsig's account offers a powerful challenge to the conventional wisdom and prevailing ideologies or approaches of our time. This book is a heart-wrenching (yet triumphant) story of one man's search for truth and value. It also poses several questions that will push a reader to reconsider his/her understanding of truth and reality. Pirsig's book is a pleasant and very worthwhile read, even if you just read it for his personal story. However, it is his plunge into metaphysics that makes his monumental work so great. This is a classic if there ever was one!
Rating:
Summary: Very good book. Must read.
Review: Like many other reviewers here I started this book more than once before I read it straight through. I don't know whether a philosophy major would find it interesting but to a layman it was fascinating. The motorcycle trip and philosophical journey start on the east coast and move through the midwest and great plains before making the heady trip into the Rockies. As the land is relatively flat so is the story and this is where people get bogged down wondering what the point is. But the rockies is where it all happens. If you make it that far you'll find an exhillerating philosophical discussion (again, for the layman anyway). At the very peak of the mountain the land and the philosophical underpinnings start to give way in small rock slides. Where it is too dangerous to climb higher, because the land is slippery and the philosophical concepts are more than he feels he can get into in a book for laymen, I wish he had taken the risk and climbed higher. I felt capable of understanding the concepts he was shying away from. This shortcoming understood, I still loved it.
Rating:
Summary: AN ICONOCLASTIC MASTERPIECE
Review: If Zen can be defined as anything, it is a technique for shattering illusions, and this book shatters a lot of them that have shaped our society. The ideas that most Americans think of as common sense often were first promulgated by some long dead philosopher, like Aristotle, and were accepted by most people only after decades or centuries of conflict and debate. One of the most important things that Buddhism in general and Zen in particular teaches is that language is only a tool, that words themselves are at best approximations of what we are trying to describe or to convey, and that we need to remember that in everyday life. Human language can never accurately describe any absolute, universal truths. It only follows that anyone who claims to be able to fully describe how the world works is full of excrement and should not be followed. Pirsig knows this, and never says he knows how to explain it all, and readers who want to have it all explained are going to be disappointed or even angry. His defense of the Sophists comes 2000 years too late, but it is the best one I, who once actually studied Greek philosophy in depth, have ever encountered. At the same time, Pirsig recognizes the benefits we have reaped from Platonic and Aristotelian logic, such as the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the scientific method, the internal combustion powered engine, and technology in general. This book certainly doesn't trash technology, it just points out that technology is another set of tools to make life easier for us although sometimes we screw up how we use it, just like we screw up when we think we can explain God or Absolute Truth or the Ultimate Whatever with any accuracy. We can only do the best we can, and Phaedrus does, as does his son. To all of the critics of this book, what is wrong with that?
Rating:
Summary: If you have started the book, finish it.
Review: I started this book four different times before making the commitment to finish it. I cried at the end.
Rating:
Summary: First year college students must read!
Review: There is no book I would recommend more highly to those about to enter the society of education. Pirsig's discussions of Quality in the classroom, overcoming writer's block, and the pursuit of a truer knowledge are all priceless. Keep in mind that this book feels like what it's about: a cross country road trip. Be ready for the highs and lows of travel, and watch out for a very lengthy discussion on some rather lofty matters; it's tough to get through, but once you do, you'll be glad you made the effort. Read this book twice: you will learn from it.
Rating: 
Summary: An Intellectual stroll through a swampy morass
Review: I found this book to be quite tiresome and ineffectual. Despite all the hype leaped upon it, and having read numerous reviews, I failed to see the relevence between Zen and the shock treatment given to the main character. I simply got halfway through the book and had to move on to something more interesting. nuff said.
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: I read this book many years ago, while still in my teens. It had a profound impact on me. I don't think this is for the serious philosophy student. But I do recommend it as a starter title in the area.
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