Rating: 
Summary: An Inquiry into Irrelevance
Review: "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is a book just as long and boring as its title. The story starts out like any good book, and its first few chapters introduce some interesting ideas about different philosophies for viewing the world. At the end of Part I, the reader is anticipating a good read, and Part II delivers quite an interesting journey of a strange man, Phaedrus, who is about to go insane. Then the unsuspecting reader is hit with Part III, the attempted definition of quality, which actually is an incredibly long rant on something so irrelevant that it is almost a burden to read. Pirsig's obsession with quality grows annoying very quickly, and progresses into a long, drawn out overdramatization of the time right before Phaedrus went insane. Those readers who actually stick with the book until the end are hit with a fairy tale like ending which leaves many questions unanswered. I would only recommend this book to someone who has a lot of time to kill or has an overriding interest in things completely irrelevant to everday life.
Rating: 
Summary: KLB (OHS)
Review: If your looking for a book that talks about philosophy, this is it, even though it is sometimes incredibly hard to make sense of it. This is truly a book that will force you to think. One must figure out what Pirsig is trying to say through pages upon pages of rambling about the meaning of things such as quality. This is a book to STAY AWAY from if you are looking for a good read.
The book starts as a seemingly interesting story about a boy and his father on a motorcycle trip; however, as the book goes on, more and more of Phaedrus, Pirsig's other personality, comes back. The further one reads, the more complex and impossible to understand it becomes. At points, I was just praying for Pirsig to go back to talking about the motorcycle trip, yet as the end neared, I became very interested in what was going to happen, and I must say, I was not let down.
Rating:
Summary: Never Ending
Review: I am usually very open to new concepts and different ideas that people have on different things. This thought process applied when my English teacher assigned us to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I began reading this book thinking and hoping it would get better. I was dreaming. This is one of the worst books that I've ever read. It was lengthy and tiresome. I think that it was unexciting because I didn't have a clue what Robert Pirsig was talking about over half of the time. I didn't agree with him on hardly any of his views and could not relate to him at all. To make matters worse, he had to pull his son into the mess. I think that he was a terrible father who was too busy worrying about himself. He hardly ever talked to his son and when he did, it was either meaningless mumbo jumbo or very pessimistic. I'm not exactly sure what the main message of the book was, therefore, the book itself was quite pointless. I would recommend that you not waste your time and effort trying to tackle this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow
Review: Robert Pirsig decided to discuss the nature of everything. In his book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, he talks about many things. The book is an "inquiry into values, as indicated by the cover. This book does give a good in-depth look at values. I thought this was an interesting book. I found the philosophy interesting and the method in which he chose to display it somewhat entertaining. In this book a reader will find a great deal of ancient greek philosophy. If you aren't familiar with ancient greek philosophy, that is okay, because he explains it for you. In fact he explains it several times. I believe that is really the only reason that this book's rating is lower. If Pirsig were to cut back on the amount rambling and redundant topics, this book would for sure be a four or five star book. While i criticize Pirsig's way of writing, the topic of values is a tough issue to tackle. I think that Pirsig did a great job to show how he thinks of values. The relationship of Chris and Pirsig in the book gives us a way to look at two people, and how values affect them. To conclude, this book is a great book for someone who wants to think. I think that Pirsig's long speeches and thoughts in the book would make this book very difficult for a young reader. Also, the magnitude of what is being said would be hard for a younger reader to understand. This book does however have a good message about values, the trick is just getting through Pirsig's way of writing so that you can find this book. An interesting yet difficult book.
Rating:
Summary: Zen
Review: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a very difficult, but helpful book. Although it may not be the most exciting or entertaining story, the concepts discussed by Pirsig in this book are very helpful in learning many of life's important lessons. The way Pirsig approaches his ideas is also somewhat peculiar and confusing, yet he will always find a way to tie up any mixed up thoughts. He has an interesting outlook on how the concepts he explains pertain to almost every aspect of a person's life, and he uses them when performing maintenance on his motorcycle. On Robert and Chris Pirsig's journey across the country, they face their fair share of difficulties between each other that they must overcome. At the end of the book, Chris begins to see a split personality in Robert who is deeply taken by the teachings of Phadreus, an ancient philosopher. The conquering of this and many other troubles also teaches readers important lessons about people's relationships.
Rating:
Summary: Not an easy read
Review: I thought this book was one of the hardest books I have ever had to read. If I hadn't been forced to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I would have probably only read around the first twenty pages and put it down. There were many concepts in the book I didn't understand at all. There was one idea about quality that was pretty interesting at first. If you think about the term quality long enough, you start realizing you can't put a concrete definition to it. After awhile though, the author kept questioning quality and what it was which made it very long and drawn out. Many people actually liked the book, but the ideas he talked about were way over my head. I almost felt like I was wasting my time reading the book because I did not understand so much of what I was reading. The whole setting of him riding on his motorcycle with his son was actually pretty interesting and how there was conflict between their relationship because the author was fighting a battle with himself and his other half, Phaedrus. If you are an avid reader though and like a challenge then I would recommend this book to you. If not, don't read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Did Pirsig waste his Time?
Review: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is the most challenging book I've ever read. It's not one I would have chosen on my own, nor is it like any other I've ever picked up. The characters are not developed, yet they don't need to be. Ideas are expanded upon in great depth, but from angles that have never crossed my mind. The story jumps from novel to Chautauqua, and back again. The novel-like parts follow a boy and his father on a cross country motorcycle journey, while at the same time the Chautauqua becomes a battle between one man and the distant memory of another, seemingly fighting for the same body. Somehow the two-novel and Chautauqua-fit together.
My feelings on this book are mixed. I can't decide if I like it. A few times I'd enjoy delving deeper into this "insane" man's mind, while most of the time I'd be ready to bang my head against a wall and set the book on fire. Many of the thoughts that at first intrigued me got analyzed to death, making it difficult to continue. However, in spite of struggling through the difficult and boring parts that appeared so often, I'm actually somewhat proud of myself for reading this. Parts of it made me think; I even found myself questioning subjects that arose. I'm not sure if I should recommend this book. I don't want to be responsible for someone going insane, yet many other books will seem like a piece of cake after reading Zen. Without the novel parts to ease my mind, I would not have been able to make it through this whole book and still be sane. It is extremely repetitive and if I never hear the words Quality or rationality again I think I'll be very grateful.
Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderful Journey
Review: I read this book in college and, again, after graduation. It truly changed my life. I cannot recommend this book enough. If I could give it a rating of 6 stars, I would. Pirsig's journey may remind some of A Beautiful Mind - a genius trapped within and by his own analytical mind and thoughts.
For me, this book gave me permission (as if I needed any) to care, to find passion in the task at hand, and to pursue quality in all things. A wonderful and inspiring book.
Rating:
Summary: a good ride (and read)
Review: In all probability I never would have picked this book up on my own, but now that I have
I find it hard to put down. Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was not written
to change the world; it was written by a man who learned to change himself. This book
was also not written to be a self-help book that gives easy answers. Most of its answers
aren't that easy to come by; this book has very challenging ideas and concepts that at
times take a great deal of patience and gumption to wade through. One can't pick it up
expecting a light, easy read. And as the title itself should imply, it is not for adventure
buffs, romantics, or people who need a lot of character action in their reading. It is for
those who wish to broaden their views of understanding their world. I've used quotes
from this book on different occasions in conversation or for school reports. The things
Robert Pirsig has to say apply to many facets of life, or rather they can apply to as many as
the reader wants them to. This book can only be read with time and an open mind. If the
reader has these two qualities, I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Quality in a 20-Ton Nutshell
Review: Even though this book rambles at times and is often confusing and dull, it still brings up some intriguing points. I found the discussion of Quality to be interesting at times, but it eventually got repetitive. I also thought that Pirsig's discussion of so many different philosophies was insightful and thought provoking. This book even made me analyze my own life at times. Nevertheless, in terms of enjoyment, this book definitely falls short. About half way through, Pirsig's thoughts get so in-depth and specific that they are almost impossible to follow. This amount of detail almost forces the reader to lose interest very quickly. In addition, practically the entire book is a discussion of Quality, theories, and philosophies. This leads to almost no plot whatsoever. The lack of physical events actually occurring in this book failed to grab my attention. Overall, I thought this book had some good points and a good message, but these points were to few and to spread out to make up for the rest of the books flaws.
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