Rating: 
Summary: This is a work of true genius.
Review: The book is difficult to follow over the first few chapters, but don't be put off. This is the ultimate search of a man to find himself, with the most delightful results. Read it!!!
Rating:
Summary: Learning about your dual personality!
Review: He's Robert and Phaedrus.Learn about your dual personas. Learn about the distinctions between Dynamic Quality and Static Quality. Not a book for repair people but for design engineers, for people who want to philosophize about life! It's about Love; familial love! It's about adventures in psychology and philosophy. It's about the Journey. You'll enjoy Lila as well! Into to Philosophy. Learn how to live dynamically, now! It's a story about a man, his motorcycle and his son and their journey to spirit!
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece of discovery and of opening the mind!
Review: Zen & The Art touches life in the place that most people do not often question. To say what the book is about attempts to capture it within a sphere that is far too rigid for its nature. Superficially, a journey takes place with the reader travelling across America on a motorcycle on a vacation. Inherently, it provides a medium for questioning the nature of our experience. A place to allows us to look at a topic or object for what it is and now simply what our minds make it. Will you find what you are seeking? It is probably best to go in unencumbered of hopes and dreams of expectation. The search becomes am much a part life as the answer that has been looked for. I have read this many times and have found it incredible beautiful at many different phases of my life. With the power of a jackhammer to open our closed minds, this book is a must read for all!
Rating:
Summary: A landmark on the road of human thought.
Review: The scope of this book is amazing, from Aristotle to Tao to 'gumption'. What emerges is the possibility of a idea that could unite us all.
Rating: 
Summary: This Book is Famous for Being Famous
Review: This book was recommended to me by a friend whose opinion I respect. For this reason I read all the way to the end feeling all the way like I was flogging a dead philosophy. There were a few illuminating moments, but very few and not enough to justify the rapturous treatment given to it by my friend and other reviewers. Obviously, the rapturous readers are getting something from the book of value and that is great. Now you've had just a hint of the real thing, you'll be blown away when you start reading books written by those with a more masterful approach. For those interested in the philosophy of science touched on by Mr Pirsig try "The Matter Myth" by physicist Paul Davies, just in case you thought all scientists were beholden to logical positivism or naive scientism. Try "Marriage of Sense and Sensibility" by Ken Wilber if you want to see the world only marginally hinted at by Mr Pirsig with his concept of Quality. And never trust authors who seek authority for their pet ideas by Capitalising!
Rating:
Summary: A great book.
Review: I read this book twenty years ago, and I still think about it. That, to me, is the measure of a great book. Pirsig, of course, is writing on many levels, but the central theme is hinted at in the title. "Zen" is all about experiencing things directly, immediately, without a preconceived intellectual filter. Zen Buddhism is very anti-intellectual. "Motorcycle Maintenance", to be done well, requires a deep conceptual understanding of how a motorcycle works, and a scientific approach to trouble-shooting. Pirsig is trying, with mixed success, to reconcile what he calls "romantic" (immediate or "Eastern") thought with "classical" (scientific or Western) thought. Pirsig believes that the reconciliation lies in a deeper (pre-classical) understanding of "quality". Quality is neither objective nor subjective, it is prior to them, it is the primordial ether from which the objective/subjective dualism arises. (I do not do him justice here, if you are interested, read the book.) What makes the book work is that it that style of writing is a labratory for the concepts he his presenting. His prose is simple, almost poetic, when describing what is around him and his relationships to his son and his past self. His honesty and directness are alternately refreshing and alarming. Then he shifts gears and tries to unravel and re-weave many of the core issues in Western Philosophy. He manages this without resorting to an academic style or stuffiness. Pirsig, is a gifted thinker and writer, and certainly not a conventional one. He is a philosopher in that he is working through original ideas with courage and clarity. In the end, like most true philosophers, his philosophy is intertwined with a self-analysis and catharsis, yet has broader meaning and applicability. There are, I presume, flaws in his reading of the ancients, and I think that his conclusions rely to much on the multiple definitions of the word "quality". The merit of his metaphysics should be discussed but mostly I admire his grit, honesty and gumption to write such a text. It is those characteristics that I would most like to emulate. I also recommend the sequel, "Lila". It is more down to earth, but equally couragous and fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: Moving
Review: I first read this book in 1985 and again a few months ago, if it doesent have a impact on the way you think about your life check your pulse!
Rating: 
Summary: Not terribly great, but thought provoking
Review: ZAMM is a book of intense thought. Some of it is true, some of it is plauseable, but for the most part it just rambles. It somehow makes up for its rambling nature by provoking thought, but in a way it presents a danger that some will take its philosophy as their own. It is not a great philosophy or a great book. It does however open up a train of interesting thought. If you find your thought stagnateing and need a little kick start it is a good read, if you need some life changing answers, guideance or direction, look somewhere else.
Rating:
Summary: It will change your life
Review: A friend of mine suggested this book to me. I was skeptical at first, but I decided to give it a try. That was probably one of the best decisions I've ever made. The book changed my life. I look at things in a completely different light now. Pirsig's insight captivated me in a way that really made me think. His writing style is great too. He produces great philosophical rhetoric along with an intersting storyline. This is definately a book that everyone shoud read.
Rating:
Summary: A vital book, without peer in late 20th Centuary literature
Review: An essay into values that transcends the academics of established philosophical rants. No other book so immediately inspires that on second reading one is looking for the catch. The inter-twining of a dark struggle, an honourable quest and the delicate experience of a cautious man dragged me through the other wonders of the book. I have read 'dry' philosophy before and since and I would rather people who wrote about the subject actually cared for it in the way Bob Pirsig does or else just shut up. Often regarded as a hippy tome this book offers more than any self-improvement manual could ever hope while taking one on a thrilling trip. It has also improved my car maintenance! The best first work of the centuary.
| 
