Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values Audiobook

" Review to come eventually "

" I give up. I rarely stop reading books, even bad ones, but after months of struggling to get through this "classic" and finding myself only a third of the way through, I have decided to let myself off the hook. This is an incredibly boring and rambling read. "

" As the author indicates himself in the book, because he is not a novelist the book lacks elements of a novel like character building and in my opinion a purposeful structure. The way the narrative switches between his "Chautauqua" and the parts that follow him through his motorcycle journey is obviously designed so that the reader is occupied with some sort of plot line while he expounds his elaborate and ultimately hollow theory of metaphysics, which at first seems like it may become clearer as one reads on but instead becomes more and more repetitive and nonsensical to the point where at around page 293 one looks for reviews online to confirm one's suspicion that one has been taken for a mug. His theory even if it is of any value could have been summed up in 2 pages and as for the rest of the plot, it's boring, superfluous and written by a pretentious self-centred pseudo-philosopher trying too hard to become the next big thing since sliced bread and sell you something you don't need. Don't be fooled by the "cool" sounding title, this book will not enlighten, inspire or even entertain. Utter tripe. "

" Not quite the book of philosophy and values that I thought. It plodded along and was hard to follow for me at times. "

" A classic. Took me a while to read it, but...each time I picked it up, I was enthralled. "

" While the philosophical segments can be rather thick at times, still very much relevant to today. Also insight to his past mental challenges and what defines mental illness "

" A very rewarding read. Presented with an easy to follow narrative, the philosophical concepts are suprisingly deep, and require a great deal of attention to fully absorb. I found myself re-reading the book as soon as I was done, and have since re-read it on several occasions. Each time, I've learned something new. "

" One of the most important books I've ever read... I feel I didn't understand enough on the first read through, so I'm currently going back (indefinitely) to ensure the man's patterns of thought really make sense to me. "

" Outstanding journey to wisdom and spiritual growth,from the eyes of a biker "

" I'm not sure I can do justice to the sort of developmental gains that were imparted to me through this book. Just read it. "

" Incredible start, crashed and burned about 60% through. No pun intended. "

" A pretty good father and son road trip story interupted regularly by half-baked interludes of simplistic western philosophy that actually have no basis whatsoever in Zen or any other branch of buddhism. "

" I must read for anyone. "

" Not what i was expecting. Great except for when he goes into straight philosophy lectures. "

" Strange and trippy book that gets weirder the further along the ride goes. "

" When I was at school my RE teacher lent me this and said she knew I'd love it. I did. "

" Much more about physcology and alot less about the adventur of motorcycling with his son. I am not getting into it. I gave it a fair shake and read about 75 pages into it. "

" Must be me - everyone else liked this book. I thought it was boring, kept reading, hoping for the good parts... "

" I read this such a long time ago, that I really don't remember much of it, but I know when I read it I really enjoyed it! "

" i did really enjoy the story of chris and his father, but disliked the preachy self indulgent rants on "quality". i never want to hear the word quality agaIN "

" amazing, thought-provoking book. some of the parts heavy on philosophy took a while to get through, but overall a captivating read. "

" I gave it 100 pages. Just couldn't get into it. "

" first read it back in the late 70s. want to reread it again... "

" If Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance could be distilled into a phrase, it would be "quality over quantity." This Buddhist-inspired message is woven into a circuitous narrative. "

" Read this again recently - more than 30 years since the last time. Re-astonished - beacons and pathways from this that I've been unconsciously following are back in the foreground again. I felt a lot more sympathy for the characters this time, which I'm taking as a good sign :-) "

" I recommend this to everyone who is restless with their perspective on life and experience, or who has wondered, 'how do I know the difference between something good/beautiful and something bad/ugly?. Requires concentration, but yields great rewards. "

" Great insight on what a life of quality might mean. "

" This book got me through one of the worst times in my life. I followed it like a religion, a way of life. I bought a VW microbus & named it Phaedrus.... "