Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

A philosophy book told through first person is extremely interesting to me – especially a travel memoir. Many of the conversations hit on specific points that I was nodding in agreement at. Specifically many of the ones that included frustration when getting points across to others, or taking pride in upkeep and finding a way to enjoy it. The only reason I'd rate it lower was due to the long periods of time between enlightening moments.

Wrong book, wrong time

Somehow this book, which I found really compelling ten years ago, seemed dead and uninspired on rereading it now. I found the philosophy tiresome and pointless, and honestly had a hard time forcing myself to slog my way through it. I think it had to do with the fact that the essential conflict of the book – that between classic and romantic ways of thought (or science and art, rationality and emotion, function and form) – is a non-issue to me, these days. Phaedrus drove himself insane seeking a synthesis between these two modes of thought, but it's a synthesis I achieved myself many years ago.

His over-simplification of the world, in which science is unable to recognize “quality” and art is unable to recognize function, just completely rubs me the wrong way. It's almost insulting, in fact, to someone who happens to be both a poet and an engineer; he seems to state that I must be able to do only one well. It has always been obvious to me that it is not a duality, but a continuum. Of course, I was never classically trained in philosophy, so I could be missing some subtleties to his arguments.

With such an intensely personal (in fact, autobiographical) book, it may be that you either relate to the narrator, in which case the story becomes very meaningful to you, or you don't. The ending was very abrupt; after so long spent building up to the climax, he just left the reader to attempt to figure out what the resolution was.

Overall, it seemed to me like a book written more for the author than for his readers. Partially, it seemed like he just wanted to exorcise his own demons. Also, he wanted to give a lecture on philosophy, wrapped up in the thin framework of a novel. It was neither entertaining nor enlightening.

This book has two distinct sides to it, entwined throughout the book.
The one is Robert's road trip with his son and a couple of friends.
This part is really good and enjoyable. It has an unassuming way of conveying the beauty of a journey in a lot of easy going things making you spontaneously appreciate the way Robert enjoys life.
It can make you remember how good it feels to appreciate the moment for what it is.

The other side of the book is the author's home brew philosophy. This side is the direct opposite of the first one. I found it to be very pretentious and self glorifying. And a lot of times the philosophy is very outdated (to be fair, the book is over 40 years old) and pretty narrow minded. And it's written in a way that it should be obvious that this is the best way of thinking.
After a while it became extremely cumbersome and I had a hard time pushing through it.
Unfortunately the emphasis is on the philosophy part which for me ruined the whole book.
If only the motorcycle travels were a separate book. That would be a gem.

I didn't think it was possible to hate a book more than I hated Catcher in the Rye but here it is! I would genuinely rate this negative stars if that was an option.

Hmmmm. A strange book. Philosophy is not something of interest for me, and the subject can be complex for me to grasp so I attribute some of my lack of enjoyment of the book to my own lack of interest and knowledge on the subject. Those sections of the book were 3 stars for me. I absolutely loved the story of the motorcycle maintenance and the trip, the relationship between father and son. This was 5 stars for me.

The specifics of his treatment were not totally clear to me, until at one point during the book I decided to read some reviews to see if anyone else was as confused as I was. That discovery made it more time interesting and things began to make more sense for me. The afterword was a beautiful yet tragic ending to the book, but also provided a bit more clarity that I was lacking.

I don't know if I enjoyed this or not.


It was the favourite book of an old friend, who repeatedly inserted it in the bibliography of the engineering books he'd written. Though I always thought its inclusion was more showing off rather than providing genuine influence. It's been on my shelf for years, so I figured it was time to crack the spine.


Well, it was a dense old tome. Whilst it wasn't a true doorstop by any means, it certainly packed in the big Scrabble words and had an unconventional story that kept you on your toes. Gloss over a page or two and you could very easily become lost.


Half of it was well thought out philosophy that really made you think. Should I ever get invited to any parties, I could certainly bust out a few choice nuggets of wisdom to impress. The other chunk of it was vast walls of tedious, near impenetrable stoner ramblings that at said shindig, would quickly force you to make your excuses to avoid hearing any more.


Worth reading purely to say that you have done so. It might change your life, it might leave you feeling confused and tired. Or somewhere inbetween like me.

I really like what the author has to say about virtue and excellence and how paramount it is to having a good society. I'm reminded by the often misinterpreted Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged who was simply saying to be proud of ones work. When it comes to areté, I think being proud is a gumption motivator. His questioning how schools are teaching using a grading system that is actually often removing the spirit of learning is also a big deal. He didn't seem to have a solution for it, but maybe I missed that.

Being the average person who ponders on approval given by others and has existential crisis regarding subjective and objective characteristic of living a good life, a struggle of duality with which human tries to contend with and fails.

This book attempts to convey this dilemma in a very lucid way, so that the readers gain clear insight on how we live the life we live by ignoring the hard truth without any conviction

Second time around, it did not have the impact it had when I first read it when I was a teenager. Probably that is expected.
Still one of my favorites.
Challenging the rational thinking in a philosophical way against a backdrop of motorcycle road trip.

Couldn't bring myself to finish the book.

Um geðveiki, heimspeki og gæði. Þessi bók er vel skrifuð og innihaldið sett fram í mjög góðum hlutföllum. Byrjaði að lesa um mótorhjól og endaði í heimspeki og kærleik. Ég lærði mikið af þessum lestri.

Mæli með fyrir fólk sem hefur áhuga á heimspeki en engan bakgrunn í henni.

I enjoyed this audiobook. It felt a little like a travel book, a little like a mental health book, a little like a motorcycle repair book and yet it all worked together. I liked that the travel bonded the author with his son. I enjoyed the educational information, and found parts interesting, sad and funny.
I will recommend to some.

Great book that still has relevant insights, despite being nearly 50 years old. The only drawback would be the meandering (more than usual) part 3, but the book quickly catches up on itself and manages to deliver an impactful ending and an even more impacting afterword.

This is my third time through this book in as many decades. Every time I read it I find something new that nourishes me in some way. I think this book is one of those for which everyone who reads it receives something different.

Find the time to understand the call of the open road on a motorcycle and how long drives are good for the mind to think without disctractions.

An amazing book which made me think a lot about a lot of things.

Good read, definitely quality over quantity.
I loved how it makes philosophy approachable and inspires
to go and read the classics (at least it inspires me).
How do we connect the West and the East philosophically?
What is quality and how and can we define it? After all it is relative.
Reminds me of Ferdydurke by Gombrowicz.

I had a love - hate relationship with this book. The cross country motorcycle trip kept me slogging through but I would often grow disinterested or downright annoyed when the author began to wax philosophical. The reason for my annoyance was just how pretentious the main character was, he was so analytical always dissecting his friend's flaws and shortcomings to the point where I really wondered how he had any friends at all. He frequently makes his son cry or lies awake at night listening to his son crying and does absolutely nothing. He comes off as a complete jerk.

Oddly enough by the end of the novel, I found that I was more engaged in the philosophical treatise and had gained some empathy for the narrator.

Minor spoilers
I think as much as this book is about philosophy and a man's quest to find himself it's also a book about mental illness. Our society has come a long way in the past 40 years on the subject of mental illness so I wonder what this book would be like if it were written today. Indeed the narrator causes a lot of his problems but most of his mental state and eventual breakdown is an result of some kind of mental illness. I think it'd be interesting to see that story told in light of today's culture.

Strange and brilliant book - a philosophy lesson and father and son roadtrip all-in-one.

Je dois encore processer le livre, mais je me retrouve assez mitigé. J'avoue que si la partie du voyage et la relation entre le père et son fils est extrêmement touchante et transmet cette envie des grands espaces, la partie philosophique m'a parue de plus en plus confuse au fur et à mesure de l'avancement du livre. Là où au tout début elle était pleine d'apprentissage, elle s'enfonce au long du livre dans une vision extrêmement théorique des choses (sans doute proche de la folie du narrateur mais dure à suivre). Donc mitigé mais un bon livre, cependant assez dur à lire j'avoue.

A philosophy book told through first person is extremely interesting to me – especially a travel memoir. Many of the conversations hit on specific points that I was nodding in agreement at. Specifically many of the ones that included frustration when getting points across to others, or taking pride in upkeep and finding a way to enjoy it. The only reason I'd rate it lower was due to the long periods of time between enlightening moments.

Where: Rishikesh, Moscow

Giving this five stars as it had a profound impact on me as a teenager.

Re-reading today, I found some of it quite dry and a little bit trite, but the ending still really resonated with me and I feel that it achieved exactly what it set out to do.

felt like the kind of book I'll have to read again at another stage of my life. couldn't (at least I think so) comprehend some ideas to their fullest.