Book Review

Book Name :Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance.

Author:Robert M Pirsig.

This was one book which was difficult to understand. The title seems like it will talk much about biking but it is predominantly philosophy.

It is an unforgettable narration of  a summer motorcycle trip across America's North West(Idaho,Montana,Dakota,Minnesota) undertaken by a father and his young son.

In the book the author talks about quality, defines it , explains it , reasons it and ultimately sticks to a definition and tries to explain it. His say on quality was,"quality is the continuing stimulus which causes us to create the world we live in. All of it. Every last bit of it."

He talks about two basic approaches in life. First is the romantic approach where he gives the example of his friend who never takes much interest in understanding the parts of the bike and always prefers to go to a mechanic for getting the bike repaired. The approach is the classical approach where  you  know everything about your bike and  you try to maintain it every time .In the same context he talks about quality where he classifies  quality into Romantic and  Classic. He further subdivides the classic into Subjective(Mind) and Objective(Matter).

It will be better to quote some of the best lines :

"To live only for some future goal is shallow.It's the side of the mountain which sustain life,not the top.Here's where the things grow.But of course without the top  you  can't have nay sides.It's the top that defines the sides."

"What is good,Phaderus ,and what is not good-need we ask anyone to tell us these things."

"Coastal people never really means to the landlocked inland people -what a great distant dream it,is present but unseen in the deepest level of subconsciousness, and when they arrive at the ocean and the conscious images are compared with the subconscious  dream  there is a sense  of defeat  at  having  come  so far  to be stopped by a mystery  that can never be fathomed.The source  of  it all.