No. 32, although to make this one just a number on a list seems insulting...
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Pirsig
Wow. Just... wow. My favourite film is It's a Wonderful Life; it's far and above everything else, even films I grew up with and have watched literally dozens if not hundreds of times. For awhile I've been aware that my pantheon of books has no similar head deity... I'd have probably counted The Poisonwood Bible top, but only marginally; there was nothing which pushed any book into a completely different category. This book has changed that. I have been absolutely blown away; bowled over. This isn't in another league, it's not even in another sport... it's in another dimension. As well as being a great read and a great story, it offers so much food for thought and insight... it presents a plausible answer, or rather a way of getting at answers, to questions that have occupied my thoughts and time and concerns my whole life.
It's impossible to describe or explain without reducing it to something which doesn't sound that great, but it's essentially a classic American road trip interlaced with a deconstruction of the entirety of western thought and the assumptions we live under. There are answers in here to questions, worries, situations, which make you realise that, Douglas Adams style, you were asking the wrong question all along, and the answer was staring you in the face the whole time. It's a bit like I've been trying to do a jigsaw puzzle, and seeing lots of pieces that fit with each other, but somehow not being able to progress too far with it... and suddenly this book comes along and shows me that the puzzle is a Moebius strip... that's a good analogy really, because I'm still absolutely nowhere near solving the puzzle, but I feel a lot closer, and it feels like a step which was 100% necessary.
A great thing is also that the way it's all presented makes it less dogmatic and easier to relate to than a lot of philosophy (Pirsig would say that it is not philosophy at all)... it's a story of a man's journey to uncover a way of looking at the world which makes sense of what's around him... you're free to accompany him as far on that journey as you feel willing or able. I'm certainly willing and able enough to go out and order the sequel straght off. It's also massively worth the time and effort even if you don't buy it, because there are elements there, even if you deny the whole, which are functional and genuinely useful. At least four or five times, whilst reading the book, it gave me a really useful take on an issue or worry I was facing at the time. Its use of analogy constantly (largely with regard to motorcycle maintenance, but also widely elsewhere) is illuminating and pleasing, and the story itself is fascinating. The end (if you get an edition with the afterword) made me well up.
This is a potentially life-changing book; I think everybody should read this. I particularly think that illarion_ds, mr_magicfingers, cuteevilpixie, ed_fortune, denari, altered_state, thinkstoomuch, squiddity and jon_nyara either should read it or would really enjoy it*, although I'm sure some of them will already have read it.
32 / 50 books. 64% done!
* different reasons for different people - comment me if you want to know why you...
Wow. Just... wow. My favourite film is It's a Wonderful Life; it's far and above everything else, even films I grew up with and have watched literally dozens if not hundreds of times. For awhile I've been aware that my pantheon of books has no similar head deity... I'd have probably counted The Poisonwood Bible top, but only marginally; there was nothing which pushed any book into a completely different category. This book has changed that. I have been absolutely blown away; bowled over. This isn't in another league, it's not even in another sport... it's in another dimension. As well as being a great read and a great story, it offers so much food for thought and insight... it presents a plausible answer, or rather a way of getting at answers, to questions that have occupied my thoughts and time and concerns my whole life.
It's impossible to describe or explain without reducing it to something which doesn't sound that great, but it's essentially a classic American road trip interlaced with a deconstruction of the entirety of western thought and the assumptions we live under. There are answers in here to questions, worries, situations, which make you realise that, Douglas Adams style, you were asking the wrong question all along, and the answer was staring you in the face the whole time. It's a bit like I've been trying to do a jigsaw puzzle, and seeing lots of pieces that fit with each other, but somehow not being able to progress too far with it... and suddenly this book comes along and shows me that the puzzle is a Moebius strip... that's a good analogy really, because I'm still absolutely nowhere near solving the puzzle, but I feel a lot closer, and it feels like a step which was 100% necessary.
A great thing is also that the way it's all presented makes it less dogmatic and easier to relate to than a lot of philosophy (Pirsig would say that it is not philosophy at all)... it's a story of a man's journey to uncover a way of looking at the world which makes sense of what's around him... you're free to accompany him as far on that journey as you feel willing or able. I'm certainly willing and able enough to go out and order the sequel straght off. It's also massively worth the time and effort even if you don't buy it, because there are elements there, even if you deny the whole, which are functional and genuinely useful. At least four or five times, whilst reading the book, it gave me a really useful take on an issue or worry I was facing at the time. Its use of analogy constantly (largely with regard to motorcycle maintenance, but also widely elsewhere) is illuminating and pleasing, and the story itself is fascinating. The end (if you get an edition with the afterword) made me well up.
This is a potentially life-changing book; I think everybody should read this. I particularly think that illarion_ds, mr_magicfingers, cuteevilpixie, ed_fortune, denari, altered_state, thinkstoomuch, squiddity and jon_nyara either should read it or would really enjoy it*, although I'm sure some of them will already have read it.
32 / 50 books. 64% done!
* different reasons for different people - comment me if you want to know why you...