Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was a good book. It tells the story of a man taking a cross country trip with his son. As he talks you learn that he had another personality; a very intelligent college instructor who had a nervous breakdown. In explaining the actions of the other and walking some of his footsteps he covers why and how he had a breakdown. As the book progresses the older personality starts to slip back into place. The real meat of the book are the long philosophical discussions of Kant, Aristotle, Plato, and many others. He spends half the book trying to define Quality and comes to the conclusion that is a basic principle of everything. Something that can’t be defined, but which the observer knows good from bad. It is very interesting. The idea that quality is atomic, ie itself indivisible, is very appealing.
Even if you don’t finish or skip around, this book is very much worth your time. I finished it wishing we had a required class in philosophy in college and that this book had been part of it. Our society ignores so many basic issues of life. Materialism, capitalism, competition, consumerism inundate our senses. We don’t often ask the question of what is good or beautiful. Or why is it. No depth. That’s what we lack in popular culture. After a while it becomes fashion. I find fashion boring.