Zen and the Art of Finally Reading a New Age Book

I finally picked up "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and I have to say so far it is good.

I always had the idea that the book would be some sort of "New Age" Zen Buddhist Jack-Me-Off-To-Death bullshit novel that people read because Oprah recommended it to them. I thought it would be a book full of stupid maxims about life that idiots could pass off as philosophy. Turns out I was wrong. At least I've been wrong for the first half of the book.

So far the book centers around two things: The journey a man, his son, and two of his friends take across the US on motorcycles; and secondly the nature of reason and the dilemma of modern man.

Robert Pirsig has a style not unlike Kerouac, but without the sex and run-on sentences. His writing is cleaver, and never dull, though many times deeply introspective. The characters don't so much develop (aside from the main character) as blunder through the vastness of the American Great Plains with fear and trepidation.

I will keep you updated on my progress and give you a final ascertation of the novel. But, right now I believe it will keep getting better. Only reading it will tell.