On: Ask HN: Book Recommendations?

[billybofh]

Not really non-fiction, but Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is always a good read. Also if you're just interested in 'stuff', Plato's The Republic is very worth reading :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_%28Plato%29

[criddell → billybofh]

> Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I really enjoyed the parts of that book that were actually about the motorcycle trip. Pirsig's thoughts on quality didn't resonate with me, at all.

[arunaugustine → criddell]

I had the same experience when I read it for the first time, I was skipping over the "philosophy" part to just read about the motorcycle trip.

Then I read it the second time.

And the "chautauqua" (what the author calls the philosophical discussions) blew my mind!

I have read the book 3x so far, and the insights keep deepening.

[billybofh → criddell]

Have you tried the follow up - 'Lila'? It goes at it somewhat differently.

[criddell → billybofh]

No. I'm not really looking for more Pirsig.

My reading list is already probably a decade long (I'm a slow reader). I've recently started to abandon books that don't grab me after an hour or so and I'm wondering why I didn't do this years ago. Previously I finished anything I started.

[chris_st → billybofh]

Took a philosophy class in college, where we read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Got a big shock about halfway through the book when I closed it and saw "Non-fiction" on the spine!