Zen and the Art of Motercycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

If you have never heard of this book, let me start by saying it is more about zen than motorcycle maintenance, although some of that is in there too. The book is the story of a three week motorcycle ride across America with the author, his son and two friends. There are a lot of philosophical discussions along the way, thus the zen. There is one discussion I remember about motorcycle maintenance, as the friend on the ride, does not know anything about the workings of his fancy BMW motorcycle, but that gets a little philosophical too.

I read this book in college and in the story the author is a college professor, I remember because he refused to tell students their grades on tests until the very end of the class. I thought this would be very interesting and it caused a lot of discussion with my classmates as it did in the book. Almost everyone thought it was a bad idea, but it works out well in the book.

So, why should you read this book? Reason one, it is the best selling philosophy book of all time, despite being rejected by 121 publishers (a Guinness world record). Reason two, you might learn a little something about philosophy. And finally, reason three, it's a good story.