I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in my 20s, and I was blown away by it. The story was compelling, and the long philosophical passages gave me a new way to think about things.

I only recently discovered that Pirsig had a follow-up, and I was very excited to read it. But halfway through, I gave up. And since it's been 30 years since I read the first book, I don't know if this book is worse or if I'm just at a different place in my life.

First off, the story this time is not compelling. A guy on a boat hooks up with a somewhat unpleasant woman. That's pretty much where I'm at by the halfway point.

As for the philosophy, well, it's pretty abstract and hard to follow. As I read it, I keep feeling that he's wrong, that he's making errors, that there are flaws in the underlying logic, but truthfully, he's smarter than I am, certainly, at least, in terms of philosophy, and I would be hard pressed to make an intelligent critique of his ideas.

I do think Zen had at least some simple-to-grasp ideas. I remember at one point he said you could divide people into those who would fix their own motorcycle and those who would take it to a shop, and while I would argue that it's not that simple, it is an easy-to-grasp concept that is an interesting way to look at the world. And I didn't see any equivalent of that in what I read of this book.

When I started burning out on Lila, I read a lot of reviews to try and figure out if I should continue. The conclusion I reached was that if I wasn't into by now I probably would never be. But I regret stopping this one more than the many other books I've dropped. He has an interesting mind, and I feel like I should keep going. But I was just too bored and too put off by his approach to keep going when there are so many other books to read.