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"I appreciate that many readers will be profoundly distrustful of the tack I am taking here," he writes. "They will see me as just another liberal professor trying to cajole them out of some of their convictions, and they are dead right about that -- that's what I am, and that's exactly what I am trying to do."

So it's taken me forever to finish a book, mostly because I started too many at once (Machievelli's "The Prince, Darwin's "Origin of Species", Dylan's "Chronicles", a couple books on Zen, and a couple lighter "bathroom reads"). Eventually I focused on just this one, Robert Pirsig's signature work.

"Zen" tells the story of a man (our narrator) on a month-long motorcycle journey with his son, Chris, across the northwestern United States. Motorcycle maintenance becomes a vehicle for explaining the differences between a 'rational', machinistic approach (which would lead to a narrow view of a problem, and significant periods of "stuckness") and more of a creative, artisan approach (which is focused on fully deconstructing the problem to its roots and allows for nonstandard solutions). As their trip continues, our narrator tells the story of Phaedrus, an intellectual from a few decades back with radical ideas on a philosophical approach to ... well, everything ... with whom the narrator seems to have some connection.

Phaedrus is codifying a new take on our world, not based on the rigid subject-object duality on which we have based our Western advancement, but rather centered around Quality. The particulars here can get daunting, and I'll spare those here in favor of letting you read the book. But the concept of Quality is the central piece in this new philosophy.

The philosophy stuff was fantastically interesting, managing to bring together religion, science, philosophy, sociology and more into a single cohesive concept. Bravo for that - simply amazing. But the book at times reads more like a philosophy text than a novel, leaving the more story-based interludes (driving through the hills, etc) as welcome repreaves. I should have invested in the study guide I'm about to purchase to read along with the book, rather than after.

But you could always take a more leisurely approach to reading this. The philosophy in here can make you feel pensive and at ease with the world around you, and the story, though perhaps a bit understated, has a nice arc to it. On the whole, this is an excellent read if youhave an interest in philosophy and question the nature of how we judge ourselves, beauty, success, etc. "Zen" itself is a bit player at the most. As a letter grade, I'll give this one an A-.

On Amazon: the book, the studyguide

Full title Condensed Knowledge: A Deliciously Irreverent Guide to Feeling Smart Again

So I finally finished another book. Been too long. But I tore through the 325 pages of facts in this book in like 5 or 6 sittings.

This book was put together by the founding editors of a magazine called Mental_Floss, which basically is a bimonthly compendium of interesting facts and information, sprinkled with just enough wit to keep it readable. The "wit" seems like a CMU version of wit, which is at once welcome and annoying (in any but the smallest dose).

But this book was a great read. It's organized into chapters like Condensed Psychology, Condensed Religion, or Condensed Philosophy. Each chapter contains a series of lists, such as "5 Scandals That Rocked the Art World", or "4 Rock Gods Who Died at 27". Fortunately, each item in the list usually gets a paragraph or two. So you get a quick sense for every item in there. But you also never really feel like you've dug deep. Then again, I guess this isn't the book for that. It's where I learned about "guy" and "salary".

In short, if you're (1) not dumb, and (2) interested in picking up a shit-ton of trivia (the relatively important variety), this book is a great read. And it would probably be a great crapper companion.

Here's another thing I learned.

400 years ago (exactly - 1605), this dude named Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament and kill all the king's horses and all the king's men. And the king. Anyway, he was caught and hung to understandably excited applause and approval. Then the king created Guy Fawkes Day (still on the calendars over there I think), and every year kids would make stuffed scarecrows of Guy Fawkes and burn these "Guys" in effigy. Cute, huh? So over time, "guy" was used to describe any scarecrow, then any dummy, then any dumb dude, and eventually the term "guy" was used to just describe any ... well ... guy.

I'm reading Condensed Knowledge, and learning some interesting little tidbits. Most of which I'm forgetting. But here's one.

Way back when, spices were extremely valuable. It's why Columbus was looking for a shortcut to East Asia (he thought Cuba was Japan), etc. Anyway, it got to the point where many people around the world were paid with spices. One particularly valuable spice was salt, because it could be used to cure meats. It was common in areas of the Roman Empire (cue storm troopers) to pay wages with salt. That root became the root for the word we use today for regular wages: "salary".

I love children, especially when they cry, for then someone takes them away.
-Nancy Mitford

There's no one more depressed than a happily married man.
-Mickey Rooney

Some of us are becoming the men we wanted to marry.
-Gloria Steinem

When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her.
-Sacha Guitry

We all of us wanted babies - but did we want children?
-Eda J. Leshan

When a man brings his wife flowers for no reason - there's a reason.
-Molly McGee

Most of us become parents long before we have stopped being children.
-Mignon McLaughlin

Nobody can misunderstand a boy like his own mother.
-Norman Douglas

The complaints which anyone voices against his mate indicate excatly the qualities which stimulated attraction before marriage.
-Rudolf Dreikurs

Parents forgive their children least readily for the faults they themselves instilled in them.
-Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

We want our children to fit in and to stand out. We rarely address the conflict between these two goals.
-Ellen Goodman

Chapter 4: Marriage, Home & Family Life

It doesn't matter whether you decide to marry or stay single; either way you'll be sorry.
-Socrates

Of course a platonic relationship is possible - but only between a husband and wife.
-Anonymous, from Ladies' Home Journal

After winning an argument with his wife, the wisest thing a man can do is apologize.
-Anonymous

Parents are the last people on earth who ought to have children.
-Samuel Butler

Once made equal to a man, woman becomes his superior.
-Socrates (fifth century B.C.)

The penalty for getting the woman you want is that you must keep her.
-Lionel Strachey

No one worth possessing can be quite possessed.
-Sara Teasdale

Lovers' quarrels are the renewal of love.
-Terence (second century B.C.)

Sex is like money; only too much is enough.
-John Updike

God created man and, finding him not sufficiently alone, gave him a companion to make him feel his solitude more keenly.
-Paul Valery