Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance can be thought of as an answer to a simple question: what is Good?

The answer is something called “Quality.”

Quality is a kind of you-know-it-when-you-see-it sort of Goodness that comes from authentic ways of working, creating, and being. It’s the thing that makes me savor a homemade PB&J just as much as a restaurant cheeseburger. It’s the secret sauce, the mojo, the oomph.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a book for our time. Everywhere I look I see a dearth of quality. Technological advances have made it so that every human activity demands less and less of us, so we give less of ourselves and get less in return.

This was not a satisfying book to read. Its dramatis personae are in pain. It asks more questions than it answers. However, it was certainly worth my time.