Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance - again, read it when I was 18 coz it's a 'rite of passage' book apparently. Took me fuckin ages to get through it. Again, tiresome self-obsessed Boomer shite. Kinda got the general gist but it was painful. Would I get more out of it at 45, I wonder?
I dunno. I've read it three times. There seem to be three main threads- one about travelling through the landscape on a motorbike with his son and his friends; these bits are GOOD. Some reflections on motorcycle maintenance and how they relate to Zen, these bits can be interesting. And finally, there's the parts where the author bangs on about
Quality and his old pal Phaedrus who went mental; these bits are BAD*. The last time I read it, I just stuck to the travel bits, everything else can fuck off.
I think there are some interesting ideas in there, but they are swaddled in waffle.
Totally agree with you about On the Road, I only read a chapter or so, and I thought 'fuck this'. Some kind of poster boy for the beats maybe? There was one line something like "I want to be like the wild and crazy ones who never sleep but explode across the sky like a firework and everyone says 'aaah!'" Fuckin ellllllllll
*or maybe I'm wrong and they're very very wise