I had to read it in a college course. I myself found it to be absolutely incomprehensible, hundreds of pages of mumbo jumbo. Ok so I’m a heathen.
You’re not a heathen, nothing ruins a good book like having it assigned in a classroom.
I laugh when I see kids assigned to read Montaignes Essays in a classroom...the guy had lived an entire life before retiring to write, and here we’re handing it off to a bunch of noobs who couldn’t lose their virginity in an Amsterdam whorehouse.
I came across “Zen” in my early thirties, done with school- and you have to be educated to read the book, done with the army, unattached and time on my hands. The things that stick with me are...
1. The difference between the Puritans and the Victorians, and why the Puritans are superior;
2. Etymology of “Kin” and “kind”, and a wondering about who teaches people to hate their own kind.
3. His description of his sons death. Can’t have two guys riding the same motorcycle across country, then one of them gets whacked, with no consequences. But it did surprise me that the father went nuts over philosophy, but not his son’s death.
4. Finally, the discussion of Quality. An important discussion in a culture with no sense of it.
I think I was too young when I tried to read it. Couldn’t get through it. The responses to this thread make me want to try again.