Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is probably the most popular book about riding ever printed—but is it even about motorcycling? Or is it a philosophy book disguised as a road trip tale? Or is it both? Mark Richardson is this week’s guest on The Lowdown Podcast, to talk about Robert Pirsig’s famous book.

Richardson knows what he’s talking about, because he wrote Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Following Pirsig’s route from the 1968 trip (the resulting book was not published until 1974), Richardson delved into Pirsig’s life, thought processes and motivation for writing the famous book. His own non-fiction follow-up, published decades after Pirsig’s work, is a great read in itself, even if you haven’t tried to brainiac your way through the original tale. Today, he’s here to talk about the Pirsig book with Neil Graham.

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