Why don't you just finish reading the book or just leave it alone? I understand there are books that are hard to read, but this is very much a do-or-don't thing. How can we help you finish a book? Just read it or don't.

Edit: I'm getting down-voted so let me put a fine point on it. Reading a book is a pretty low risk commitment. You could be reading dozens of a books a year. The book we are talking about is considered to be a "great American novel" and less risky still. No one should have to convince you to finish it. If you don't like it enough to finish it, then don't bother. http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/

I think there might be some insight in this video that might help you put a deeper perspective on the book

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xg5O0l7ybY

(specifically the quote about playing music)

> Can you point me to a "guide to reading 'Zen'" or something similar which can show me where I'm going wrong?

"Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance":

http://www.amazon.com/Guidebook-Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenan...

Both Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and the Guidebook are highly recommended. Just read.

There is a series of excellent talks on youtube by a guy named Alan Watts from the early 50s - highly recommend.

Maybe it's not that you don't get the book; maybe you just disagree with it to such an extent that it infuriates you, just as its author disagreed with Plato.

IMO the whole "metaphysics of quality" thing needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt. As you find out later in the book, he actually was diagnosed as schizophrenic (and went through electroshock therapy as a result), and it becomes pretty clear throughout the book that his whole thesis doesn't actually make any sense, and is more the ramblings of an insane person.

There's a few insights to be taken from the book but I largely agree with you that after reading it a few times, it's not worth the praise that it gets.

Without going to deep into the book (which to be honest is one of the most difficult books I've ever read), I was thinking here of a passage in which he describes fixing his engine and paying close, mindful attention to every step. He makes a comment about how the next great invention could come from an observation about the most mundane thing -- and I really believe that to be true. Some of the best ideas come when we're in the midst of flow in our work. Realizing that the mundane details of our work hold a lot of beauty -- when we really slow down and pay attention -- is a liberating idea.