Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance: an enquiry into values. by Robert M Pirsig

This is my second reading of the book. During the first round, I was reading the book in the laundrette on North Parade in Aberystwyth, when a (Canadian ?)woman saw what I was reading. She remarked that she just wanted to ride off on a motorcycle after she had read the book. I was rather surprised, because I hardly noticed the travel part of the book. Being a kind of motorcycle mechanic myself, I had immediate sympathy for the narrator, and he had my attention from the start.

Since the first reading, much water has passed under the bridge. I've had my own spell of mental illness, and the immediate cause of that illness was a lack of Quality. I thought so at the time, but later I learned more the mechanism, so the cause became obscured. Today I can confidently say a lack of Quality drove me mad.

Everything prescribed for getting better is Quality. Everything that causes it is not Qualtiy.