As Pirsig says right up front, this book doesn't really tell you much about Zen -- or about motorcycles. What is does talk about, is life, art, writing, our relationship with technology, and our relationships with each other. It is a book to return to over and over.

Natalie Goldberg's Zen teacher once asked her, "Why do you come to sit meditation? Why don't you make writing your practice? If you go deep enough in writing, it will take you everyplace." Writing Down the Bones will help you become a better writer, but more than that it will help you make writing a spiritual practice.

This is the book that every young adult should be given when the time comes for that "talk to your kids about drugs" moment, and that every adult whose head has been filled with Drug War propaganda should read to clear out the nonsense. Weil and Rosen discuss not only drugs and their effects, but why people take drugs in the first place. Essential reading.

If you follow any Pagan or Magical path, sooner or later you stumble upon the legacy of Aleister Crowley, and have to decide if he was nuts, brilliant, or just a total jerkwad. Regardie's book is an excellent introduction to this confounding character.

Brad Warner is a Zen monk, a monster-movie fan, and a former punk rock musician. I had the good fortune to see him speak at the Baltimore Zen Center a while back. His take is good, grounded, no-nonsense.

The autobiography of Gichin Funakoshi, widely regarded as the father of Japanese karate. An educator rather than a brawler or a soldier, Funakoshi's legacy looms large in the world of karate-do. Recommended for all students of the martial arts.

Richard Stallman's insight that people should be free to use, share, and modify computer software may turn out to be one of the most important ideas of the twentieth century. Essential reading for anyone who cares about technology and its role in society.

A Discordian classic! Benares's Discordian flavor of Zen is crisp and refreshing.

A novelization of the life of the Buddha. Skips over the supernatural tales and brings us the very human man, and his teachings about human suffering and what to do about it.

"Form is emptiness, emptiness is form." If you've heard that before and wondered what the heck it meant, this highly readable commentary on the Heart Sutra will help. This is one of those Books That Changed My Life.