Thirteen books that every hippie read

Jeff Tamarkin is the author of Got a Revolution! The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane. He is also the co-author of Shell Shocked: My Life with the Turtles, Flo and Eddie, and Frank Zappa, etc., with Howard Kaylan. At Best Classic Bands he tagged thirteen books that every hippie owned, including:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance—

You didn’t need to own (or even know how to ride) a motorcycle to appreciate Robert M. Pirsig’s “fictionalized autobiography” that recounted a 17-day bike journey from Minnesota to California. The book was quite philosophical in its approach and spoke of values and “quality”—it questioned, basically, how we choose to live, what truth is and the “art of rationality,” all under the umbrella of the road trip the author took with his son.

Read about another entry on the list.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance appears on Jeff Somers's list of five top books written by authors in the grip of mental illness,  the Telegraph's critics' list of the fifty best cult books, Michael Palin's six best books list, John Mullan's list of ten of the best motorbikes in literature, and Sebastian Beaumont's top ten list of books about psychological journeys.

--Marshal Zeringue