So you don't think there is anything after you die?, page-167

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is the most rejected, best-seller in history.
Something in excess of 100 + publishers rejected it and it sold in the millions."

The author was also unusual in acknowledging that ...

"The title is an apparent play on the title of the book Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel. In its introduction, Pirsig explains that, despite its title, "it should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It's not very factual on motorcycles, either."

A rare author indeed !!

BTW Zen in the Art of Archery is well worth a read as adapted for the Western mind, if it somehow escaped your notice. As also is his "The Method of Zen".
Karlfried Graf Von Durckheim's "Hara The Vital Centre of Man" is also worth study ... and of course the writings of Meister Eckhart.
And that's only a few of the German thinkers !
All quite short books ... which is all that is needed.