- This GEB book is a very interesting case. I have heard over a dozen very intelligent people telling me about this book. But then I have never met anyone who has actually finished the book except a friend's brother. This brother is also a very interesting case--he has dyslexia (reading disability) and can only read one word at a time, but he spends all his time reading.
On amazon.com there are many reviews of this book, but I seriously doubt that many have read the whole book. It is one of the most difficult books I have ever attempted (and still trying), not because the subject is too deep, but because it covers a lot of interconnected areas and multiple levels and intricate details, like Bach's Fugue, and like the book itself. This book is simply brilliant. Sometimes I feel this book is written especially for me (soulmate?) and I feel grateful for that. So I don't care what others say about this book, because I know they don't know what they are talking about.
gadfly wrote:
xw, have you ever read the GEB?
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/vhd05/vhd05_index.html I had heard of the book Gödel, Escher, Bach from some enthusiastic students at Calgary, but not seen it, when I visited the Tarski's in summer 1979 in Berkeley. Noticing the Hofstadter book in Alfred's bookcase I asked him what he thought of it and he exclaimed: "awful, of course it's awful". When I asked whether he had read it he said "of course not". But when I asked him to let me borrow it he got annoyed; the publishers had sent it to him, it belonged to him, and I could not borrow it, of course not.
闃垮