Regarding criticisms of this book... When this book came out, I purchased a copy, determined to read it; I was successful in reading it, minus the appendix and

Regarding criticisms of this book... When this book came out, I purchased a copy, determined to read it; I was successful in reading it, minus the appendix and notes section (which is printed so small, that if expanded to the size of the font used in the book, would probably create at least one or more books of the same length - this thing is insanely dense - but at least it isn't a "House of Leaves"). I only ran into one issue - on the first copy of the book I purchased: So far into the book (I don't recall how much offhand) the text repeated or did something weird; basically I had purchased a copy of the book that was bound improperly or something. I kept that copy, and purchased another. Anyhow - what I constantly see in reviews of this book (then and now) is the criticism that what Wolfram wrote wasn't original, or "new", and that it was "egotistical" of the author to publish it. What I've never understood though, is that the Wolfram constantly asserts that what he is writing isn't anything original or new - that it all existed before. I mean, I recall reading this kind of language seemingly on every other page. But I don't think I've seen a critical review that has mentioned this? At this point, 15 years later (has it really been that long?) - I'm not sure what to think of the work. Based on the first few comments here, it still seems to be something that raises the hackles of people. Maybe it's deserving of the criticism? Or maybe it's one of those texts that needs to age a bit more before we see it for what it is? Whatever - I enjoyed reading it, as difficult a read it was, I still found it fascinating and curious.