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I'm thinking on prioritizing "I am a Strange Loop" over GEB. According to Hofstadter, it is a better book [1]. Also, shorter :-). 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/w

I'm thinking on prioritizing "I am a Strange Loop" over GEB. According to Hofstadter, it is a better book [1]. Also, shorter :-). 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Strange_Loop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Strange_Loop

jimpudar 7y ago
GEB was written when he was a young man and his ideas hadn't fully percolated into the more concrete form they take in I Am a Strange Loop. I can't find a source at the moment (it might actually be in IaaSL itself) but I seem to remember him saying IaaSL is the book he wanted to write when he wrote GEB. Both are excellent reads, but I'd definitely agree IaaSL is far more approachable and a better use of your time.
rmidthun 7y ago
Strongly disagree. I Am a Strange Loop spends an entire chapter of Hofstadter informing us how he is better than everyone else because he hears Bach better than everyone else. And this attitude fills the book, I found it very obnoxious and am not sure why no else mentions it. There are at least two places in the book where he talks about an interesting point, then realizes it is a rehash of something from a previous book. And aside from the self-congratulations (did you know being a vegetarian makes you more of a person?), anything interesting in this book was done better in a previous book. I would recommend The Mind's I instead. It's a collection of stories and essays from most of his influences, see what Turing, Lucas, et al. actually said.
- iamnothere 7y ago
  He also spends a chapter trashing Searle, in a way that seems a little unnecessarily vindictive. I still enjoyed it. It's not for everyone, but I found that his meanderings served to break up the seriousness of the subject in a way that made for an easy read, much easier than GEB.
zem 7y ago
if you read one book of hofstadter's, make it "metamagical themas", a truly engaging collection of his columns for "scientific american". I also liked "le ton beau de marot", on the art of translation, but that's less of a general appeal book. I have read geb, and it had some nice ideas, but i can't say I was motivated to reread it; it felt overly self indulgent somewhat in the manner of a friend telling you about how their rpg campaign played out without realising that half the interest lay in having been there.

jimpudar 7y ago

GEB was written when he was a young man and his ideas hadn't fully percolated into the more concrete form they take in I Am a Strange Loop. I can't find a source at the moment (it might actually be in IaaSL itself) but I seem to remember him saying IaaSL is the book he wanted to write when he wrote GEB. Both are excellent reads, but I'd definitely agree IaaSL is far more approachable and a better use of your time.

rmidthun 7y ago

Strongly disagree. I Am a Strange Loop spends an entire chapter of Hofstadter informing us how he is better than everyone else because he hears Bach better than everyone else. And this attitude fills the book, I found it very obnoxious and am not sure why no else mentions it. There are at least two places in the book where he talks about an interesting point, then realizes it is a rehash of something from a previous book. And aside from the self-congratulations (did you know being a vegetarian makes you more of a person?), anything interesting in this book was done better in a previous book. I would recommend The Mind's I instead. It's a collection of stories and essays from most of his influences, see what Turing, Lucas, et al. actually said.

iamnothere 7y ago
He also spends a chapter trashing Searle, in a way that seems a little unnecessarily vindictive. I still enjoyed it. It's not for everyone, but I found that his meanderings served to break up the seriousness of the subject in a way that made for an easy read, much easier than GEB.

zem 7y ago

if you read one book of hofstadter's, make it "metamagical themas", a truly engaging collection of his columns for "scientific american". I also liked "le ton beau de marot", on the art of translation, but that's less of a general appeal book. I have read geb, and it had some nice ideas, but i can't say I was motivated to reread it; it felt overly self indulgent somewhat in the manner of a friend telling you about how their rpg campaign played out without realising that half the interest lay in having been there.