I read I am a Strange Loop before I started reading GEB because (as noted in the wiki page) he felt he did a better job of explaining the ideas here than in GEB

I read I am a Strange Loop before I started reading GEB because (as noted in the wiki page) he felt he did a better job of explaining the ideas here than in GEB. Sadly, all I can recall from this book are long passages about his dead wife and an AV art installation using feedback (which I think was also about his dead wife) rather than any insights into emergent phenomena. To be fair, I am not his ideal reader because the moment I feel the author becoming self-indulgent, I start skimming.