 Good, but not great
I've read this book, on and off, over the better part of the last 4 years. It is certainly a fascinating read, the kind of book that effortlessly discusses everything from computers to art, from paradoxes to physics, from philosophy to tortoises, and seemingly everything in between.
However, the reason I don't give it a 5/5 is that I didn't think that it all ever really coalesced into any singular idea. Other reviewers see it as a profound meditation on the concept of consciousness or something. To me, it just seemed like a hodge-podge of neat stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I think if you go in expecting a revolutionary work, you might be a bit disappointed.
Still, it's such a hefty book, its easy to recommend as a sort of "desert island" kind of book. It's not just the thickness of the book, but the sheer density on each page. Most chapters contain logic games and stuff which you really should try out if you want to get the most out of the book. It's not the kind of book that you can just zip right through. Taken purely as a value proposition it's hard to beat the amount of insight and entertainment this book provides.
 I thought I was wrong but I was mistaken ...
Finally finished it! It's entertaining to visit the realms at the edge of human understanding. There are plenty of excellent reviews well before mine but I feel compelled to write a review none the less to celebrate the long read's conclusion.
Gödel's incompleteness theorems may be taken for granted by Hofstadter from my understanding and reflection but it's not fatal. If you take Gödel straight up ... mathematics and numbers might never be understood, let alone proven. Our minds have great difficulty constructing vocabulary to rationalize mathematics. That's not `news'. The multiplicity of examples and variants that Hofstadter provides regarding this subtle reality of human understanding are fun. I suppose we all comprehend the fuzziness that words contribute or fail completely in communicating mathematical constructs. Hofstadter reinforces the notion that we can't put our finger on our mind's dilemma with the exactitude we desire. I came away with a better appreciation that I'm not alone in the quagmire.
Many, many years ago, I simply enjoyed the whimsy of Escher's art. As a young physicist, I had not come to appreciate the relationship between "art" with science beyond the medium. The curious and repetitious appearance of unconscious ratios in non-mathematical, natural and abstract contexts does `feel' a bit (should I say it?) unnatural. The golden ratio, Fibonacci numbers, Euler characteristics, omega constant, etc affect everything but nothing that can be verbally expressed. Why? No idea. It just does. Hofstadter expresses this `feeling' perhaps as well as we can elucidate it.
Bach ... I got it! I enjoyed Hofstadter's excursions with Bach. Why? ... I was a terrible piano student. I didn't get it. My sister did. It bothered me to no end as a kid. Some few years ago I ran across a detailed Pythagorean statement about how tone/music is recognized as concordant and related by small integer ratios. It was magic to my mind. I'm ready to try again. It seems so simple!
Hofstadter uses narrative `gimmicks' (for lack of a better word ) to link the Gödel, Escher and Bach theme into vertical and horizontal systems and system of systems that may or may not withstand peer review. That's not really the point. I'd call it mind fertilizer ... lots and lots of it.
And that's my criticism ... the read is massive. You have to want to press on through verbosity and detours. It's a book that I would imagine not every reader will preserver to finish. I must admit I was almost one.
In reflection upon the six months or so that I took to read it I'd say it was worth it. There will be times that you'll ask yourself why you ever picked the book up. It's mind candy ... that's what it is.
 Kindle watershed
I have been working as a professional software engineer and computer scientist for about 27 years now, and I can still point back to the college summer I spent reading this book as one of the most profound experiences in my intellectual life and a significant influencing factor in my choice of career. I own two original hardbound copies and another in paperback. I periodically reread sections of the book for a bit of nostalgic timetravel. But I must ask, where the devil is the kindle edition? I can load up my kindles with countless dry reads on number theory and I am quite thankful for that (iPad bookstore is a pure void in this regard) but good old GEB, of all books, has never made the jump. Please, Amazon, resolve this gap in the kindle library. Shall I be forced to develop a botnet purely for the purpose of generating a billion clicks on the "tell the publisher" link?
Don't let the math scare you
If you pick up a copy of GED and leaf through it, it might intimidate you to see pages and pages of extrapolated number theory formulations, but truth be told, you don't have to be a mathematician, or a member of MENSA to enjoy and appreciate this book. It wouldn't hurt of course, but Hofstadter didn't write GED to show off to his academic brethren, provide the syllabus for courses in math or computer science (although they do have an MIT course based on GED), or even to illuminate with searing insight, the work of Kurt Godel, MC Escher, and J.S. Bach. Hofstadter uses the work of those men (and others) in an attempt to explore a mystery.. perhaps the greatest mystery known to man..the mystery of intelligence and human consciousness. How does the hardware (human brain) interact with the software (intelligence) to produce the Self (consciousness), and what implications does this suggest for the development of what we call Artificial Intelligence?
A layman's understanding of Godel's incompleteness theorems would help in comprehending the key themes of this book, which illustrate connections to the graphic work of Escher, and the contrapuntal music of Bach as typified by his "Musical Offering". Hofstadter attempts to weave this remarkable braid of human ideas represented by number theory, visual art, and music, pointing to the self referential (recursive) aspect of each and the resultant "strange loops" which are keys to understanding human thought processes. GED is loaded with puzzles and brain teasers, both visual and mathematical, concrete and abstract, which lead us down the path to making some sense of it all. Aside from music, art, and mathematics, GED references computer science, language, biology and psychology as well as people like Alan Turing, Charles Babbage, Rene Magritte, John Cage, Alfred Tarski, and Marvin Minsky, whose work help illuminate many of the points made in the book.
Another thing worth mentioning is the ingenious way the book is designed. The chapter preludes consist of dialogues between the Tortoise and Achilles (characters from Lewis Carroll's famous article) and they introduce us to the ideas of each ensuing chapter in clever and amusing fashion. Additional characters, such as the Crab, the Anteater, and the Sloth, act as mediators in some of those dialogues. Hofstadter entertains while he enlightens. The Crab Canon prelude to chapter 8 is nothing short of a tour de force. All told, GED is a work of brilliance, both challenging and uniquely thought provoking.
I just started this book, but Amazon is buggin for a review
This edition has a very lengthy "30 years since GEB" introduction added to it. That new intro was boring the crap out of me so I skipped ahead to the original start of the book. So far, within the first 10-20 pages, I've learned about what are effectively scientific discoveries in music, art and math. I wouldn't have thought there was so much to be scientific about in the realm of music, and the perspectives on the art and math discoveries was almost equally intriguing.
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