Godel, Escher, Bach

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There's no one way to describe Gödel, Escher, Bach as it covers such a kaleidoscopic array of thought provoking topics which interweave into a beautiful narrative, that I'm still trying to figure out what it actually means. The book can really be such a subjective experience, and despite it's age more contemporary than ever in many areas. Where this massive tome truly shines however is in the many themes that will lead you onto long rabbit trails that will literally tie you up for hours trying to shed more light on a related topic through Wikipedia articles and Youtube videos. These odysseys become powerful experiences that make the journey a very personal one, one that travels with you long after you've finished a chapter. To anyone even remotely curious about whether this book is worth a read, I would probably say it's one of the best books you could purchase if you invest the time and effort to search up not just the many concepts, but also specific terms and vocabulary needed to accompany a full understanding of what Douglas seems to be getting at. Regardless if what you get out of this masterpiece is accurate or not to what Hofstadter intended I don't believe matters in the grand scheme of things if you come away feeling you've expanded the way you think about life, nature, the universe, art, music, consciousness, what it means to think, to be alive, ontological debates, ...everything. Because in the end, a great book is only so great as it can benefit a reader, to say it's incredible for any other reason is pretentious. As LeVar Burton used to say "you don't have to take my word for it", open this book on your own and decide if it really is as good you may have heard it is.

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A profound achievement in literature. There is no concise way to summarize the content of this interdisciplinary work by (then) first-time author [a]Douglas Hofstadte[/a]r. Curious reader who may feel intimidated by the complexity of this Pulitzer Prize-winning (non-fiction, 1980) book should put aside such thoughts and jump headfirst into Chapter 1. One immediately begins to see a dizzying -- yet easy to follow -- "interconnectedness" of disparate disciplines such as mathematics, music and linguistics. Thought-provoking and deeply satisfying, "[t]Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid[/t]" is destined to remain a classic work on man's pursuit and understanding of knowledge.