Notwithstanding the fact that Douglas Hofstadter doesn't think very highly of Zen Buddhism, I must say that I am getting to like EGB more and more. I guess the saying that you should not read good books too early in your life does have some merit. The fact that I have read books like The Tao of Physics, Infinity and The Mind, The Mind's I [*], The Three Pillars of Zen and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance since my first reading of EGB (more than a decade ago) has also helped me appreciate EGB more.

BTW, I think I have discovered a minor mistake in this book: a word in a typical computer's memory is made up of thirty-two bits, and not thirty-six.

[*] The essay "Is God a Taoist?" in this book is a must-read.