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Douglas R. Hofstadter
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Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid Paperback – May 14, 1989

by Douglas Hofstadter (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 190 ratings
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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this book applies Godel's seminal contribution to modern mathematics to the study of the human mind and the development of artificial intelligence.
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  1. Print length
    777 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Vintage
  4. Publication date
    May 14, 1989
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0394756827
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0394756820
  8. Lexile measure
    1150L
  9. See all details
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The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Everything is a symbol, and symbols can combine to form patterns. Patterns are beautiful and revelatory of larger truths. These are the central ideas in the thinking of Kurt Gödel, M.C. Escher, and Johann Sebastian Bach, perhaps the three greatest minds of the past quarter-millennium. In a stunning work of humanism, Hofstadter ties together the work of mathematician Gödel, graphic artist Escher, and composer Bach.

Gödel, Escher, Bach, a Pulitzer prize-winning treatise on genius, explores the workings of brilliant people's brains with the help of historical examples and brainteaser puzzles. Not for the dim or the lazy, this book shows you, more clearly than most any other, what it means to see symbols and patterns where others see only the universe. Touching on math, computers, literature, music, and artificial intelligence, Gödel, Escher, Bach is a challenging and potentially life-changing piece of writing.

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e Pulitzer Prize, this book applies Godel's seminal contribution to modern mathematics to the study of the human mind and the development of artificial intelligence.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; First Edition (May 14, 1989)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 777 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0394756827
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0394756820
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1150L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 190 ratings

About the author

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Douglas R. Hofstadter

Douglas R. Hofstadter

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Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born February 15, 1945) is an American professor of cognitive science whose research focuses on the sense of "I", consciousness, analogy-making, artistic creation, literary translation, and discovery in mathematics and physics. He is best known for his book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, first published in 1979. It won both the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and a National Book Award (at that time called The American Book Award) for Science. His 2007 book I Am a Strange Loop won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
190 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book excellent, clear, and engaging. They say the style makes perusal of the whole volume highly accessible and easy to grasp. Readers also mention the content wonderful and entertaining.

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ReadabilityContentEntertainment
20 customers mention "Readability"17 positive3 negative

Customers find the book excellent, worth the effort, and accessible. They also appreciate the brilliant writing and witty anecdotes.

"...And even *I* find GEB a challenging, challenging read!..." Read more

"...and mathematics, blending several disciplines in the process, this book is never dull & will be as entertaining as it is informative - it is a fun,..." Read more

"...my love of the material that it covers, but also to Hofstader's brilliant writing and witty anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book...." Read more

"...the titular mathematician, artist, and composer, has been worth every penny of its cost - the introduction, recognition and importance of the..." Read more

11 customers mention "Content"11 positive0 negative

Customers find the philosophical treatises wonderful, clever, and powerful. They also appreciate Hofstadter's literary organization and insight into the connectedness of the universe.

"...will be as entertaining as it is informative - it is a fun, witty intellectual adventure!" Read more

"...Hofstadter has an incredible ability to articulate these ideas before beautifully welding them together...." Read more

"...The style is clear and engaging. It makes you ponder on existence, self reference, meaning, etc.in ways you surely didn't consider before." Read more

"...And its thesis is extremely postmodern; it follows the Newtonian playbook to explain reality in terms of science but relies on the sciences of..." Read more

4 customers mention "Entertainment"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book very entertaining with witty anecdotes sprinkled throughout. They also say the writing is brilliant and clever.

"...in the process, this book is never dull & will be as entertaining as it is informative - it is a fun, witty intellectual adventure!" Read more

"...but also to Hofstader's brilliant writing and witty anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book...." Read more

"...It is wide-ranging, often clever and entertaining, sometimes difficult, and very, very long...." Read more

"...Takes what could be very dry boring subjects and makes then very entertaining. I am not surprised the book won such a prestigious award." Read more

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Top reviews from the United States

Penguin Pete
5.0 out of 5 stars A challenge for any intellect
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2012
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What can I possibly say about this fantastic work that hasn't been said already? There are thousands of rave reviews for this magnum opus, and you should believe every single one of them, and even after that, when you're actually reading GEB, you'll *still* be impressed!

I can only add this: I don't go around saying this often (sshhh! don't tell anyone.) but I happen to have tested high on IQ tests. I'm in the neighborhood of Mensa caliber. I put as much stock in that as I would in a horoscope and you should too, but for what it's worth, as far as we can possibly measure intelligence, I am officially classified as "goddamn smart".

And even *I* find GEB a challenging, challenging read!

I've read Stephen Hawking, Martin Gardner, A.K. Dewdney, Richard Feynmann, and Shakespeare, but it is Douglas Hofstadter who makes me have to slow down, reread, study, stop and think it over. I can't read this work straight through; I have to take it at about a sub-chapter per week. Of course, I also have to stop and write a shell script to play with some of the problems and exercises put forth in the book, so that slows me down too.

Science fiction author Larry Niven used a phrase "playgrounds for the mind", which is exactly what this book is - but it's a challenging course that will stretch and exercise mental muscles long-rusted and forgotten in our pop-culture society.
6 people found this helpful
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J. M. Buccigross
5.0 out of 5 stars A magnum opus right out of the starting gate!
Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2013
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This book is a magnum opus right out of the starting gate from Hofstadter - most authors who write works on "serious" topics cannot match Hofstadter for being able to be as "serious" with the subject at hand while still being entertaining, and exhibiting a sense of humor. Nor do they achieve such a masterpiece until much later in their careers (if ever). But Hofstadter shows that, rather than detracting from his work, his mild, good-natured humor manages to enhance an already eloquent work of immense proportions - both intellectually & literally, being a work of nearly 900 pages. Despite the heady task of examining the nature of symbols, patterns, and mathematics, blending several disciplines in the process, this book is never dull & will be as entertaining as it is informative - it is a fun, witty intellectual adventure!
8 people found this helpful
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Fr Brendan Pelphrey
5.0 out of 5 stars A long walk
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2022
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Really, this is a great book about strange loops. The blending of Godel, Escher, and Bach is an aesthetic feast inside an academic Christmas box. Probably best read with others in a book club or for a class. Certainly listen to the music, study the art, and take the math thought challenges. You are on an adventure which will land you pleasantly reoriented to tidy improbabilities.
3 people found this helpful
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Robert
5.0 out of 5 stars Greatest book I've ever read
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2013
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Every page of this book blew my mind. All 777 of them absolutely floored me with their brilliance, elegance, and style. This book covers topics from mathematics, music, art, computer programming, recursion, zen, intelligence, and much more. My love for this book owes a lot to my love of the material that it covers, but also to Hofstader's brilliant writing and witty anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book. The whole book seems to have been thought up in one sitting, judging by the how tightly bundled the stories are, how each topic builds on the next, and how interconnected the whole book is with itself. This would seem appropriate for a book that has self-reference as one of its principal theses. Observant readers will be pleased to find many double meanings and easter eggs hidden throughout the text (acrostics, recursive acronyms, and palindromes to name a few). I highly recommend this book; even though it might take a while to digest it entirely, it is most certainly worth it. The last sentence of this review is false.
15 people found this helpful
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Pete
5.0 out of 5 stars Hofstadter has an incredible ability to articulate these ideas before beautifully welding them together
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2016
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Even if I never finish this book, the first 35 pages and its introduction to the golden triangle that are the titular mathematician, artist, and composer, has been worth every penny of its cost - the introduction, recognition and importance of the Strange Loop, and how to create and dispel them. Hofstadter has an incredible ability to articulate these ideas before beautifully welding them together. Recommended by Grant Morrison in the letters section of DOOM PATROL #19 (quoted roughly) -to anyone who wants to find mathematics fascinating, but never has- I owe this read to him.
6 people found this helpful
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R. A. Weil
5.0 out of 5 stars Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2011
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Although this work is essentially about AI (Automated Intelligence), the author's insights into art, music, math and philosophy are what has made Hofstatder's volume seminal and long lasting. The organization of the text with its tall tale introductions to hard material (at least for me)make the perusal of the whole volume highly accessible and helped to sustain my enthusiasm for a complete reading. (It is a lot of material.) My particular interest was Hofstadter's understanding of metaphor and language and even further how mathematics and poetry share the language of metaphor. Also the explantion of Godel's incompleteness theorems were easy to grasp and added to my understanding of the lived-in world. Even if one does not read the whole volume, the introduction provides insights to music, art, aesthetics, and philosophy that should not be missed.
4 people found this helpful
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Dan'l Leviton
1.0 out of 5 stars Kindle edition is full of weird typos, substitutions and omissions
Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2022
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I love this book, and have read it several times in both hardcover and paperback. I wanted to reread parts today, so I got the new Kindle edition. It is so full of errors as to make me go back to the paperback. I can't imagine a first time reader would be able to follow it at all. I submitted several corrections, but the whole book needs a fresh edit.
2 people found this helpful
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Krypto
5.0 out of 5 stars Mind expanding
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2013
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This book is really a mind expanding experience. I read it first in 1986 and it fascinated me. No wonder this book won the Pulitzer. I recommend it to anyone, but particularly to people studying phillosophy, computer science, electronics or math.

The content is well within reach of everybody except for, perhaps, some subtle metaphors or proofs. The style is clear and engaging. It makes you ponder on existence, self reference, meaning, etc.in ways you surely didn't consider before.
6 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

P. M.
5.0 out of 5 stars incredible book
Reviewed in Germany on November 25, 2016
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When i first read this book 12 years ago it opened my eyes for the beauty of mathematics and music and their connection, i highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in mathematics.
3 people found this helpful
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J B
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on September 20, 2016
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Good read. I wish there was an audiobook version.
One person found this helpful
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TechMagic
5.0 out of 5 stars Old but gold
Reviewed in India on January 18, 2014
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Never knew about this book until last week. As a science enthusiasts, wanted to buy it since i saw it in a bookshop for Rs 1050, so checked out on amazon and vol ha! 600 rupees only!
3 people found this helpful
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Lou
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 21, 2013
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My favorite book ever! Well worth a look at for anyone interested in logic. It is a little hard to read and understand at times but I know I will go back to this book again and again throughout my life to dip into and try to understand. It is a truly beautiful book!
3 people found this helpful
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Christian T.
5.0 out of 5 stars Puzzel within a puzzel wrapped in an enigma
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2014
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A book that I would recommend to serious thinkers who like to think for fun. The book melds salient points of music, art, and mathematics in exploring what distinguishes homo sapiens as a species.
The people at MIT thought enough of the book to offer a free online, course as an aid in understanding the it.
I gave it four stars on the recommendation of my closest and most respected friend. He gave me a copy and was very disappointed when I finally told him that I couldn't get int it. Tony died years ago, now I am trying to get into it again, mostly in his memory; I still am finding the book incomprehensible.
I wonder if Winston Churchill would have enjoyed it.
2 people found this helpful
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