I put off reading this book for years, because I expected that it to be the new-agey ramblings of a 1970s professor meditating on that like whoa, a nautilus shell follows the Fibonacci sequence. But this is a hard science book and a long, difficult one that deserves its length, because Hofstadter needs the pages to argue his thesis. Yes, he's not as funny as he thinks he is, and he bogs down at times, especially in the middle third of the book. But Hofstadter displays remarkable knowledge and thought about an array of topics that -- until one reads his book -- seem totally disparate, and the ingenuity with which he weaves them together is possibly unmatched. Even more remarkable, though, is the clarity with which he does it. I doubt I'll ever read another science book that elucidates such a depth of complex knowledge so successfully. A classic.