I read Godel Escher Bach many years ago and really enjoyed it at the time. When I got my hands on this book, I was excited to read a late Doug Hofstadter work. To my surprise, by the end of Chapter 3, I was done with it. This book had none of the variety of its predecessor, and not much in terms of new ideas (as far as I can remember). I competely agreed with a goodreads review of it, courtesy of Zach.

Conceptually, I guess you could say, I enjoyed it, but the presentation -
the language of the author, the over-long format, and the strange mixture of
hard math and elementary philosophy - diminished and diluted the content to
the point that it was barely worth reading. The first problem is
Hofstadter’s “aww shucks” Uncle Fluffy writing style. His language is so
steeped in a fireside chat mentality that the meat of his ideas is
completely devoured by his good-natured cleverness.