Douglas R. Hofstadter's Pulitzer-prize winning work is an artful and elegant masterpiece that takes the uninitiated reader on a roller coaster adventure through number theory, meta-thinking, and the nature of sentience, intelligence, and consciousness. Delivered with the subtle complexity of a Bach fugue, Hofstadter takes one on a cummulative journey toward understanding Gödel's theorem, with constant reference to the paradigm-pushing Escher and a pitstop in Zen, ultimately ending up face to face with the possibility of artificial intelligence.

A favorite among spiritually oriented physics, engineering, and math types, Gödel, Escher, Bach is a veritable treasure trove of artistically executed brilliant thinking. Hofstadter's work will either leave you with a colossal headache, a head spinning with new thoughts, or more than likely both. If ever there was a book whose attempts at intellectual comprehension constituted "spiritual work," this is it.

For me, personally, this books was a pivotal one. Having read this as a young physics student and musician, this book brought me to ultimate appreciation of not only all the academic disciplines, but specifically to a strong feeling for the beauty inherrent in mathematics, and then music and language. The level of thinking required for this book is deep, to say the least. A mental marathon with strong application toward the spiritual dimension of one's life.