Gödel, Escher, Bach

I am in the same boat as you. People who love it are crazy about it. I started it on a plane flight and the guy next to me chatted my ear off about how it changed his life for 20 mins. My current theory is that if you read it in your childhood, it resonates with you. I was 25 when I read it and it did not.

I read it when I was a kid, and loved it. It's pretty cool to see this on HN, I almost never run into anyone who has read this book.

can you share what other books delivered moments like that for you? Really curious

I remember reading this book in my teenage years and being moved by its story. I still think about it, and it's one I'd definitely recommend.I wonder how it got to the top of hn all of a sudden though.

I read the book at a similar age and I remember it made a strong impression on me.

My mind was blown when I read it as a teenager.

Same here. I was fortunate to read it when I was young & impressionable (~16). It left a profound effect on me that's hard to succinctly express.

I read it 20+y ago and it felt like a good intro back then.

Maybe he read it too old. I read it in high school and it absolutely blew my mind. It was a slog at parts, predicate calculus and symbolic manipulation like that was new to me, but I can say without qualification that it changed my thinking and life.

I second this. I did my first reading in high school and it changed me for the better (and weirder).