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There’s satisfaction in the hunt for an out-of-print book, sometimes blunted
by the discovery that the book is not as you remember it—the rosy filter
of memory has turned it into something far more significant than it ever was. So
what to make of rereading Douglas Hofstadter? Basic Books has brought back into
print Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern (Basic
Books, $22.50, ISBN 0 465 04566 9). What most of us have forgotten is how
rich Hofstadter’s ideas are, and how difficult it is to grasp some of the
concepts he discusses so effortlessly. On a lighter note—if dystopics may
be said to appeal to the lighter side—HarperCollins has reprinted a
classic Philip K. Dick tale, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (£5.99,
ISBN 0 00 648274 0).