I found the book a little disappointing. After reading GEB and hearing people praise Le Ton Beau, I had expected more of it. Hofstadter is arrogant about his mastering of foreign languages. If his mastery of languages is as he says it is, he's a genius.
There are of course brilliant concepts in this book. One example is his questioning of translations. If a work has been translated, what do you read, what do you appreciate? Is it the original writer who gets the credit, although this writer has written none of the language you read? Or is it the translator, who contributed almost nothing to the ideas in the book? Tough question.

Every other chapter is about various translations of a beautiful poem by Marot. Hofstadter asked all his friends and relatives to provide one or more translations, which all turn out to be very different. Unfortunately, of the examples he gives almost half are his own. I think it would have been more interesting to provide translations of different translators, for every person providing the best translation they have provided. ( )

Hofstadter is the ultimate DIY author, except that he is much more handy with words and ideas than most carpenters are with wood. This is a book (like Goedel, Escher and Bach) that you can read and reread, and still come away slightly enlightened each time. ( )

Fabulous book. An entertaining account of Hofstadter's experience with the difficulties of language translation. The subject is a single, "simple", poem by Clement Marot written in 1537. Hofstadter includes many translations in many styles, each attempting to capture some of the essential characteristics of the poem. Alternating chapters contain anecdotes about his involvement in translation--some dealing with his overseeing the translation of his previous work "Gödel, Escher, Bach". ( )

I spotted this book using some 6th sense in a warehouse-like used bookstore in Newtown, Sydney from a long distance in the wrong section without its dust jacket and with my poor eyesight. The layout and typesetting are exceptionally fine. As for the content, I would not recommend trying to read this from cover to cover but it is a joy to pick up and read a random few pages. Always gives me something to think about. But I'm much more interested in translation than in poetry. ( )