I haven't read GEB yet, but I had a similar experience reading "I Am A Strange Loop." It was too prosy, too long, too many examples and too obvious for anyone that has thought about these things before. It didn't go deep enough or propose mechanisms for anything. If you've never thought about any of these things before you might find it cool, otherwise it's a verbose rehash of things that have been said in better ways.

https://altreason.com/i-am-a-strange-loop/