I think I liked Siddhartha and Narcissus and Goldmund more. (I’ve been meaning to read The Glass Bead Game for years. I read this on the recommendation of a coworker.
I think if I’d read this as a teenager it would’ve blown my mind. It captures a kind of anxious thinking that beset me as a child. I thought the first 2/3s of the book were exceptionally strong, but the magical mysticism of the last 1/3 sort of left me a little cold, even though that’s probably what would’ve entranced me the most had I read it 20-25 years ago. It’s a young man’s book, I feel.