I've also read Steppenwolf and Siddartha, but it was a few years ago as a first-year university student. I wonder how I would react to them now, being at a different stage in my own Bildungsroman. Now that I've properly started adulting, I am confronted with the question of how I should approach my life. Previously I was a student so my priorities were (or seemed to be) very clearly set out but I cannot take advantage of that excuse anymore. So I find books like The Glass Bead Game interesting because of they might relate to my life.

It was enjoyable to read. The last three stories were especially engaging but that's probably just because I prefer short stories to long novels. I might skip back to the part of the book where Knecht is a young adult to see how they correspond to his attitudes in that stage of his life.

The book is optimistic, it calls for people to live their lives with more sincerity, to be open to different ways of thinking, to escape the ivory tower. There are a few obviously didactic passages but in general it's the story of someone finding their way in the world and not an instruction guide. This is a good thing.