A bit easier is Metamagical Themas https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Metamagical_Themas which is a collection of articles from Scientific American when he took over the Mathematical Games column.
Don't know, haven't read it. But Metamagical Themas is a considerably easier ride than GEB, as it is made up of (mostly) independent articles.
Different kind of book but similar explorations. I'd also say overall more enjoyable unless you're specifically into the thesis of GEB.
You can read GEB or MT in any order, perhaps MT might be more approachable to start with since while it is quite technical, it's a series of articles that can be read independently of one another and each article has a bit of an aha moment, as opposed to GEB which is one loooong marathon where the aha moment is absolutely enormous, but requires a great deal of preparation.