Mere Mortals Book Reviews

 A Storm of Swords Part 1 had me questioning a character I thought I'd made my mind up about and reading chapter after chapter when I should have put it down.

In this spoiler-light review of Steel and Snow by George R.R. Martin, I explain why the first part of A Song of Ice and Fire's third novel exceeded my expectations after A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings.

New points of view change how you see the world, the action steps up, and the groundwork from the earlier books starts paying off. I...

1984 is my favourite book of all time. However, it's certainly not fun to read. Orwell's style is rather dry & aside from 'Animal Farm' or 'Homage To Catalonia' most of his other works are so bleak as to be uninspiring. I don't believe the fictional world of 1984 is likely to occur & wouldn't be sustainable even if willed into existence. Despite this it has shaped my worldview more than anything else. Little lessons that add up to how I think, what I believe, who I am, the way I live & act/behave. Below is a selection of quotes & what they have taught...

Average advice will get you average returns.

In this episode, I review 'Big Mistakes' by Michael Batnick, a short investing book that profiles famous investors and the bad calls that shaped their careers. I run through the book’s structure, some of the names featured — including Benjamin Graham, Jesse Livermore, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger — and why I found the core premise more interesting than the execution. While the book tries to distil each investor’s major error into a neat lesson, I came away feeling that many of those conclusions were either too vague or too forced to be ge...

Would you rather evolve into an Eloi or a Morlock?

In this episode, I dive into H.G. Wells ’The Time Machine', a short but hugely influential classic that may be one of the earliest stories to imagine time travel as a machine-driven journey into the future. I walk through the novel’s framing device, the Time Traveller’s unsettling visit to roughly 800,000 AD, and the split future of humanity into the carefree Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks. From there, I unpack why the book still holds up: its eerie vision of evolution, class division, and social decay, plus t...

A bigger world. More perspectives. Nearly 900 pages. But is A Clash of Kings actually better than A Game of Thrones?

In this Mere Mortals book review, I share my honest thoughts on George R. R. Martin’s second A Song of Ice and Fire novel—as someone reading the books without having watched the television series.

I enjoyed the journey, particularly Tyrion’s chapters, Arya’s perspective and Martin’s immersive writing. But the slower build, scattered storylines and unresolved threads left me missing some of the first book’s intensity.

00:00 Is bigger actually bet...

Sure is a lot of hanky panky going on in a sexually repressive time.

In this episode, I review John Steinbeck’s The Wayward Bus, a 1947 novel that sits somewhere in his middle period and while not usually counted among his greatest literary achievements is clearly packed with the sort of vivid, messy human character work he does so well. I walk through the book’s loose premise — a stranded bus, a roadside station, and a cast of passengers and workers thrown together — and talk about why the story feels less like a tightly structured plot and more like a v...

My first Franz Kafka read was weird, vivid and surprisingly enjoyable. In this Mere Mortals Book Review, I share my thoughts on Metamorphosis and the other short stories in this Penguin collection.

From Gregor Samsa’s transformation to a tense taxi dispute and an unexpected insight about achievement, Kafka packs strange situations, precise details and memorable ideas into remarkably short stories.

I discuss alienation, family dependence, Kafka’s writing style, and why reading at a conversational pace helped me enjoy this collection.

⚠️ Spoilers: the Metamorphosis plot discussion starts at 07:39 and includes the ending. Skip to...

The best way to understand apathy is to not understand at all.

In this episode, I’m back with a review of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, the 1966 classic that helped define the true crime genre. I unpack the book’s retelling of the brutal Clutter family murders in Kansas, the psychology of Perry Smith and Richard Hickock and Capote’s readable, gripping style. While I can appreciate the book’s historical importance, strong reporting and the way it gives readers close access to the killers, I kept coming back to the same question: why? For me, the most u...

Can a book about stupidity leave you feeling stupider? The Psychology of Stupidity, edited by Jean-François Marmion, promises explanations from some of the world's smartest people. I finished it wondering how it became a bestseller.

In this Mere Mortals Book Review, I explain why the collection disappointed me: repetitive discussions of terminology, arguments I found one-sided, and interviews that didn't deliver the depth I was hoping for.

I also discuss the handful of ideas I did find interesting, before looking more closely at the book's treatment of artificial intelligence, meat-eating and intelligence, and its c...

Can uncertainty make you stronger and does Antifragile actually show you how?

In this Mere Mortals Book Review, Juan explores Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. There are powerful ideas here, but I finished the book with mixed feelings about its practical application, repetition and relentless personal attacks.

I unpack the difference between fragile, robust and antifragile, explore the barbell strategy and question how easily these frameworks translate into everyday life.

My biggest takeaway? Via negativa: improving by removing harmful habits and unnecessary complexity. Sometimes progress comes from subtraction.<...

Can we slow AI development down while everyone is still trying to win the race?

In this episode of Mere Mortals Book Reviews, I'm reviewing an article: “We Must Pace the Frontier” by Dario Amodei.

I unpack the proposals for embedded evaluators, coordination between AI companies and international cooperation. Then I share where I'm supportive, where I'm sceptical, and why reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Antifragile has me questioning the comparison between AI safety and aviation.

We also explore recursive self-improvement, the tension between global cooperation and US–China competition, and whether today's AI capab...

I never watched Game of Thrones. Then I finally picked up George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and I get it now.

I went into the first book of A Song of Ice and Fire with almost no connection to the TV series. In fact, years ago I made it about four minutes into episode one before turning it off.

The book was a very different story.

It starts slowly enough, building the people, families, politics and world but somewhere around the first third it starts accelerating. By the final few...

I read The Book of Elon by Eric Jorgenson, a collection of Elon Musk’s most useful ideas on purpose, engineering, business, hiring, intensity and problem-solving, presented largely through Musk’s own words.

Rather than another Elon Musk biography, this book attempts to distil his operating system: how he thinks, why he works with such extreme intensity and which principles have shaped companies including Tesla and SpaceX.

But does it offer anything genuinely new?

00:00 What is The Book of Elon?
00:28 How I received the book
01:03 This is not an Elon Musk biog...

In this Mere Mortals book review, I talk through The Odyssey by Homer the famous follow-up companion to The Iliad, and one of the great adventure stories of the Western canon.

Compared with The Iliad, I found The Odyssey much more readable, more story-driven, and honestly more enjoyable. This is the great soldier-returning-home story: Odysseus trying to make his way back to Ithaca after the Trojan War, while Telemachus searches for answers, Penelope holds off the suitors, and the gods keep interfering with everyone’s lives.

0:00 Intro — The Odyssey after The Iliad
0:54 The basic stru...

Art is hairy, art is context, art is beauty and ..... art is big butts!?

In this episode, I dive into 'Get the Picture' by Bianca Bosker, a 2024 book that explores the contemporary art world from the inside. Bosker approaches it through immersive journalism, working as a gallery assistant, art fair staffer, studio helper, museum guard and briefly as an artist herself. What I found most compelling was how the book uses those experiences to wrestle with the big questions: what counts as art, whether art is about beauty or context and how much of the industry is driven...

Abstract ideas made definite.

In this episode of Mere Mortals book reviews, I dive into Peter Thiel’s 'Zero To One' and why its big-picture thinking resonates more than tactical business how‑to. I explore Thiel’s blend of abstract philosophy and concrete startup stories (from PayPal to Palantir) and discuss his contrarian takes on competition, monopoly and the value of being the last mover. I unpack the optimistic vs pessimistic, determinate vs indeterminate lens Thiel uses to read cultures and markets and why these frames can guide founders to build something truly unique rather than drift into “zombie c...

I'm begging you PLEASE, I'll be your very best friend.

In this episode I review Dale Carnegie’s classic 'How to Win Friends & Influence People' nearly a century on from its publication. I walk through the book’s structure: principles on handling people, making people like you, winning others to your way of thinking and leading without resentment. Timeless advice still shines (smile, remember names, be genuinely interested, listen well) but some parts feels dated (the slow course‑shilling intro and lack of psychological depth on becoming “genuinely” interested). I also dig into the tension at the heart of the boo...

Most people approach The Iliad expecting the Trojan Horse. Instead, they find something darker: a story about wounded pride, uncontrollable rage, brutal violence and the moment vengeance finally gives way to pity.

In this review, I break down Samuel Butler’s translation of Homer’s epic, the feud between Achilles and Agamemnon, Hector’s terrifying presence, the petty interference of the gods, the oral tradition behind the poem, and whether a modern reader should actually tackle this ancient monster of a book.

00:00 — An Ancient Epic in My Hands
00:42 — The Samuel Butler Translation
01:03 — Did Homer Actual...

I was wrong and I admit it .... this is the real OG self help book.

Today I dive into James Allen’s 'As a Man Thinketh' (paired in my edition with From Poverty to Power) and it still lands today. It's short, punchy and refreshingly non-woo-woo with clear calls to personal responsibility, character-building and right thought leading to right outcomes. I read standout quotes, reflect on how its agnostic tone (with light biblical echoes) keeps the focus on self-mastery and share how it inspired me to become better. I also highlight where From Poverty to Power lost me (pr...

What happens if the game really is better than real life?

In this episode I dive into 'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline and explore whether a virtual paradise can outshine the messy real world. I outline the OASIS, the 80s-saturated Easter egg hunt and the Gunter vs corporate showdown then share why the novel’s early gritty realism hooked me but later lost its footing as coincidences piled up and the real world became improbably rosy. While the tech flourishes feel contemporary and the ride is undeniably fun (especially for gaming and 80s pop-culture tragics) the lack of...

Are you entering into the dungeon? 

In this episode of Mere Mortals Book Reviews, I dive into 'Dungeon Crawler Carl' by Matt Dinniman, a fast-paced RPG romp that mixes real-world apocalypse with game-show chaos. I share why this was the perfect palate cleanser after some drier reads, how the humour lands (crude, clever and consistently fun) and what makes Carl and his imperious feline companion Princess Donut so engaging as they descend through deadly, rule-laden dungeons watched by an intergalactic audience.

I touch on the book’s setup: Earth flattened and repurposed into a subterranean dungeon, hum...

The classic self-help book is a bit different than I remember. 

In Napoleon Hill’s 'Think And Grow Rich' I discover it’s not quite the book I remembered. I walk through what still shines—its optimism, self‑analysis prompts and the motivational push that helped me as a younger bloke to build self‑confidence, set goals and act with intention. I share the quotes and practices that I used to use as inspiration for growth.

Then I dig into the doozies: dated claims, sciencey overreach, baldness-by-hat myths, telepathy talk, name-dropping and a tendency to state opinions as...

 Just how reliant are we on fossil fuels ..... well it turns out a lot! 

'How The World Really Works' by Vaclav Smil showed me just how much we still need petroleum and coal to make plastics, ammonia, concrete and steel. So they're not going away any time soon.

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Website: https://www.meremortalspodcasts.com/
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Ins...

After a short hiatus, I’m back with a paired review of The World According to Coco and The Little Book of Chanel. Truthfully, neither book is extraordinary on its own. But together, they open a far bigger question: what does it cost to reinvent yourself so completely that the myth becomes more powerful than the person?

In this review, I explore Coco Chanel’s brutal beginnings, her obsession with uniqueness, the creation of Chanel No. 5 and the little black dress, the moral ambiguity of her wartime years, and the deeper tension beneath it all — greatness, ego, loneli...

 In this episode of Mere Mortals, I review Solve Everything: Achieving Abundance by 2035 by Dr Peter H. Diamandis and Dr Alexander D. Wissner-Gross, a bold manifesto arguing that AI could give humanity the capability to solve nearly every major problem within a decade. I break down the article’s moonshot vision, the idea of directing intelligence with precision, and the hard truth that culture, government, and human inertia may still trap us in the muddle.

00:00 Intro
00:49 The promise of abundance by 2035
01:10 Who are Peter Diamandis and Alexander Wissner-Gross?
01:53 Was this article written with AI?

In this episode of Mere Mortals Book Reviews, I break down The Adolescence of Technology by Dario Amodei and why it reads less like a tech article and more like a civilisational warning memo. We explore AI safety, misuse, power, economic disruption, and the frightening speed at which these systems are advancing. The core tension is brutal: if this technology keeps accelerating without real guardrails, humanity may not get a second chance to correct the course.

https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/the-adolescence-of-technology

(00:00) – Welcome Back to Mere Mortals
(00:39) – Why I’m Reviewing More Long-Form Articles
...

I don’t even have the physical book… because Accelerando is free online and after reading it, I understand why it’s become a cult recommendation.

This is dense, idea-heavy sci-fi that doesn’t hold your hand.
It throws you into transhumanism, post-human economics, AI evolution, and singularity-level futures… and expects you to keep up.

You’ll get:

uploaded “lobsters”
humans splitting into multiple versions of themselves
“alien” civilisations that look suspiciously like corporate structures
and a final twist involving a cat… that reframes the entire story

I didn’t understand ev...

 Welcome back to the Mere Mortals Book Reviews. Today I’m reviewing Habits of High Performance by James Laughlin, a practical, activity-driven book built around foundational principles like getting radically clear, strengthening belief systems, leading life on purpose, multiplying motivation, doing the work, focusing priorities, and taking no shortcuts.

(00:00) — Welcome + What We’re Reviewing
(00:23) — Who is James Laughlin? (Author background)
(01:51) — What the Book Covers (Core sections)
(02:50) — The Structure: Short Chapters + Practical Activities
(03:29) — QR Codes + Guided Exercises (How it’s meant to be used)
(05:05) — My Experience: Entertaining, but Surface-Level
(07:02) — Example Principle: Purpose + ‘When your why is clear…...

 Welcome back to another edition of the Mere Mortals Book Reviews — and this time it’s the final instalment of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

(00:00) Welcome back + final instalment setup
(00:47) I literally ripped the book in half (and why it fits the story)
(02:30) The split storylines: battles vs Frodo & Sam
(03:51) Sam as the real hero (stronger in the book)
(04:32) Book vs movie: the extra Shire material
(06:52) Writing mastery: descriptions that put you there
(07:11) Suffering, sacrifice, and carrying Frodo
(08:11) Appendices: deep lore (and why I skipped...

 This is the book learnings companion to my Mastery book review: I pulled 17 personal takeaways (from ~70 notes) and unpack what they mean in real life. We go from vocation and apprenticeship, to why “not even enlightenment is enough”, to the prepared mind, the dimensional mind, and why tech (especially AI) is collapsing the walls between fields.

(00:00) Book learnings (and why you should watch the review first)
(00:19) Pen-in-hand reading + 70 notes → 17 key lessons
(01:23) Lesson 1: “Mind under the lights of the world” (focus beats distraction)
(02:32) Lesson 2: Vocation — the well-employed life
(03:55) Lesson 3: “Seed/uniqueness” — and my pushback (life can change you...

 Mastery is not a gift handed to the “talented", it’s a ruthless process: time, patience, humility, apprenticeship, and the emotional control to not quit when it gets boring. In this review, I break down Greene’s core ideas, why social intelligence matters as much as skill, and how intuition gets forged through long exposure to the craft.

(00:00) — Go against the tide: develop mastery
(00:11) — Why this book, why now
(00:38) — Context: comparing to 48 Laws of Power
(00:57) — Reading experience: chunky, dense, “Greene” style
(02:42) — Power vs Mastery: maturity and intent
(03:24) — Who this book is (and isn’t) for
(04:32...

 Ever looked at the art world and thought: how does any of this actually work?
I read How to Collect Art (2024) by Magnus Resch to figure out whether a normal person can buy a single great piece… and whether art is actually a good investment.

Resch approaches the art market like an economist: data, power structures, and the brutal reality of gatekeepers. The big theme? The art world isn’t a free market, it’s a pyramid. A tiny number of fairs, galleries, curators, and institutions sit at the top… and they decide what becomes valuable.

 A short snippet on the way we do things behind the scenes as the new year approaches and a concerted effort in our book reviews rises.

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Website: https://www.meremortalspodcasts.com/
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 In this Mere Mortals book review, I dive into Secret Weapon, the 12th entry in the Alex Rider series, but not a traditional one. Instead of a full-scale mission, Horowitz delivers seven short, fast-paced stories set early in Alex’s spy career. It’s action-packed, easy to consume, and offers small bursts of worldbuilding without fundamentally shifting the universe.

(00:00) - Welcome & Book Intro 
(01:17) - What Makes Secret Weapon Different 
(02:39) - Horowitz’s Intentions Behind The Stories 
(02:53) - High-Paced Nature of the Book 
(05:27) - Will I Re-read It? Probably Not 
(05:55) - Worldbuilding at the Margins ...

A raw, no-fluff review of The Two Towers — the darker, tighter middle act of LOTR. I cover the split structure, why Book III feels punchier (Helm’s Deep, Ents), why Book IV slows to a crawl before the Shelob crescendo, and how pain trains the will through Frodo’s burden and Sam’s rise. I read this over a couple of months and felt the weight, the world-building, and the payoff.

Spoilers ahead: Gandalf’s return, the march to war, Frodo/Sam/Gollum through the marshes, and that spider. If you value integrity, patience and quiet courage, this one h...

Alex Rider returns in Never Say Die — a fast, zany, throwback instalment that swaps grit for velocity. I break down what works (pace, scale, that classic Rider ingenuity), what doesn’t (the Jack twist), and the one big philosophy that matters: leadership is action, not announcement.

What you’ll hear:

How the plot kicks off post-Egypt and why Alex goes rogue to follow a single clue.
Why the “Jack is alive” reveal felt forced compared to the darker mid-series tone.
The pivotal switch: when Alex stops following orders and starts leading.
The core lesso...

Horowitz turns the camera away from Alex and into the fire that forged Yassen. Set around the Stormbreaker timeline, this darker companion novel binds the series together with grit, symmetry and consequence. It’s not for first-timers, it’s a reward for the faithful.

00:00 “Assassins aren’t born; they’re forged.”
00:25 What this book is (context + where it fits)
01:40 Non-spoiler thoughts, tone, pacing, payoff
03:20 Themes, the 14-year-old crucible, mirror principle
04:45 Accessibility, fans vs newcomers
05:20 Spoilers start, key backstory beats that matter
07:10 Series connections you’ll actually feel
08:15 Who should read this (and in w...

Alex Rider stops being bulletproof. In Scorpia Rising, Anthony Horowitz cashes in every IOU the series has dodged: real stakes, identity games, and a gut-punch that actually lands. Today I break down why this is the first truly adult entry in the YA spy saga and what it teaches about cost, courage, and growing up without permission.

00:00 Cold Open — “The end begins here”
00:38 Why Scorpia Rising Matters
02:02 Spoiler-Safe Synopsis
04:05 What Horowitz Does Differently
06:11 Villains That Bite: Razim
08:03 Identity Warfare: Julius Grief
10:02 The Cost of Winning
12:09 Major Spoiler: The Blow That Lands<...

A new villain and a new frontier. Crocodile Tears throws Alex Rider into the jaws—literally. We open in Scotland, meet philanthropist-on-paper Desmond McCain of the First Aid charity, and quickly discover a disaster-profit scheme that weaponises tragedy for donations. From GM-food labs and biodomes to fake cops, forced travel and a crocodile interrogation in Kenya, this one moves.

Highlights we cover:

The McCain playbook: create chaos, cash in on sympathy
The school sequence & realism check (fun, if implausible)
Nuclear-plant scare, dam finale, and why the collateral “cost” is part of the message
B...

“The enemy isn’t out there. It is within.” That line sets the tone for Snakehead, the seventh Alex Rider novel: darker, sharper, and closer to the bone. We open in Australia (very on-brand for me), surge into Bangkok, and tangle with human-trafficking rings and a bomb plot on the water. Along the way, we meet Ash and face the kind of betrayal that doesn’t fit neatly into “good guy / bad guy.”

Big idea: Reality is messy. Moral clarity often arrives after the decision. I’ll show you how to act decisively when you can’t see the full boa...