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Rating: 
Summary: New to Nagel? Read "The View From Nowhere" instead
Review: Although this book is very interesting and readable, it is ultimately a collection of largely unrelated essays by Nagel, most of which were written in the 1970's. For the Nagel enthusiast, it is a must. For the beginner, I would HIGHLY recomend Nagel's "The View From Nowhere". For one, "Nowhere" is shorter and therefore, I think, more accessable to the general reader. Like "Mortal Questions", it is also a collection of essays on various topics in philosophy, but with a much broader subject area. While Nagel's topics in "Mortal Questions" include war, disobediance, gender equality and the politics of preference (all matters of immanent concern in 1970's America), "Nowhere" tackles free will, personal identity and the pursuit of objectivity in a lucid and straightforward manner.
Rating: 
Summary: Thought-provoking
Review: I highly recommend this work for philosophers and lay-people alike. This is an excellent collection of some of Nagel's thoughts on a wide range of thought-provoking topics. More than the appeal of the topics discussed, it is the clear, lucid, plain-language approach to philosophical analysis that sets this book apart. The ruminations on death and absurdity are among the highlights, along with the famous analysis of what it is like to be a bat.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: Interesting and perceptive viewpoints on many subjects
Rating: 
Summary: Like granola for the brain
Review: This book is unique in fulfilling two criteria that are very important to me. It is i) a work of twentieth-century analytic philosophy full of carefully-developed and rigorous arguments for controversial conclusions, of the sort that could be expected to generate lively and subtle debate amongst some of the greatest thinkers of the present age, and ii) it's the sort of thing that my mom would enjoy. Semi-educated media pundits often like to blather about how contemporary philosophy fails to 'tackle' the most important issues that every human being has to deal with - the fear of death, the attractions of sex, the influence of luck upon personality - failing to realize that the main point of the discipline is surely to draw our attention from these often rather dreary topics of diurnal reflection to more worthy subjects. But there will always be room for one more book like Nagel's.I did dock him one star, though, because some of the claims that he makes in the essay "What Is It Like To Be A Bat?" really are pretty goofy.
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