Recommended Medical School Textbooks

[CHRONOS7]

I decided to put together this list of textbooks because when I was starting out I was unsure which textbooks to buy and read loads of opinions which helped me determine which textbooks to buy. Now after being able to form an educated opinion on textbooks here is my 2 cents:

Anatomy:

Atlas of Human Anatomy - Netter (must have) you can get by with an older edition, it hardly changes from year-to-year and I think Netter died in the the 1980s or 1990s so...
Netter's Anatomy Flash (very good and worth the $30)
Clinically Oriented Anatomy - Moore (must have, really good, especially for the blue boxes with the clinical correlations to the anatomy)

Physiology:

Physiology - Costanzo (must have. concise. simplifies the concepts and doesn't get hung up on nitty gritty details)
or
BRS Physiology - Costanzo (almost as good)

Biochemistry:

Biochemistry - Lippincott (I went with Lippincott, it's okay but I'm not sure I'd highly recommend it, if you have a better alternative in mind go for it). You can get by with an older edition of this book as they almost never change anything from edition to edition.

Pharmacology:

Pharmacology - Lippincott (pretty good. make sure you get a new edition as drugs are always changing)

Pathology:

Robbins & Coltran Pathologic Basis of Disease aka "Big Robbins" (must have) this book is incredible. I use it for reference and to read up on important topics that you're going to see a lot in practice (e.g. diabetes, heart conditions, pulmonary conditions). I don't know why anybody would consider getting "Baby Robbins" to save $20, it has almost as much as Big Robbins but is lacking some diagrams, images, and key information.

Microbiology & Immunology:

Review of Medical Microbiology & Immunology - Levinson (the immunology section is boss)

Medical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple - Gladwin (buy this one!)

EKGs

Rapid Interpretation of EKGs - Dubin (must have!)

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[Trastuz]

I agree with Costanzo. Dubin is good as well but not an essential.

Robbins is a waste of money. If you must reference something, use the library or borrow a copy from one of your sorry classmates who bought it and now use it as a bookend. Either Goljan or Pathoma, on the other hand, is a wise investment.

 

[witzelsucht]

^ seconded. sub rapid review for robbins

 

[gregoryhouse]

Totally disagree with big robbins. I have big robbins, little robbins, RR path, and pathoma. Originally I used Big robbins but its way overboard and you'll just get end up lost in useless details. Little robbins is okay if you want more depth but RR path is absolutely amazing. I like pathoma a lot as well but RR path has a little bit more depth to it and I think that makes it better as a primary source.

For the rest of the subjects, I hardly use books because the ppts are usually sufficient but I'll include what I have found helpful.

Microbiology: Kaplan Microbiology/Immunology Step 1 book (I'd imagine its good for immuno too, but I haven't used it)

Anatomy: Clinical anatomy made ridiculously easy or BRS anatomy for reviewing concepts. I strictly used Moore for anatomy, but honestly I also wiki'd a lot of stuff because they usually had good tables including insertion points/innervation/etc. Moore is awesome for the blue boxes though, but Clinical anatomy provides those details as well.

Biochemistry: I rarely use either but Lippincott >>>> Mark's Biochemistry

 

[redsquareblack]

I decided to put together this list of textbooks because when I was starting out I was unsure which textbooks to buy and read loads of opinions which helped me determine which textbooks to buy. Now after being able to form an educated opinion on textbooks here is my 2 cents:

Anatomy:

Atlas of Human Anatomy - Netter (must have) you can get by with an older edition, it hardly changes from year-to-year and I think Netter died in the the 1980s or 1990s so...
Netter's Anatomy Flash (very good and worth the $30)
Clinically Oriented Anatomy - Moore (must have, really good, especially for the blue boxes with the clinical correlations to the anatomy)

Physiology:

Physiology - Costanzo (must have. concise. simplifies the concepts and doesn't get hung up on nitty gritty details)
or
BRS Physiology - Costanzo (almost as good)

Biochemistry:

Biochemistry - Lippincott (I went with Lippincott, it's okay but I'm not sure I'd highly recommend it, if you have a better alternative in mind go for it). You can get by with an older edition of this book as they almost never change anything from edition to edition.

Pharmacology:

Pharmacology - Lippincott (pretty good. make sure you get a new edition as drugs are always changing)

Pathology:

Robbins & Coltran Pathologic Basis of Disease aka "Big Robbins" (must have) this book is incredible. I use it for reference and to read up on important topics that you're going to see a lot in practice (e.g. diabetes, heart conditions, pulmonary conditions). I don't know why anybody would consider getting "Baby Robbins" to save $20, it has almost as much as Big Robbins but is lacking some diagrams, images, and key information.

Microbiology & Immunology:

Review of Medical Microbiology & Immunology - Levinson (the immunology section is boss)

Medical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple - Gladwin (buy this one!)

EKGs

Rapid Interpretation of EKGs - Dubin (must have!)

For anatomy, I wasn't a big fan of the Netter atlas. I would recommend the Gilroy atlas by Thieme; I thought it was far clearer, more concise, and prefer the art in that atlas.

For Biochemistry, if you like a textbook, my favorite was Mathews.

 

[DermViser]

I decided to put together this list of textbooks because when I was starting out I was unsure which textbooks to buy and read loads of opinions which helped me determine which textbooks to buy. Now after being able to form an educated opinion on textbooks here is my 2 cents:

Anatomy:

Atlas of Human Anatomy - Netter (must have) you can get by with an older edition, it hardly changes from year-to-year and I think Netter died in the the 1980s or 1990s so...
Netter's Anatomy Flash (very good and worth the $30)
Clinically Oriented Anatomy - Moore (must have, really good, especially for the blue boxes with the clinical correlations to the anatomy)

Physiology:

Physiology - Costanzo (must have. concise. simplifies the concepts and doesn't get hung up on nitty gritty details)
or
BRS Physiology - Costanzo (almost as good)

Biochemistry:

Biochemistry - Lippincott (I went with Lippincott, it's okay but I'm not sure I'd highly recommend it, if you have a better alternative in mind go for it). You can get by with an older edition of this book as they almost never change anything from edition to edition.

Pharmacology:

Pharmacology - Lippincott (pretty good. make sure you get a new edition as drugs are always changing)

Pathology:

Robbins & Coltran Pathologic Basis of Disease aka "Big Robbins" (must have) this book is incredible. I use it for reference and to read up on important topics that you're going to see a lot in practice (e.g. diabetes, heart conditions, pulmonary conditions). I don't know why anybody would consider getting "Baby Robbins" to save $20, it has almost as much as Big Robbins but is lacking some diagrams, images, and key information.

Microbiology & Immunology:

Review of Medical Microbiology & Immunology - Levinson (the immunology section is boss)

Medical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple - Gladwin (buy this one!)

EKGs

Rapid Interpretation of EKGs - Dubin (must have!)

I would say Rapid Review Biochemistry or Kaplan Biochemistry for the Biochemistry section rather than Lippincott's.

For Pathology, the Big Robbins is too big to retain all the detail, hence why the smaller Robbins is a much easier read. Big Robbins is good for its histo and photos though. Robbins and Cotran Atlas of Pathology, is an excellent source for board review along with Robbins and Cotran Review of Pathology.

 

[Porfirio]

First Aid - Step One
Pathoma
Doctors In Training
Wikipedia
Google

There is nothing else that you need for your first 2 years of medical school.

 

[Isradoc16]

For anatomy, I highly recommend the THIEME atlases. They are amazing.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[brainsurg88]

Cecil's Medicine is a great way to review all of the diseases from a clinical perspective. It also reviews the pathology, and basic pharmacology. Each chapter isn't too long and provides a great overview.

 

[deleted716403]

Gray's Anatomy is quite good, too.

 

[TXKnight]

Anatomy:All the way a combo of thieme atlas, Gray's QUESTIONS book and brs. Tha right there will give you an A

 

[Wailea]

Thieme for Anatomy, First Aid to start annotating, Pathoma to go over path!

 

[Frank Nutter]

Robbins

Harrison's

Hurst's The Heart

Review: Course notes, FA, Goljan RR, FireCracker, Qbank


I found it helpful to read a key chapter or two in the above 3 texts that related to the course notes and review books I otherwise used. There is something to be said for quality writing on a topic by actual leading experts. Helps you conceptualize things the right way the first time you learn them, instead of having to memorize and adjust and re-memorize info that's more crudely presented. It stays with you the rest of your career.