What's Your Favorite Book About Medicine?

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The Enchanter

The Enchanter

Some call me... Tim?
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I'm not talking about the "How to get in to Med School" or "How to Survive Med School" books but personal autobiographies, narratives, anecdotes, stories etc. about practicing medicine. Have a favorite you'd like to recommend?
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"The Brain that Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge, MD

If you like neuro and the brain then it's awesome! If you don't, you might find it boring.
 
I love the stories from the ER doctors. I really like Emergency!: True Stories From The Nation's ERs.
 
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Everyone says the Paul Farmer book is good but I thought it was incredibly boring. Does this make me a bad person? :scared:
 
The House of God by Samuel Shem. See the thread on that book for my review of it.

Edit: Wait, are you asking about nonfiction? Oh well, I think there's still some truth to House of God.
 
"The Doctor Upstairs,"

Just a collection of ancdotes from an internist/allergist that are both informative and hillarious. A quick but amazing read.
 
FloatOn said:
The House of God by Samuel Shem. See the thread on that book for my review of it.

Edit: Wait, are you asking about nonfiction? Oh well, I think there's still some truth to House of God.
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Yeah, I had non-fiction in mind but I'll be sure to look up your review regardless.
 
The Enchanter said:
Yeah, I had non-fiction in mind but I'll be sure to look up your review regardless.
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Oh ok, I have a good nonfiction one then. Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflection on Mortality by Pauline Chen. As future doctors, we'll encounter patients we can't save. This book made me more comfortable with my own mortality, as weird as that sounds, and just letting go in general, although it's a very blurred line between trying everything you can and accepting that we are impermanent. It just makes you look at medicine and your motives for it differently. So now that I'm done with my depressing thoughts...enjoy!
 
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this topic has come up so many times since i joined sdn, including a thread i started, i think. still, i'll give the same opinions i always do . . . :)

TooMuchResearch said:
First, Do No Harm is still pretty good.
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i read a good chunk of this book, but i don't think i finished it. it was overdue to the library and i gave up. 200+ pages of heavy medical ethics can be a little hard to slug through. actually now that i think of it maybe i did finish it . . . i cant even remember. in any case, it IS a worthwhile read if you can get through it.

therethere said:
and of course, complications by Atul Gawande. He puts out articles once in a while on the new yorker..:thumbup:
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Atul Gawande invariably gets mentioned in these threads . . . and i will say what i always do which is that i think he is too narcissistic for my tastes. bleh. i think his books are ok but his . . . smugness puts me off in a big way.

Practitioner said:
Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
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now THIS is a great and fascinating book! :thumbup:

my other two favorites are Another Day in the Frontal Lobe by Katrina Firlik, about her journey in becoming a neurosurgeon and generally life as a female neurosurg. and Hot Lights, Cold Steel by Michael Collins. I can really relate to the way described feeling inept and out of place :) (its about his residency at Mayo, i think he was gen surg or maybe trauma, its been a while since i read it so i cant remember.)

i was also really riveted by Our Daily Meds (Melody Peterson.) its about pharmaceutical companies and practices. some of it is really shocking.
 
I liked Hot Lights, Cold Steel and The Intern Blues.

Reading Another Day in the Frontal Lobe and When the Air Hits the Brain convinced me not to do neurosurgery. :laugh:
 
MaryLennox said:
my other two favorites are Another Day in the Frontal Lobe by Katrina Firlik, about her journey in becoming a neurosurgeon and generally life as a female neurosurg. and Hot Lights, Cold Steel by Michael Collins. I can really relate to the way described feeling inept and out of place :) (its about his residency at Mayo, i think he was gen surg or maybe trauma, its been a while since i read it so i cant remember.)
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I've read both of those! Another Day was ok. I appreciated her point of view as a female in a traditionally masculine specialty, but I guess I didn't find her cute, little comments very funny. Hot Lights felt like just another book about residency (I think it's ortho). It didn't feel too special and honestly, I don't remember much from it. That's how much of an impression it made on me!
 
FloatOn said:
I've read both of those! Another Day was ok. I appreciated her point of view as a female in a traditionally masculine specialty, but I guess I didn't find her cute, little comments very funny.
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yeah i also found them a lot less amusing the second time i read it (the first time was before i did much serious pre-med/science stuff). still though i think its worth reading if only for the stories about pica . . . :thumbup:

Hot Lights felt like just another book about residency (I think it's ortho). It didn't feel too special and honestly, I don't remember much from it. That's how much of an impression it made on me!
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i think lots of books are really alike, and it just depends how well you can relate to the author. i constantly feel inept and like the underdog, so i think i can relate more to his story than Gawande's (because, like, he is God, right??) just kidding, kind of. :laugh: plus i can relate to his miserably broke life, driving a used hoopty in the dead of winter. and i just thought it was plain funny that his wife kept getting knocked up. gotta love Catholicism
 
MaryLennox said:
i think lots of books are really alike, and it just depends how well you can relate to the author. i constantly feel inept and like the underdog, so i think i can relate more to his story than Gawande's (because, like, he is God, right??) just kidding, kind of. :laugh: plus i can relate to his miserably broke life, driving a used hoopty in the dead of winter. and i just thought it was plain funny that his wife kept getting knocked up. gotta love Catholicism
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Yeah, those are the only two things I can remember! Starting his car early in the morning during ridiculous winters and more babies. I think he did some moonlighting too, right?

I'm going to have to read these Gawande books because EVERYONE on every book thread has been raving about them.
 
FloatOn said:
I'm going to have to read these Gawande books because EVERYONE on every book thread has been raving about them. except for marylennox who hates them.
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fixed that for ya ;)
 
I disliked intensely the book "Intern" by Sandeep Jahuar. he comes across as a whiny brat. I mean, could he have complained any more in the space of 200 or so pages? I can't stand him

a book I liked very much was "Not All Of Us Are Saints" by David Hilfiker. he's a doctor who worked in a homeless shelter/clinic in Washington, D.C. not only did he work there, he and his family lived there. the book gets a bit churchy/religious at times, but overall I was really struck by how his whole family gave up a "normal" life to live and work among the poor and sick. he tells interesting stories about his patients and about his frustrating dealings with social service agencies that are supposed to be, but generally are not, helping, his patients
 
Ben Carson : Gifted hands
Intern Blues (forgot the author off the top of my head)
 
I would have to say A Walk in the Woods.
 
Yuri German
"The Cause Which You Serve"

Mikhail Bulgakov
"Notes of a Young Doctor"
 
http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Bene...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264273198&sr=8-1

51PVAHYHYKL.jpg


This is long but it is a super detailed history of medicine. Porter has an amazing literary voice. If you're at all interested in the roots of medicine, buy this.

It's amazing to think that 200 years ago doctors were considered cheats who often did more damage then good....
 
nothing medical related but Three Cups of Tea is an EXCELLENT EXCELLENT EXCELLENT book... in fact, I think the author was in the running for the nobel peace prize, but Obama won it surprisingly

I also try to read this everyday:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/

its short, easy, and fun to read... not to mention that some of the stuff you read on this website will def help you as a clinician one day
 
When the Air Hits Your Brain by Frank Vertosick is by far the best I have ever read.

Genetic Rounds by Robert Marion was also pretty good.
 
The Soul of a Doctor: They're vignettes from Harvard MS1-4; I think the Amazon review is low because some vignettes are A LOT better than others.

Overtreated: The author drills one major point home: more medicine doesn't equal better healthcare. She explores a pretty comprehensive list of medical specialties and their related "problems." If you don't mind the one-sidedness, and like thinking about health policy (or thinking about ways to improve the practices of healthcare), this book is a good read.
 
A Not Entirely Benign Procedure, Perri Klass
Walk on Water, Michael Ruhlman

Just finished Intern by Sandeep Juahar last night, I liked it.
 
I loved both books by Gawande (and his articles in Newsweek or wherever he writes them, too). I've never gotten the "he's too cocky" thing, but I guess to each their own. To me he comes across as confident but still pretty modest about his own abilities and the profession in general.

I'm just about to finish Intern by Sandeep Jauhar as well, and it's pretty great. I agree with the sentiment that he is kind of whiny at times, but much like Gawande's books the messages are very revealing about medicine and what we can expect to face as doctors, and at times quite inspirational as well.
 
Schemp said:
I loved both books by Gawande (and his articles in Newsweek or wherever he writes them, too). I've never gotten the "he's too cocky" thing, but I guess to each their own. To me he comes across as confident but still pretty modest about his own abilities and the profession in general.

I'm just about to finish Intern by Sandeep Jauhar as well, and it's pretty great. I agree with the sentiment that he is kind of whiny at times, but much like Gawande's books the messages are very revealing about medicine and what we can expect to face as doctors, and at times quite inspirational as well.
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hey Schemp, Gawande is coming to give a talk in our fair city in May. tickets are available through Seattle Arts & Lectures. I'm psyched to go hear him!

as for the other, I just couldn't get past the whining...I couldn't believe someone married this guy! his wife must be infinitely patient. or deaf
 
kia ora said:
I disliked intensely the book "Intern" by Sandeep Jahuar. he comes across as a whiny brat. I mean, could he have complained any more in the space of 200 or so pages? I can't stand him
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What made you think he was whining? Do you have specific examples? I am curious because I never got that impression from the book, and actually liked it quite a bit.
 
Becoming Dr. Q. A memoir by a brain surgeon turned Mexican immigrant who went from picking tomatoes as a migrant farm worker to picking tumors as a leader in the field of neurosurgery.

When the Phone Rings, my Bed Shakes: Memoirs of a Deaf Doctor.

A Walk in My Moccasins: Memoir of a Deaf Physician. This one is about both life with a hearing impairment and life as a Native American.

My Own Country. This one is about an Indian American doctor.
 
Poetic Silence said:
Becoming Dr. Q. A memoir by a brain surgeon turned Mexican immigrant who went from picking tomatoes as a migrant farm worker to picking tumors as a leader in the field of neurosurgery.
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he wrote a book??? hmm im going to have to buy this one, remember seeing him on hopkins. what a badass
 
FloatOn said:
The House of God by Samuel Shem. See the thread on that book for my review of it.

Edit: Wait, are you asking about nonfiction? Oh well, I think there's still some truth to House of God.
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I think I'm the only med student in the history of the world who really hated that book.
 
"Arrowsmith" by Sinclair Lewis. Interesting how nothing much has changed since the early 1900's
 
I've really enjoyed everything I've read by Abraham Verghese, an ID doctor of Indian descent working in America. I think someone mentioned My Own Country above, and he recently wrote a well-received novel called Cutting for Stone that I haven't picked up yet.
 
TheMightySmiter said:
I think I'm the only med student in the history of the world who really hated that book.
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Actually I hated that book too. What surprised me is how much the doctors that I work for recommended it. I almost felt like asking them...are you trying to discourage me from becoming a doctor?
 
An MD Hopeful said:
Actually I hated that book too. What surprised me is how much the doctors that I work for recommended it. I almost felt like asking them...are you trying to discourage me from becoming a doctor?
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I strongly believe that no one should read House of God until they have worked full time in a hospital for at least a year.

Also, keep in mind that it might be dated in terms of how things are done now compared with 30+ years ago.

And this is about the first year of residency (what was called "internship" at that time) when there was no limit on the length of one's work week (now the limit is 80 hours and there is a maximum number of consecutive hours).
 
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