Airport Reading

[LizzyM]

Here's a couple of interesting books recommended to me by applicants who were interviewed last year:

Death Foretold by Nicholas A. Christakis (about making and communicating prognosis)

Knife Man by Wendy Moore (about John Hunter, eighteenth century British surgeon-scientist-- you can check out the table on contents on Amazon and you may be hooked!])




For a previous thread on books some of us have enjoyed, see:http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=293681

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[armybound]

Lizzy, does your adcom also place stock in Social Intelligence or Emotional Intelligence?

That's been some really interesting reading to me.

 

[Depakote]

I'm a fan of:

Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure by Paul A. Offit, MD.

It dissects the history, science and research behind the theories/claims that vaccines cause autism. It's a very interesting read.

 

[BlueElmo]

I'm too busy with reading textbooks.

 

[Zona Pellucida]

I was assigned to read "Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5 Billion-Year History of the Human Body" by Neil Shubin for one of my Bio classes.

Really enjoying it. That never happens with assigned books!

 

[Long Dong]

I've always liked this one myself.

 

[Bunny Fru Fru]

Is it recommended that a candidate respond with a medically related book??? I enjoy reading the classics, and one that comes to mind for me is Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. I'm an honest person and would like to answer questions such as these, honestly. Will I shoot my self in the foot by not going down some heavy/medically related reading? I don't wanna........
Hey Ms. Lizzy, thanks as always for your advice, it is so very much appreciated
And if a candidate crosses your path and says "Gulliver's Travels">>it is probably me!

 

[armybound]

It's recommended that you answer honestly.

 

[LizzyM]

I don't ask every applicant for book suggestions, or even ask, "what have you read lately?" These were just books that came up in conversation.

Armybound, I think that without putting it into words, every school has an interest in social intelligence and emotional intelligence which is why med schools in the US require an interview rather than just picking the applicants with the highest test scores.

 

[MossPoh]

Knife man was quite enjoyable for a history type book. I read it like 2 years ago.

Pynchon's newest book "Inherent Vice" is really good, but he may be too heavy for most. Gravity's Rainbow took me forever.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

I usually read one serious/non-fiction book followed by one humorous book. If books come up during an interview, is it advisable to avoid talking about the humorous ones? My mom says my sense of humor is one of my best qualities.

 

[Schemp]

I usually read one serious/non-fiction book followed by one humorous book. If books come up during an interview, is it advisable to avoid talking about the humorous ones? My mom says my sense of humor is one of my best qualities.

What's wrong with humorous books, or mentioning them? I would hazard a guess and say that most people don't want a doctor who is all business all the time, the type of person who spends all their free time reading journals and medically-relevant books. Being relatable - and, as LizzyM said, socially intelligent - is very important. Mentioning those books isn't just honest, it's probably beneficial as well.

 

[makeshift123]

The Stranger Beside Me and Cries Unheard are on my nightstand right now... gotta love true crime stories.

 

[Depakote]

I don't know that it's a book that I'd discuss in an interview (maybe some interviews...) But if you're looking for a relaxing read, I enjoyed World War Z by Max Brooks even more than I thought I would.

 

[rockaction]

I cannot see myself reading a medically-related book at this stage of the game. I think I'll take my worn copy of Catcher in the Rye to the airport.

 

[Long Dong]

I cannot see myself reading a medically-related book at this stage of the game.

QFT, at any stage in the game. This is gonna take up so much of your life the last thing you want to do read about how some other sucker let medicine suck the life/youth out of him.

Here is another book I liked and used some of the techniques while at different clubs in different cities interviewing for res and med school.

 

[KMFDM]

I'm still trying to finish The Coming Plague.

Awesome, awesome book. It makes infectious disease researchers seem like Indiana Jones.

It's just pretty long.

 

[Jolie South]

I'm still trying to finish The Coming Plague.

Awesome, awesome book. It makes infectious disease researchers seem like Indiana Jones.

It's just pretty long.

That book is really good, though it read like a text at times.

If you like that, you'll love Virus Hunters of the CDC. It talks about a couple of docs that were EIS officers in different areas of Africa working on Lassa and Ebola epidemics.

 

[Longshanks]

I'm still trying to finish The Coming Plague.

Awesome, awesome book. It makes infectious disease researchers seem like Indiana Jones.

It's just pretty long.

Does that make my PI Indiani Jones then? What would I be? The little asian kid in the Mets hat (Mets are and always will be terrible btw)?

 

[schrizto]

Thanks for the book suggestions.

 

[Postal Blowfish]

Infinite Jest - DFW
Mason and Dixon - T. Pynchon (both books weigh 3 lbs.)

If you're into poetry, Actual Air - David Berman

 

[TheDuder]

A bit nerdy, but anyone interested in science should read Carl Sagan's "Demon Haunted World."
I also recommend Edzard Ernst's "Trick or Treatment" for something more pertinent to medicine.
Finally, if you're feeling a bit too cheery and pleased with life in general, read Cormack McCarthy's (sp?) Pulitzer Prize winning, "The Road." It's the darkest, most disturbing book ever.

 

[Flex]

A bit nerdy, but anyone interested in science should read Carl Sagan's "Demon Haunted World."
I also recommend Edzard Ernst's "Trick or Treatment" for something more pertinent to medicine.
Finally, if you're feeling a bit too cheery and pleased with life in general, read Cormack McCarthy's (sp?) Pulitzer Prize winning, "The Road." It's the darkest, most disturbing book ever.

Cormac McCarthy. And if you want to read his darkest, most disturbing book try reading Blood Meridian. It's eye-opening.

 

[schrizto]

Cormac McCarthy, Pynchon, Joyce... all of them use some sort of stream of consciousness and I seriously don't get it. I think that I tend to think in full sentences, so that writing style just confuses me. I know people who read this type of stuff are serious readers, and the authors who write this are at the highest echelons of literature, so I was very tempted to pick up a copy of these epics, but when I did, I was like .

 

[basolateral]

i liked harry potter.