Another book thread

[rachmoninov3]

OK, so I'm running low on ideas of books to read. I like books a little above the james patterson trashy thriller stuff.

Lately I've lately read all the Oliver Sacks novels, the stuff by Richard Preston, "seriously you're joking Mr. Feinman", and a REALLY GOOD BOOK called "the spirit catches you and you fall down." I'd recomend any of these books myself.

Anyone else have suggestions on what to read while we complete secondaries and wait for interviews?

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[tncekm]

I liked Michael Chricton's State of Fear.

 

[DoctorPardi]

Kurt Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut. Then when you get done with that read "Letters to a Young Doctor" as LizzyM suggested in the previous thread.

 

[mvenus929]

Well, I'm not sure if you'd consider this 'trashy thriller' stuff, but I love the Repairman Jack series by F Paul Wilson. Starts with The Tomb.

 

[TinyFish]

Washington Square.
Short and sweet, and it's James.

Then again, most people I know hate James.

Have you read Interpreter of Maladies? I don't read much contemporary stuff, but I thought that was a pretty entertaining book of short short stories.

 

[dwigt]

I'm not really that into sci-fi, but last summer I read Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series, as well as the Shadow series (8 books total). I frequently got only 2-3 hours of sleep because I just couldn't stop reading.

 

[dwigt]

Also, being a physics major, I have to recommend The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene.

 

[WildTumor]

Book: Dandelion Wines.
Author: Ray Bradbury.

I am reading this book and it is one of the best books I've ever read. period. Though he usually writes sci-fi this book is a novel. It's perfect: easy read, beautifully written, and very enjoyable.

 

[CavalierMD]

Oh man... don't get me started on books. Here are some of my favorites... Sorted by author for your convenience:

Ayn Rand:
The Fountainhead
We the Living

Wally Lamb:
I Know This Much Is True
She's Come Undone

Dave Eggers:
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Vonnegut:
Breakfast of Champions

Rodney Davies:
The Lazarus Syndrome

Enjoy...

 

[ParvatiP]

Kurt Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut. Then when you get done with that read "Letters to a Young Doctor" as LizzyM suggested in the previous thread.

Ugg, I just finished reading "Letters to a Young Doctor" and I REALLY didn't like it. And I love to read, so that's certainly not the problem. I found it incredibly random (for example, this one chapter had nothing to do with medicine - AT ALL- it was about a urinal, very weird) and much too philosophical. The language was very poetic, lots of references to Greek mythology...just seemed like the author was trying too hard. I would NOT recommend this book.

 

[durfen]

OK, so I'm running low on ideas of books to read. I like books a little above the james patterson trashy thriller stuff.

Lately I've lately read all the Oliver Sacks novels, the stuff by Richard Preston, "seriously you're joking Mr. Feinman", and a REALLY GOOD BOOK called "the spirit catches you and you fall down." I'd recomend any of these books myself.

Anyone else have suggestions on what to read while we complete secondaries and wait for interviews?

Clancy. Got right-wing?

 

[Ginkneephur]

I like historical fiction novels, particularly by Philippa Gregory. Her trilogy: Wideacre, The Favored Child, Meridon was really good if you find murder, incest, and psycho people thrilling.

 

[63768]

i've been reading a series of books called case files by eugene toy (among other authors).

 

[hermit]

Also, being a physics major, I have to recommend The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene.

Excellent choice. You can also watch the Elegant Universe Nova series online:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html

 

[albaniandoc]

I am reading Robert Ludlum's Bourne Series. Bourne Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum.
Bourne Identity and Supremacy are two of my favorite movies so I am reading the books before the Bourne Ultimatum comes out early next year. Good read and for once I forget about the med school application process.

 

[xanthomondo]

OK, so I'm running low on ideas of books to read. I like books a little above the james patterson trashy thriller stuff.

Lately I've lately read all the Oliver Sacks novels, the stuff by Richard Preston, "seriously you're joking Mr. Feinman", and a REALLY GOOD BOOK called "the spirit catches you and you fall down." I'd recomend any of these books myself.

Anyone else have suggestions on what to read while we complete secondaries and wait for interviews?

do you mean "surely you're joking, Mr Feynman?"

 

[DoctorPardi]

Ugg, I just finished reading "Letters to a Young Doctor" and I REALLY didn't like it. And I love to read, so that's certainly not the problem. I found it incredibly random (for example, this one chapter had nothing to do with medicine - AT ALL- it was about a urinal, very weird) and much too philosophical. The language was very poetic, lots of references to Greek mythology...just seemed like the author was trying too hard. I would NOT recommend this book.

I think many parts of the book are very funny and a lot of it has to do with making the transition into medicine and respecting patients and the job in general. I liked it, some people like different things. Although I will say there were certainly a lot of references to mythology and some of the writing was a little odd, but sometimes that odd word usage is hilarious.

 

[dapmp91]

Anna Karenina-by Leo Tolstoy
THe brothers karamazonv-by Fyodor Dostoevesky
Notes from Underground-also by Dostoevesky

 

[Kuba]

i stopped reading letters to a young doc because I didn't like it either.

 

[rachmoninov3]

thanks for all the good suggestions, I'll pick up my paycheck in about an hour, then it's off to borders!!!!!!!!!!!!

For Dapmp91, of all the dostoyevsky, I'd reccomend the "idiot" (my favorite of all time) and the "the devils" which is sometimes translated as "the possessed."

 

[Hoberto]

From the last thread about this, all recommended by other SDNers:

***A Map of the Child by Darshak Sangavi
***A Not Entirely Benign Procedure by Perri Klass
And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts
Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis
As Nature Made Him by John Colapinto
Becoming a Doctor by Melvin Konner
***Betrayal of Trust: the Collapse of Global Public Health by Laurie Garrett
Blind Eye by James Stewart
***Complications by Atul Gawande
Death Without Weeping by Nancy Scheper-Hughes
Delivering Doctor Amelia by Dan Shapiro
Driving Mr. Albert by Michael Paterniti
Emergency Doctor by Lewis Goldfrank
Five Patients by Michael Crichton
Gifted Hands by Benjamin Carson
Health and Healing by Andrew Weil, MD
Hot Lights, Cold Steel by Michael Collins
How We Die by Sherwin B. Nuland
Incidental Findings by Danielle Ofri
Internal Bleeding by Robert M. Wachter and Kaveh Shojania
Just Here Trying to Save a Few Lives by Pamela Grim, MD
***Kill as Few Patients as Possible by Oscar London
King of Hearts by G. Wayne Miller
***Kitchen Table Wisdom by Dr. Rachel Remen
Letters to a Young Doctor by Richard Selzer
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
On Call by Emily Transue
On Doctoring edited by Richard Reynolds, MD, and John Stone, MD
Pathologies of Power by Paul Farmer
Phantoms in the Brain by V.S. Ramachandran
***Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue by Danielle Ofri
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Surviving the Extremes by Kenneth Kamler
The Art of Medicine by Kevin J. Soden
The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett
The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston
The Diagnosis of the Acute Abdomen in Rhyme by Zachary Cope
The Dressing Station by Jonathan Kaplan
The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity by Roy Porter
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
The House of God by Samuel Shem
***The Intern Blues by Robert Marion
The Language of Cells: A Doctor and His Patients by Spencer Nadler
The Lost Art of Healing by Dr. Bernard Lown
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks
***The Plague by Albert Camus
***The Scalpel and the Silver Bear by Lori Alvord, MD
***The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
***The Strange Case of the Walking Corpse by Nancy Butcher
***The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Medical Specialty by Brian Freeman, MD
The Wisdom of the Body (also titled How We Live) by Sherwin B. Nuland
Travels by Michael Crichton
Virus X by Frank Ryan
Walk on Water: Inside an Elite Pediatric Surgical Unit by Michael Ruhlman
Walking Out on the Boys by Francis Conley
What I Learned in Medical School by Kevin Takakuwa
What Patients Taught Me by Audrey Young
What Your Doctor Really Thinks: Diagnosing the Doctor-Patient Relationship by Ian Blumer
***When the Air Hits Your Brain by Frank Vertosick
Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Dr. Christiane Northrup
***The Year of the Intern by Robin Cook

Starred titles are just ones I've read.

 

[braluk]

I finished "Year of the Intern" by Robin cook and "gifted Hands" by Ben carson a few days ago. Year of the Intern was extremely insightful into ideal med students (such as us). Gifted Hands was extremely inspirational.

 

[braluk]

Also, for humor, this book called "Why men have nipples". Extremely fascinating book about the most random things you would ever need to know about anything.

 

[braluk]

Oh and also

Surviving the Extremes: A Doctor's Journey to the Limits of Human Endurance (Hardcover)
by Kenneth Kamler

Another realy interesting book about what happens to your bodies (with stories of people who have survived it and died in it) when put at the extremes of life, such as being in a desert, under the water and getting bends, in the jungle, the author is certianly (i think hes an ER doctor) well acccomplished and worldly for going to all these different places. I found myself sitting there reading it front to end easily

 

[GymClassHero]

Ayn Rand:
The Fountainhead
We the Living

Gotta love Ayn Rand, always a good read. Don't forget Atlas Shrugged!

 

[MU.Redskin]

Also, for humor, this book called "Why men have nipples". Extremely fascinating book about the most random things you would ever need to know about anything.

Agreed, this book is incredibly entertaining... but its quick.

Everyone here seemed to push "The House of God" by Shem. I read it and found it quite entertaining (laugh out loud at times), but its not too be taken too seriously. Its very cynical and at the same time has 1970s sex-love-orgies goin on between doctors and nurses.

Clancy are my trash romance-novel equivalents.

 

[albaniandoc]

Anna Karenina-by Leo Tolstoy
THe brothers karamazonv-by Fyodor Dostoevesky
Notes from Underground-also by Dostoevesky

That's heavy man. I read Crime and Punishment a few months ago. I love the classics. I have read Anna Karenina and The brothers Karamazovn.
Russian authors are the best. I used to love poetry by Sergei Essenin.

 

[braluk]

The Alchemistry by Paulo Coelho is somethign that many of my friends have pushed me to read. I just might make a visit to a BN today after all.

 

[vtucci]

I love the classics too and recommend the Count of Monte Cristo and the Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas.

For brain candy, I like the Jack Ryan series by Tom Clancy. I also enjoyed the Harry Potter series.

For medical type books, War Hospital by Sherri Fink, Laurie Garrett's The Coming Plague and The Collapse of Global Public Health. Robin Cook's Coma, Crichton's Andromeda Strain, Richard Preston's The Hot Zone, The Demon in the Freezer, C.J. Peters' Virus Hunter. Robert Marion's Intern Blues. Shem's House of God and Mount Misery, Galwande's Complications, Mark Brown's Emergency- true stories from the Nation's ERs

 

[Looque]

Gotta love Ayn Rand, always a good read. Don't forget Atlas Shrugged!

I was especially fond of The Fountainhead.

Another book that probably not many people have read or heard of yet, though it has every potential to become a classic if the name is spread, is Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, who is a relatively new author. The style and substance of the writing, and the structure of the book, are both fantastic. It reads fairly quickly, too. I highly recommend it.

 

[Looque]

That's heavy man. I read Crime and Punishment a few months ago. I love the classics. I have read Anna Karenina and The brothers Karamazovn.
Russian authors are the best. I used to love poetry by Sergei Essenin.

I'm in the process of reading The Idiot now, and it's great so far. Are those two better, in your opinion?

 

[Aurora013]

I love the classics too and recommend the Count of Monte Cristo and the Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas.

For brain candy, I like the Jack Ryan series by Tom Clancy. I also enjoyed the Harry Potter series.

All ones I'd recommend (yay for mindless reading!)

Also- Charles Dickens (anything by him, A Tale of Two Cities is my favorite, just give it about 6-7 chapters to get going).

If you like historical fiction, check out Rutherford (I can't remember his first name...John maybe? but don't hold me to that).

 

[albaniandoc]

I'm in the process of reading The Idiot now, and it's great so far. Are those two better, in your opinion?

I have not read The Idiot yet, but I can tell you pretty much that the later works of Dostojevski are a little harsh. If you have read Crime and Punishment you would know what I mean. I think we can agree that he became a crazy alcoholic and gambler after being in prison for so long. Reading Crime and Punishment the descriptions are so accurate that you can truly feel what Rodion feels, the agony, pain and all. Before that I read The Insulted and Humiliated and that was crazy too. Did not like that one.
I spoke with my father who also is a fan of classic books (any book really) and he said that he enjoyed Dostojevski's earlier works better, especially Poor Folk. I am planning on reading those next.