Any good Books.....

[Curt1418]

Does anyone know of any good books out there that will help prepare for life as a medical student? Maybe a book that has different schools requirements????

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[KenDoll]

I have Get Into Medical School! by Kenneth V. Iverson. It's pretty comprehensive.

 

[Tired Pigeon]

To get an idea of what you're really getting into, check out The House of God by Samuel Shem. (Very slightly) fictionalized account of a medical residency; several friends currently in or recently finished with residencies highly recommended it to me before I started med school. I really enjoyed it, & it made me think.

 

[BellyDancingDoc]

"The Compleat Slave: Creating And Living An Erotic Dominant/submissive Lifestyle" by Jack Rinella and Joseph W. Bean

^^^ Purrrrr...

But if you're not ready to admit to your kinks as of yet, I recommend Complications by Atul Gawande, all the archived articles on Slate.com by Atul Gawande, and the previously mentioned House of God.

 

[mave]

I'll second "Complications." I also liked "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" which is about a Hmong girl with severe epilepsy, and the cultural disconnect between the family and her physicians.

 

[Golfing_Doc]

I highly recommend:
'First, Do No Harm' - good medical ethics book about Texas Medical Center 1990s
'The Scalpel and the Silver Bear' - first Navajo woman surgeon (Stanford/Dartmouth influences)
'Another day in the Frontal Lobe'- female neurosurgeon's stories
'Mountains beyond mountains' - story of Paul Farmer

 

[ItOnlyTakesOne]

If you want the different requirements/stats for each school, get the MSAR (Medical School Admission Requirements) for about $25. It has mission statements, average GPA, MCAT numbers, in-state, out-of-state admissions, tuition, etc. Pretty general overviews.

For med school life (not that I know what it's really like yet ):
Singular Intimaices by Danille Ofri is a good read
Complications is great!!
I've heard things about Hot Lights, Cold Steel but it's specifically about surgery
There's all kinds of lists on Amazon etc of medical student narratives/bios, check it out.

 

[TSK]

I don't think it's en vogue to call ppl/things "******ed" anymore

I'm going to chime in and suggest not reading House of God until you are done with your MS3 year. The book is dated, reflects an older technique of teaching medicine, and is much harsher than the reality is today. Until you actually experience the wards, you have no basis for comparison, and all it will do is depress you and give you a misguided view of what you're getting into.

And "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" is a ******ed book that no one should ever read. Only read it if you're pursuing a career in Naturopathic medicine.

 

[MirrorTodd]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Harry Potter! These books will surely help you on your way. They changed my whole life. It's actually one of the reasons that I want to be a doctor.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I'll second "Complications." I also liked "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" which is about a Hmong girl with severe epilepsy, and the cultural disconnect between the family and her physicians.

 

[MonkeyNuts!]

I compiled this list on a different thread awhile ago, I'd yell at you for not using the search function, but I doubt inputting "book" would do any good so here it is complaint free:

Books:
A Map of the Child by Darshak Sangavi
A Not Entirely Benign Procedure by Perri Klass
A Piece of My Mind by Roxanne K. Young
After Your Third Martini by Mark Leyner
And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts
Another Day in the Frontal Lobe by Katrina Firlik, M.D.
Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis
As Nature Made Him by John Colapinto
Awakenings by Oliver Sacks
Baby Doctor by Perri Klass.
Becoming a Doctor by Melvin Konner
Betrayal of Trust: the Collapse of Global Public Health by Laurie Garrett
Blind Eye by James Stewart
Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures: Stories By Vincent Lam, M.D (Giller Prize)
Body of Knowledge: One Semester of Gross Anatomy, the Gateway to Becoming a Doctor by Steven Giegerich
Brute by Richard Selzer
Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
Complications by Atul Gawande
Darkness Visible by William Styron
Death Without Weeping by Nancy Scheper-Hughes
Delivering Doctor Amelia by Dan Shapiro
Driving Mr. Albert by Michael Paterniti
Emergency Doctor by Lewis Goldfrank
Fatal Cure by Robin Cook
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Dr. Paul Brand
First Do No Harm by Lisa Belkin
Five Patients by Michael Crichton
Forgive and Remember: Managing Medical Failure by Charles Bosk
Gifted Hands by Benjamin Carson
Grandfather's Blessings and Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Naomi Remen
Health and Healing by Andrew Weil, MD
Healthcare Meltdown, by Robert leBow
Hot Lights, Cold Steel by Michael Collins
How We Die by Sherwin B. Nuland
House of God by Samuel Shem
Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag
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
Mama Might be Better Off Dead: The Failure of Healthcare in Urban America
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
Mount Misery by Samuel Shem
Narrative Medicine by Rita Charon
A Not Entirely Benign Procedure by Perri Klass
On Being Ill by Virginia Woolf
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
Scalpel and the Silver Bear by Lori Arviso Alvord
Second Opinions by Jerome Groopman
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 Anatomy of Hope by Jerome Groopman
The Art of Medicine by Kevin J. Soden
he Butterfly and the Diving Bell by Jean-Dominique Bauby
The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde
The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett
The Citadel by A.J. Cronin
The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston
The Desire to Heal by Raphael Campo
The Diagnosis of the Acute Abdomen in Rhyme by Zachary Cope
The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams
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 God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
The Intern Blues by Robert Marion
The Island of the Colorblind by Oliver Sacks
The Language of Medicine by Davi-Ellen Chabner
The Language of Cells: A Doctor and His Patients by Spencer Nadler
The Lost Art of Healing by Dr. Bernard Lown
The Making of a Surgeon by William A Nolen
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks
The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine by Eric J. Cassel
The Need for a New Medical Model by George L. Engel
The Physician and Shaman by Noah Gordon
The Pact by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt
The Plague by Albert Camus
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
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 Cadaver 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
This Ain't ER by C. Patrick Murrah
Time to Heal by Kenneth Ludmerer
Toxin by Robin Cook
Travels by Michael Crichton
Understanding Health Policy by Bodenheimer and Grumbach
Vector by Robin Cook
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
War Hospital by Sherri Fink
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
White Coat: Becoming a Doctor at Harvard Medical School by Ellen Rothman, M.D.
Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Dr. Christiane Northrup
Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor
Year of the Intern by Robin Cook

 

[MonkeyNuts!]

I've read HoG, Mount Misery, On Call, Healthcare Meltdown, Understanding Health Policy, Man Who Mistook Wife for Hat and they were all pretty good.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

And "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" is a ******ed book that no one should ever read. Only read it if you're pursuing a career in Naturopathic medicine.

Agreed.....