Are there any books you'd recommend I read before starting med school in summer 2017?

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Would be great if you'd include a really quick synopsis with the title if you've got the time

EDIT: I didn't mean like a text book. I meant like a book for fun. Some recommendations I've received are "The White Coat Investor" or "House of God" both of which are about medicine. I was wondering if anyone had read something along those lines that really resonated with you.
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cantcatchme said:
Would be great if you'd include a really quick synopsis with the title if you've got the time
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Do you mean like a medical textbook? Or just any fun or interesting book in general? Because I definitely don't recommend reading any medical textbook prior to starting med school! Just have fun, enjoy your summer, travel, or do whatever makes you happy. If that means doing some reading, then I can give you some non-medical books I liked, but otherwise there's definitely no need to read any medical textbook.
 
Don't read a medical textbook or any other medical book for that matter.
 
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bashwell said:
Do you mean like a medical textbook? Or just any fun or interesting book in general? Because I definitely don't recommend reading any medical textbook prior to starting med school! Just have fun, enjoy your summer, travel, or do whatever makes you happy. If that means doing some reading, then I can give you some non-medical books I liked, but otherwise there's definitely no need to read any medical textbook.
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I didn't mean like a text book. I meant like a book for fun. Some recommendations I've received are "The White Coat Investor" or "House of God" both of which are about medicine. I was wondering if anyone had read something along those lines that really resonated with you.
 
If you really want to read a medical book, like medical memoir, a couple that come to mind that were my favorite include Complications by Atul Gawande (pretty classic book), Hot Lights Cold Steel and Blue Collar Blue Scrubs by Michael Collins (memoir of mayo ortho chief resident who came from pretty a non-traditional path), and In Stitches by Anthony Youn (memoir of a korean-american plastic surgeon). These books are all pretty quick reads and actually got me pretty excited about starting medical school.
 
Some medical books I'd recommend are Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, In Stitches by Anthony Youn, When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, Intern by Sandeep Jauhar and Doctored (also by Jauhar). I've also heard really good things about Gawande's other books ("Better" and "Complications", which are on my list to read in the future).

For non-medical books, some of my favorites are Then We Came to the End by Josh Ferris, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson.
 
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cantcatchme said:
I didn't mean like a text book. I meant like a book for fun. Some recommendations I've received are "The White Coat Investor" or "House of God" both of which are about medicine. I was wondering if anyone had read something along those lines that really resonated with you.
Click to expand...

If you are looking for books about medicine, I like reading about late 19th/early 20th century medicine. Its really when modern medicine was born and I think seeing their conflicts gives a lot of insight into why we do what we do how we do it. Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis is a personal favorite. Bliss's book on Osler is also excellent. 'A country doctor's notebook' by Bulgakov is worth reading if only for the part where he physically throws someone's grandmother out the exam room.

For more recent books about medicine, I recommend stuff about Intern year. As a Pediatrician I will always relate most to 'Intern blues' by Marion, but 'Hot lights cold steel' and 'Intern' by Jauhar are both excellent as well

'The spirt catches you and then you fall down' is a terrible book, but its so omnipresent in academic medicine that you should read it so that they'll consider you civilized.

'When breath becomes air' is a very powerful, though extremely depressing, book about the experience of dying, written by a neurosurgeon

Finally if you're looking for books in general I would recommend you start with Necromancer by Gibson, The Once and Future King by T.H. white, and Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I've also gotten a lot from the short stories of Greg Egan and reading the Bible from cover to cover.
 
Perrotfish said:
If you are looking for books about medicine, I like reading about late 19th/early 20th century medicine. Its really when modern medicine was born and I think seeing their conflicts gives a lot of insight into why we do what we do how we do it. Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis is a personal favorite. Bliss's book on Osler is also excellent. 'A country doctor's notebook' by Bulgakov is worth reading if only for the part where he physically throws someone's grandmother out the exam room.

For more recent books about medicine, I recommend stuff about Intern year. As a Pediatrician I will always relate most to 'Intern blues' by Marion, but 'Hot lights cold steel' and 'Intern' by Jauhar are both excellent as well

'The spirt catches you and then you fall down' is a terrible book, but its so omnipresent in academic medicine that you should read it so that they'll consider you civilized.

'When breath becomes air' is a very powerful, though extremely depressing, book about the experience of dying, written by a neurosurgeon

Finally if you're looking for books in general I would recommend you start with Necromancer by Gibson, The Once and Future King by T.H. white, and Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I've also gotten a lot from the short stories of Greg Egan and reading the Bible from cover to cover.
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Dr. Mutter's Marvels by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz is also good if you're looking for books on 19th century medicine. Sums up the early history of surgery and the introduction of anesthesia and sterilization of instruments.
 
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jpwsurf21 said:
If you really want to read a medical book, like medical memoir, a couple that come to mind that were my favorite include Complications by Atul Gawande (pretty classic book), Hot Lights Cold Steel and Blue Collar Blue Scrubs by Michael Collins (memoir of mayo ortho chief resident who came from pretty a non-traditional path), and In Stitches by Anthony Youn (memoir of a korean-american plastic surgeon). These books are all pretty quick reads and actually got me pretty excited about starting medical school.
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I'm a little over halfway through In Stitches by Anthony Youn and to be honest, I'm not all that impressed. So far, it feels like 200 pages of a guy trying (and failing) to get laid.
 
forceofgravity said:
I'm a little over halfway through In Stitches by Anthony Youn and to be honest, I'm not all that impressed. So far, it feels like 200 pages of a guy trying (and failing) to get laid.
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Fair enough, I kinda forgot about those parts lol. When I said I enjoyed it, I just remember very specific parts of the books that resonated with me like anatomy lab, the baby in the ED, and the course of his relationship with his father
 
I second Hot Lights, Cold Steel, The Emperor of All Maladies, and anything by Atul Gawande.

I'll add The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, because it shines a bright and uncomfortable light onto how medicine was practiced in the 50s and 60s, how medicine was practiced before the era of informed consent, and the disparities between whites and blacks during that time well into the current day.

I also loved My Own Country, by Abraham Verghese. It's fantastically written and chronicles Dr. Verghese's journey from IM resident to infectious disease specialist, and how he became the AIDS doctor of Johnson City, TN during the years before AIDS had a name or even a source. Even better, he writes beautifully about how he, a foreign medical graduate, found a home and a community to call his own in rural America, of all places. When you read the book, you feel like you're sitting right there with him on the front porches and in the bars, meeting and talking to these patients, neighbors, and friends.

The Emperor of All Maladies, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and My Own Country are also great books to share with non-medical people in your life, because they're written to be accessible to people with no medical background. Even The Emperor of All Maladies, and it delves into some pretty dense concepts.

How Doctors Feel by Danielle Ofri is another good one. It's also memoir-styled, but the title sort of explains itself. It's about exactly what it says it's about.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is a fun read as well.
 
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I received The White Coat Investor for Christmas- it's a good read, and I would recommend it.

I also just bought the book "Every Patient Tells a Story" and I highly highly recommend it. I've only read a little bit, but I feel like it's a good one to maybe read a story each week or evening. That is my plan for it.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is good, if you haven't already read it.

Any of the books by Atul Gawande.

Mountains Beyond Mountains

How We Do Harm

How Doctors Think

I've got more on my bookshelf at home...but I feel like that's a good start.
 
cantcatchme said:
Would be great if you'd include a really quick synopsis with the title if you've got the time

EDIT: I didn't mean like a text book. I meant like a book for fun. Some recommendations I've received are "The White Coat Investor" or "House of God" both of which are about medicine. I was wondering if anyone had read something along those lines that really resonated with you.
Click to expand...

Have you read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks? or The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down? Both are great books!!
 
I just read The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly. It is a sort of autobiographical book about the author's experiences in the first year of his internal medicine residency. I enjoyed it a lot.
 
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The only thing you should be reading is the lower back tattoos of all the biddies you should be pulling now that you're accepted to med school😉
 
The Art of Happiness - keeps a lot of things in perspective while you're living out rather hectic weeks
 
"The year THEY tried to kill ME" - a surgeon's intern year at a county hospital in Oakland. I found it hilarious! (He's a real surgeon and it's basically his story.) It might only be a kindle book.
 
I agree with many of the books already posted! I would like to add "Cook County ICU: 30 Years of Unforgettable Patients and Odd Cases".
 
When Breath Becomes Air and any Atul Gwande
 
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