Best books I've read--What are yours?

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ccrone

ccrone

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Something about books always seems to pop up at interviews. Perhaps favorites, most recently read, best book, etc. I thought it would be lots of fun to go through and list books that we've read and adored. Maybe they have something to do with medicine, but all should stand on their own. If someone asked for your recommendation, what would you suggest they'd read? Here are a few of mine:

And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry St.
~Dr. Seuss

The Two Income Trap
~Elizabeth Warren

The Souls of Black Folk
~W.E.B. DuBois

Brideshead Revisited
~Evelyn Waugh

***Anything by Iris Murdoch*** 😍

Smile! You've Got Cancer
~Barbara Ehrenreich
*Nickled and Dimed is another good title by Ehrenreich

A Bart Ehrman selection (note: many of them are more or less the same :laugh:)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
~Rebecca Skloot

The Color Purple
~Alice Walker

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou

Operating Instructions
Bird by Bird
~both by Anne Lamott

Lolita
~Vladimir Nabokov


What do you guys and girls like to read?
 
ccrone said:
Something about books always seems to pop up at interviews. Perhaps favorites, most recently read, best book, etc. I thought it would be lots of fun to go through and list books that we've read and adored. Maybe they have something to do with medicine, but all should stand on their own. If someone asked for your recommendation, what would you suggest they'd read? Here are a few of mine:

And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry St.
~Dr. Seuss

The Two Income Trap
~Elizabeth Warren

The Souls of Black Folk
~W.E.B. DuBois

Brideshead Revisited
~Evelyn Waugh

***Anything by Iris Murdoch*** 😍

Smile! You've Got Cancer
~Barbara Ehrenreich
*Nickled and Dimed is another good title by Ehrenreich

A Bart Ehrman selection (note: many of them are more or less the same :laugh:)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
~Rebecca Skloot

The Color Purple
~Alice Walker

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou

Operating Instructions
Bird by Bird
~both by Anne Lamott

Lolita
~Vladimir Nabokov


What do you guys and girls like to read?
Click to expand...


One of my favorite medicine-related books is Mountains Beyond Mountains, about Dr. Paul Farmer. It's a book that makes you want to immediately drop everything and go out to save the world (specifically through international medicine).
 
Currently working on The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

👍 👍

Also, every single one of Gawande's works = 👍👍
 
lots of books already on the many threads like this one.

Anything by Neil Degrasse Tyson, A Song of Ice and Fire, A Billion Wicked Thoughts completely blew my mind, Cutting for Stone, Cheating Death, seriously way too many list.

Personally I thought Mountains Beyond Mountains sucked, and House of God was too bad to finish. Twist.
 
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck = my all-time favorite

Narcisuss and Goldmund by Herman Hesse

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Germinal by Emile Zola

The Cider House Rules by John Irving
 
I read a lot so I will list some of my favorite authors:

Haruki Murakami -

Fav: Kafka on the Shore

Italo Calvino -

Fav: If on a winter's night a traveler

Philip K. Dick -

Fav: Ubik, A Scanner Darkly, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, A Maze of Death and short story collections

Jorge Luis Borges -

Fav: Everything

Hermann Hesse -

Fav: Steppenwolf

Fyodor Dostoyevsky -

Fav: Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov

Franz Kafka -

Fav: The Trial

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell was also very good but it is all I have read by him so far.
 
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
Anything by George Orwell (but especially 1984)
The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe
The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
The Man in the High Castle - Phillip Dick
Dante's Divine Comedy

and pretty much anything written by Atul Gawande, Malcolm Gladwell, and Dan Brown is on my list.
 
Great recommendations - thanks! I think I am going to pick up Kafka on the Shore next.
 
I am America, and So Can You, by Stephen Colbert.

Clearly, I'm on a different level than you guys entirely.
 
The People Code by Dr Taylor Hartman, and Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
 
My all time favorite is Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It's not directly related to medicine but gives a great perspective on depression, addiction and pharmaceuticals. Reading it is a pretty large investment of time but the pay off is definitely worth it.
If you area fan of math and philosophy Everything and More by Wallace is a great read.
And if you like having your heart broken I would recommend The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway.
 
Shibumi - Trevanian - I read this book at least once a year (Seriously one of the best authors out there - with well written books for several genres)
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
Outliers, Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
House of God - Samuel Shem
Broken Music: A Memoir - Sting's autobiography
Slash - his autobiography
...seriously way too many to mention
 
Into the Wild (personal favorite) and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer for the adventure-inclined.
 
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Great book for casual reading. One of my personal favorites.
 
Anything Mark Twain. So good.
Plus John Piper and Timothy Keller are good too.
 
Anything Mark Twain. So good.
Indeed! I'm a big fan of The Autobiography as well. :laugh:

A thread like this pops up every few months and I do not understand why when there is already The Ultimate Pre-med Reading list...
Some of us like to read for the sake of reading. You know, for reasons other than a medical school interview. You can tell *a lot* about someone by what they read. So it's lots of fun to see what people say when they're not trying to impress someone else. And it's also a great way to get book suggestions.
 
Here's a few of my more recent decent reads:
Devil in the White City: murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America by Eric Larson
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson


I did not enjoy Into the Wild, that guy was just so senseless and arrogant. Ugh.

Most medical-type books are too whiny or hyperbolic for me.
 
I have been trying to read a few books, but def didn't have time

Political Brain by Westen

still reading it.
 
I LOVE The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. Soooo engrossing, and inspiring.
 
Voltaire's Candide. The satire is so ridiculous that it hurts.
 
Roguelyn said:
Here's a few of my more recent decent reads:
Devil in the White City: murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America by Eric Larson
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson


I did not enjoy Into the Wild, that guy was just so senseless and arrogant. Ugh.

Most medical-type books are too whiny or hyperbolic for me.
Click to expand...

McCandless was an incredibly complex young man. One reason I love Krakauer's writing is that he has this uncanny ability to explore the complexities of human nature. I think Into the Wild is as complete an understanding of McCandless as one could hope for. Yes, he had an arrogant and abrasive personality, but there was a part of him that was intensely introspective, passionate, and courageous as well. That latter aspect of McCandless's personality is what resonated strongly with me, but I agree that his ultimate actions leading to his death were senseless. Overall, I thought it was fine writing about a nearly impossible to understand person.
 
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ccrone said:
Something about books always seems to pop up at interviews. Perhaps favorites, most recently read, best book, etc. I thought it would be lots of fun to go through and list books that we've read and adored. Maybe they have something to do with medicine, but all should stand on their own. If someone asked for your recommendation, what would you suggest they'd read? Here are a few of mine:

And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry St.
~Dr. Seuss

The Two Income Trap
~Elizabeth Warren

The Souls of Black Folk
~W.E.B. DuBois

Brideshead Revisited
~Evelyn Waugh

***Anything by Iris Murdoch*** 😍

Smile! You've Got Cancer
~Barbara Ehrenreich
*Nickled and Dimed is another good title by Ehrenreich

A Bart Ehrman selection (note: many of them are more or less the same :laugh:)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
~Rebecca Skloot

The Color Purple
~Alice Walker

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou

Operating Instructions
Bird by Bird
~both by Anne Lamott

Lolita
~Vladimir Nabokov

What do you guys and girls like to read?
Click to expand...

I like how you have both of these on the same page...I saw a book someone posted here a while back called the 48 laws of power, i bought it and read it, its a pretty good book.
 
Aerus said:
Voltaire's Candide. The satire is so ridiculous that it hurts.
Click to expand...

I LOVE that one, too! I especially love the size: it made it really easy to carry around. :laugh:

Regarding the list of ultimate pre-med reading, can it be edited to include this one: Match Day: One Day and One Dramatic Year in the Lives of Three Doctors.

This book provides a glimpse into the lives of three women who are graduating from medical school and waiting for their matches. The perspectives of their significant others are a major focus of the book (which probably is what made the read so interesting for me).
 
The Alchemist by Paulo Cuehlo is very uplifting and makes you think about how you live life.
 
Stirbar said:
Great recommendations - thanks! I think I am going to pick up Kafka on the Shore next.
Click to expand...

It was fantastic. Murakami is great.

Looks like we have similar tastes although I hated Ayn Rand 😛
 
EBTrailRunner said:
McCandless was an incredibly complex young man. One reason I love Krakauer's writing is that he has this uncanny ability to explore the complexities of human nature. I think Into the Wild is as complete an understanding of McCandless as one could hope for. Yes, he had an arrogant and abrasive personality, but there was a part of him that was intensely introspective, passionate, and courageous as well. That latter aspect of McCandless's personality is what resonated strongly with me, but I agree that his ultimate actions leading to his death were senseless. Overall, I thought it was fine writing about a nearly impossible to understand person.
Click to expand...

EBTrailRunner, I've wanted to say this for awhile but this has sealed it, I feel like you are me. Just finished into the wild and you voice my sentiments exactly.



Keep trail runnin' man. I'm biking the transcontinental route across America next summer!
 
I've always been drawn to the post-apocalyptic/dystopian genre:
Brave New World
Animal Farm, 1984
anything by Vonnegut
...and The Hunger Games 🙂

Also, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch is something everyone should read

MyOwnPath said:
The Fault in Our Stars, John Green.
Click to expand...

Hey there, fellow Nerdfighter! :hello:
 
HawaiiMedMan said:
Anything Mark Twain. So good.
Plus John Piper and Timothy Keller are good too.
Click to expand...

+1, I loved "The Reason For God". Piper also has some quality books.

I've been into both of Brady Goodwin's books, but part of that is because he's my favorite hip hop artist of all time.
 
Any book on sparknotes is the best
 
Ismet said:
I've always been drawn to the post-apocalyptic/dystopian genre:
Brave New World
Animal Farm, 1984
anything by Vonnegut
...and The Hunger Games 🙂

Also, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch is something everyone should read



Hey there, fellow Nerdfighter! :hello:
Click to expand...

Much love for Vonnegut and I loved The Hunger Games trilogy as well. After the MCAT and finishing up secondaries, I'd like to read Battle Royale.

I had to read Huxley for a class but I did wind up enjoying it.

Edited to add that I second reading The Last Lecture. The co-author recently died in a tragic car accident here in Michigan...very heartbreaking for any Jeff Zaslow fan.
 
Thanks for all of the suggestions!

Something I've loved since I was younger was the His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. Dubbed as children's/young adult fiction, but much, much deeper. Stay away from the movie, though--terrible adaptation 🙁
 
I like this forum already!

For entertainment: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain)

For humor: A Tramp Abroad (Twain)

For pure pwnage: The Literary Offenses of Fenimore Cooper (Twain)

For intellectual stimulation: The Mysterious Stranger (Twain)

---

Some other good ones, too:

Faith: The God Delusion (Dawkins)
Anatomy: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (Roach)
Pathogens (like Ebola!): The Hot Zone (Preston)
Pathogens: The Demon in the Freezer (Preston)
Vietnam: The Village (West)

🙂
 
Probably my one of my favorites books are State of Fear and Next, both by Michael Crichton

Any John Grisham book as well. Every time I read a book by him, I want to drop everything med and become a lawyer haha
 
Roguelyn said:
Here's a few of my more recent decent reads:
Devil in the White City: murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America by Eric Larson
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson


I did not enjoy Into the Wild, that guy was just so senseless and arrogant. Ugh.

Most medical-type books are too whiny or hyperbolic for me.
Click to expand...

Yes! What an amazing (true) story. Larson has another book out that has a similar setup, i.e., there are two interwoven plots.

Couldn't stomach the other one 🙂
 
Everything by Richard Selzer left me wanting more.

I couldn't get over God Emperor of Dune either. I think it gave me a god complex 😛
 
sotto voce said:
I like this forum already!

For entertainment: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain)

For humor: A Tramp Abroad (Twain)

For pure pwnage: The Literary Offenses of Fenimore Cooper (Twain)

For intellectual stimulation: The Mysterious Stranger (Twain)

---

Some other good ones, too:

Faith: The God Delusion (Dawkins)
Anatomy: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (Roach)
Pathogens (like Ebola!): The Hot Zone (Preston)
Pathogens: The Demon in the Freezer (Preston)
Vietnam: The Village (West)

🙂
Click to expand...

I loved The Demon in the Freezer.

Also Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. Easy, entertaining read for any fantasy lovers out there.
 
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Boarchicken said:
The bible. U mad ?
Click to expand...

Naaah, son. Not all. Any book that's like 1000s of year old is part of fabric of human history--Once I actually opened it with an open mind it was super interesting and instructive.

Same can be said for the Quran or the Bhagavad Gita. All the spiritual "greats" can teach us something--from Mahatma Gandhi to Mother Teresa

Death of Ivan Illyich by Tolstoy--You can read that book in 3 hrs--Changed my life.
 
This thread has inspired me to buy some books after a long time.

Will read: House of God, The Brothers Karamazov, and I am America, and So Can You (couldn't resist this one)
 
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