Books and authors

[Doodledog]

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Okay, so we know that not all doctors are like "House" or the folks on any other TV show about doctors. But a good many physicians have written books both about their lives and about becoming a physician. This thread it to discuss some of them.

I'll start by suggesting you go and look up books written by Dr. Perri Klaas. Her first book in this area was called "A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years As A Medical Student" and since then she has written others you can find via a search on Amazon or your favorite book site. The first book is a bit dated but has a lot of insights and is well written. Recently she published a book called "Treatment Kind and Fair: Letters to a Young Doctor (Art of Mentoring)" about getting into and through medical school. I haven't read this one, but would like to know if any of you have and what you thought.

Feel free to talk about any other books and authors you'd like.

 

[Marigold]

I enjoyed reading Richard Selzer's books called "Letters to a Young Doctor" and "Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery"....beautifully written prose on doctoring. I highly recommend both books. 👍👍

 

[metalhead1023]

I have personally read The Intern Blues: The Timeless Classic about the Making of a Doctor. This book is about what its like to be a resident, they explain their personal lives in the book. This book was an easy read and I really enjoyed it.

Also I read a book named Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance. I feel that Atul Gawande -the author- wrote this book aimed at physicians not the everyday reader, in the book he explains how doctors can improve and some stories about recent monumental changes in medical history. I found this one harder to read but that is only because it was not what I wanted (a biography of a doctor) though it was excellent and I actually applied one of his lessons to my everyday life

 

[Depakote]

It won't give you a great view of the normal life of a physician, but one of the more influential books I read in High School was The Hot Zone by Richard Preston.

It is traces the early outbreaks of hemorrhagic fevers Marburg and Ebola, through their first major outbreaks and follows the outbreak of a strain of Ebola in an animal storage warehouse in Reston, Virginia.

The book was written in such a gripping manner, I was became so interested in virology that I spent a summer in high school working in a Virology lab. That turned out to be very boring 😳, but it was a great stepping stone and I wound up spending the next summer shadowing a physician because the time in the lab made me realize I wanted to see the patient side of medicine.

 

[emcee]

It won't give you a great view of the normal life of a physician, but one of the more influential books I read in High School was The Hot Zone by Richard Preston.

It is traces the early outbreaks of hemorrhagic fevers Marburg and Ebola, through their first major outbreaks and follows the outbreak of a strain of Ebola in an animal storage warehouse in Reston, Virginia.

The book was written in such a gripping manner, I was became so interested in virology that I spent a summer in high school working in a Virology lab. That turned out to be very boring 😳, but it was a great stepping stone and I wound up spending the next summer shadowing a physician because the time in the lab made me realize I wanted to see the patient side of medicine.

I read that book during 8th grade! It was an awesome book. The descriptions just gave me shivers down my spine! Would definitely recommend this to others!

P.S I would also like to recommend "Intern: A Doctor's Initiation" by Sandeep Jauhar. There are some really meaningful quotes shown in the introduction of every chapter.

 

[Nikki2002]

I started reading "How Doctors Think" by Jerome Groopman the other day and it's pretty interesting.

 

[cdmccart]

Hot Lights, Cold Steel by Michael J. Collins M.D. is a great book. It's an autobiography of his life as an orthopaedic resident and it's insanely funny. I think I've read it like 3 or 4 times.

When the Air Hits Your Brain by Frank Vertosick Jr. M.D. is also a good book about Dr. Vertosick's path to neurosurgery. This book isn't as funny as Hot Lights, Cold Steel but is still a really good read and gives some insight into the life of a 3rd & 4th year med student and then neurosurgery resident.

 

[167649]

The previously mentioned Jerome Groopman and Atul Gawande books are frequently read and often cited here on SDN as great reads. Both authors have written several books each. After reading them I personally think Gawande is a little bit easier to follow, but both are great authors to start with.

Something less commonly mentioned: "My Own Country" by Abraham Verghese. It's his true account of practicing in the specialty of infectious disease, in a small Eastern Tennessee town in the early 1980's, when the AIDS epidemic first appeared. We had to read it for our prologue block as first year medical students and I though it was great. It's not a complicated read so it should be excellent for those starting out.

 

[Farmercyst]

It won't give you a great view of the normal life of a physician, but one of the more influential books I read in High School was The Hot Zone by Richard Preston.

It is traces the early outbreaks of hemorrhagic fevers Marburg and Ebola, through their first major outbreaks and follows the outbreak of a strain of Ebola in an animal storage warehouse in Reston, Virginia.

The book was written in such a gripping manner, I was became so interested in virology that I spent a summer in high school working in a Virology lab. That turned out to be very boring 😳, but it was a great stepping stone and I wound up spending the next summer shadowing a physician because the time in the lab made me realize I wanted to see the patient side of medicine.

My pharmacology instructor made us read it as part of the course curriculum.👍👍

 

[Tired]

C'mon, how come no one is stating the obvious?

Somebody just say it.

 

[Doodledog]

C'mon, how come no one is stating the obvious?

Somebody just say it.

The "obvious" is House of God by Samuel Shem, who is also an SDN member. Although at some point it is worthwhile reading, I don't think it will be that useful for h.s. students in understanding medicine. I personally am not concerned about h.s. students reading it due to the sexually explicit nature of some parts, but other parents might be so it's worth having an honest discussion with your parents if you plan to read it.

More to the point however, I don't think it will provide much information for a h.s. student about the field of medicine. If one wants a perspective that includes some negatives, some of the other books mentioned here, especially "Intern Blues" will provide that. House of God I simply don't think is helpful at this point. Before starting med school, maybe it is worth reading to learn some of the references, such as Gomer (Get out of My Emergency Room), etc that are in there, but not at this point.

Honestly, I'm not afraid to discuss any book out there, the point of this thread was to identify books that we think would be helpful for h.s. students in understanding medicine.

 

[Tired]

The "obvious" is House of God by Samuel Shem, who is also an SDN member.

No freaking way! Are you serious? What's his user name? He's a personal hero of mine, based solely on that book (which I just read for the umpteenth time yesterday).

Honestly, I'm not afraid to discuss any book out there, the point of this thread was to identify books that we think would be helpful for h.s. students in understanding medicine.

I see your point. I suppose the books you choose are probably as much a reflection of your personal view of your profession. I might suggest "On Call In Hell" but I doubt it would hold much relevance to most, either pre- or current physicians, other than a select subset.

Personally, I would suggest getting ahold of the first four seasons of "Scrubs" and watch them all one after another. But then, I guess this thread is about books . . . 😀

 

[Doodledog]

No freaking way! Are you serious? What's his user name? He's a personal hero of mine, based solely on that book (which I just read for the umpteenth time yesterday).

Sorry, can't find it now (really). I thought I'd seen him here using his real name and talking about his newest book, but I could be wrong, it might have been somewhere else. I'm sure he'll find this if he wants to. I've liked both HOG and Mt. Misery and need to get his latest. Still don't think they are the best for h.s. students.

Regardless, related to psychology (Addiction) and medicine, I think that Abraham Verghese's "The Tennis Partner" is excellent although perhaps a bit more suited for h.s. seniors or entering college students.

 

[creativedentist]

Singular Intimacies (yea my friends giggled at the title 😀) by Danielle Ofri. Here's a quote about it:

"Yes, it is a collection of narrative essays that tell the story of Ofri's journey from medical student to intern to resident to doctor at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. But it is also the searing story of how one doctor learns that when it comes to healing, intimacy (along with narrative) is as important as therapeutic applications of science -- perhaps more important when healing becomes impossible, and the patient is facing death. Ofri's beautifully written collection consists of essays that could stand alone, and many of them have been published elsewhere, including in Best American Essays and this journal. Nevertheless, read together they form an intricate memoir -- an essay cycle, one might call the book -- in which each narrative enriches and is enriched by those that follow."

 

[Doodledog]

Singular Intimacies (yea my friends giggled at the title 😀) by Danielle Ofri. Here's a quote about it:

"Yes, it is a collection of narrative essays that tell the story of Ofri's journey from medical student to intern to resident to doctor at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. But it is also the searing story of how one doctor learns that when it comes to healing, intimacy (along with narrative) is as important as therapeutic applications of science -- perhaps more important when healing becomes impossible, and the patient is facing death. Ofri's beautifully written collection consists of essays that could stand alone, and many of them have been published elsewhere, including in Best American Essays and this journal. Nevertheless, read together they form an intricate memoir -- an essay cycle, one might call the book -- in which each narrative enriches and is enriched by those that follow."

Great choice - I've read this and it's excellent.

 

[2Fic]

The Hot Zone is an amazing read about Ebola

 

[NickNaylor]

I'll second Atul Gawande's Complications. I didn't find it that difficult to read, and it gives frank drawbacks and problems experienced by doctors (surgeons specifically, but many of the messages are far-reaching).

 

[tiedyeddog]

Vertosick's "When The Air Hits Your Brain" is a classic.

 

[steady hands]

This thread is way cool. I love to read and was looking for med stories but had a hard time finding them until I found this on SDN. I order "Hot Lights, Cold Steel" on Friday because my book store didn't stock any copies. Can't wait to get it.🙂

 

[DdrumbumD]

Hot Lights, Cold Steel by Michael J. Collins M.D. is a great book. It's an autobiography of his life as an orthopaedic resident and it's insanely funny. I think I've read it like 3 or 4 times.

When the Air Hits Your Brain by Frank Vertosick Jr. M.D. is also a good book about Dr. Vertosick's path to neurosurgery. This book isn't as funny as Hot Lights, Cold Steel but is still a really good read and gives some insight into the life of a 3rd & 4th year med student and then neurosurgery resident.

I read both these books in the past month, one after the other and I TOTALLY recommend them to anyone going into medicine, NOT JUST SURGEONS!! Both others discuss their struggles to deal w/ the tragic/moral issues of the hospital/profession.

For even more 'insightful' reading on medicine, check out Gawande's Complications, awesome book.

 

[FearAndInsomnia]

I would also suggest "Hot Lights, Cold Steel." "Intern" by Sandeep Jahuar is a memoir similar to Hot Lights, about Jahuar's residency in internal medicine.

 

[pharmstudent993]

Okay, so we know that not all doctors are like "House" or the folks on any other TV show about doctors. But a good many physicians have written books both about their lives and about becoming a physician. This thread it to discuss some of them.

I'll start by suggesting you go and look up books written by Dr. Perri Klaas. Her first book in this area was called "A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years As A Medical Student" and since then she has written others you can find via a search on Amazon or your favorite book site. The first book is a bit dated but has a lot of insights and is well written. Recently she published a book called "Treatment Kind and Fair: Letters to a Young Doctor (Art of Mentoring)" about getting into and through medical school. I haven't read this one, but would like to know if any of you have and what you thought.

Feel free to talk about any other books and authors you'd like.

I LOVED that book! my parents gave me it as a christmas present😀.
here are a few other books i enjoyed: "White Coat: Becoming a Doctor at Harvard Medical School" by Ellen Lerner Rothman, M.D.; "Becoming a Doctor: A Journey of Initiation in Medical School" by Melvin Konner, M.D.; and "Another Day in the Frontal Lobe" uh, sorry, i can't remember the author's name.