Books Books Books!

[aprilkot]

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Now, I know there has already been a similiar thread BUT, I am looking for some good pre-med reading material. I have already read "The House Of God " by Samuel Shem, M.D. and "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman If you have any more suggestions please let me know. Thank You.😀

 

[phil413ru]

Read whatever you love--classics, science fiction, fantasy you name it. But if you love reading about science an medicine, check our Robin Cooks medical thriller series.

Also-

"A Woman with a Worm in he Head and other stories of infectious disease" Pamela Nagami

"Hot zone" by Richard Preston

"Plague" by Gary Birken

"Gift of Pain" Paul Brand and Phillip Yancey

"Letters to a Young Doctor" Richard Selzer


I bet you can't guess that I am interested in infectious disease as a specialty!)

 

[tryingagain]

"Body of Knowledge"

"The Making of a Surgeon"

"Complications"

 

[DrLady]

I didn't like reading 'House of God'. Maybe coz I had too high expectations of that book. I have read so far, only couple chapters. I liked Robert Marion's 'Intern Blues' and 'Rotations' much much better!

Emergency! by Mark Brown
Doctors by Eric Segal. This book is fiction but I loved it! My fav. so far, have read it 4 times already. hah!

 

[OnyxGaia]

Originally posted by aprilkot
Now, I know there has already been a similiar thread BUT, I am looking for some good pre-med reading material. I have already read "The House Of God " by Samuel Shem, M.D. and "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman If you have any more suggestions please let me know. Thank You.😀

Intern Blues has got to be the best I've read so far. The day to day life of interns is chronicled through three diaries.

Onyx

 

[Sarah Kerr]

There's this book called "Kill As Few Patients as Possible...and 56 Other Essays on How to Be The Worlds Best Doctor." This doctor in California writes under the pseudonym Oscar London, and the book is really funny. There are a few insightful essays, but most of it is really just a look at the humorous aspects of life as an MD. I really enjoyed it, and would definetley recommend it. 🙂

I went through a stage when I decided I would pursue medicine that I needed to know EVERYTHING there was to know about being premed (I got out of that when I found SDN 😉 ), and I read about every standard "premed" book out there (Kaplan, Peterson's, etc.) If thats something you're looking for, pick the one that looks most interesting to you and get that one. I spent a whole bunch of unnecessary money buying a lot of books that had different titles, but basically the same information inside. Of course dont take my word for it...if you want to, spend away I suppose!

 

[DrLady]

Trying to Save Few Lives ( I forgot the author), but great book. This is the book that actually gave me a glimpse on the program 'Doctors Without Borders'.

Learning to Play God by Robert Marion.


Oh..and there was a great article on Reader's Digest of December 2002, about a doctor who worked an extra job so she can provide medical care for a small community. Just amazing! There are great articles in Reader's Digest. My fav. magazine of all time!

 

[Classof07]

The Blood of Strangers by Robert Huyler, an ER doctor and poet. Short stories. Fantastic.

 

[TroutBum]

Originally posted by phil413ru
Read whatever you love--classics, science fiction, fantasy you name it. But if you love reading about science an medicine, check our Robin Cooks medical thriller series.

Also-

"A Woman with a Worm in he Head and other stories of infectious disease" Pamela Nagami

"Hot zone" by Richard Preston

"Plague" by Gary Birken

"Gift of Pain" Paul Brand and Phillip Yancey

"Letters to a Young Doctor" Richard Selzer


I bet you can't guess that I am interested in infectious disease as a specialty!)

Hey Phil, if you're interested in infectious disease, you hafta read (if you haven't already) "The Evolution of Infectious Disease" and "Plague Time," both by Paul Ewald. The first was a landmark work in the field.

 

[Cacophony]

william carlos williams "doctor stories"

 

[tBw]

Originally posted by DrLady
I didn't like reading 'House of God'. Maybe coz I had too high expectations of that book. I have read so far, only couple chapters. I liked Robert Marion's 'Intern Blues' and 'Rotations' much much better!

thank goodness I'm not the only one that felt that way! I really didn't like "House of God" terribly much.

I enjoyed the "Intern Blues" the most out of the books by Robert Marion, though all were good. I also really liked "Becoming a Doctor" by Melvin Konner, but then maybe thats because he was a non-trad (33y/o harvard prof who goes all the way back to being a student). However, for real insight into medicine I would have to say "A Time to Heal".

 

[uffda]

The Youngest Science by Lewis Thomas - or any of his other works

Why We Get Sick by Nesse & Williams (another view of evolutionary biology and infection - similar to Ewald)

When The Air Hits Your Brain:Tales Of Neurosurgery
by Frank Vertosick Jr.

Baby E.R. : The Heroic Doctors and Nurses Who Perform Medicine's Tiniest Miracles by Edward Humes
(about the NICU at Millers Children's Hospital in Long Beach, CA)

 

[Lara]

Originally posted by phil413ru

I bet you can't guess that I am interested in infectious disease as a specialty!)

Hey, have you ever checked out books on the 1918 influenza epidemic? Pretty interesting and rather scary, as the virus is still (I believe) a mystery and it was extremely widespread. If something like that were to occur again today we'd still have little defense, which is why there was so much concern over the Hong Kong "bird flu" years ago. 😱

 

[SMW]

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Awakenings , and anything else by the neurologist, Oliver Sacks.
I also liked, When the Air Hits Your Brain.

 

[Adcadet]

Originally posted by Sarah Kerr
There's this book called "Kill As Few Patients as Possible...and 56 Other Essays on How to Be The Worlds Best Doctor." This doctor in California writes under the pseudonym Oscar London, and the book is really funny. There are a few insightful essays, but most of it is really just a look at the humorous aspects of life as an MD. I really enjoyed it, and would definetley recommend it. 🙂

I found "Kill As Few Patients as Possible" to be insulting if not taken with a large grain of salt.

Iserson's Getting into a Residency is good, though it's intended for med students. He points out a nice distinction that most people seems to miss: exactly what a mentor is, and how that differs from an advisor. If you want to learn about medicine, I would highly recommend getting a mentor who you can shadow. Establishing a good raport with this person is key, so you can be included in his/her life and thought processes as much as possible. I knew being a doctor was for me when I saw the extent to which the surgeon I shadowed really cared for his patients. Any notion that surgeons are robotic and stoic people who are largely unaffected by their patients was totally lost. I could never get this from a book.

 

[Adcadet]

Originally posted by Lara
Hey, have you ever checked out books on the 1918 influenza epidemic? Pretty interesting and rather scary, as the virus is still (I believe) a mystery and it was extremely widespread. If something like that were to occur again today we'd still have little defense, which is why there was so much concern over the Hong Kong "bird flu" years ago. 😱

Ah, since we're talking about books on pandemics, I would highly highly recommend The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett for anybody interested in infectious disease, epidemiology, and/or public health. She wrote a book after that about the international public health system collapse, but I didn't find it nearly as good.

 

[cocoabutter]

Originally posted by DrLady
Emergency! by Mark Brown
Doctors by Eric Segal.

I would definitely recommend reading this one!

 

[cocoabutter]

oops...both of these.

 

[phllystyl]

Originally posted by Adcadet
Ah, since we're talking about books on pandemics, I would highly highly recommend The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett for anybody interested in infectious disease, epidemiology, and/or public health. She wrote a book after that about the international public health system collapse, but I didn't find it nearly as good.

Coming Plague rules, I read it in undergrad 🙂

 

[whozshoe]

"How We Die" by Sherwin Nuland is also a great read. I heard him give a talk once; he's a real down-to-earth surgeon.

 

[Lactic Folly]

Originally posted by the boy wonder
However, for real insight into medicine I would have to say "A Time to Heal".

My library has several books by that name - is it the one about the life of the surgeon?

 

[Gohan]

Complications - Atul Gawande (very nice book; deals w/ some of the fallabilities of Medicine)

Learning to Play God - Robert Marion (very good)

The Intern Blues - Robert Marion (nice)

The Patient - Michael Palmer (excellent fiction thriller with neurosx)

When the Air Hits Your Brain - Frank, Jr Vertosick (neurosx; also excellent)

The Healing Blade: A Tale of Neurosurgery - Edward J. Sylvester (about Dr. Spetzler and Barrow Neuro Institute in Az; again excellent)

 

[wolferman]

I just read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer about the disasterous attempts to ascend Everest in Spring of 1996. It was assigned as part of my Physiological Basis of Wilderness Medince class since it describes the signs and symptoms of altitude injuries, but I have to say it was a decent book. It read like a novel despite the fact that it is non-fiction and the events were very exciting and quite sad too.

 

[jetskiters]

I would definitely recommend reading this one!

Me too! 😉

 

[maggie08]

I can't believe no one has mentioned this yet!!!!

First Do No Harm by lisa [insert last name here]

Its really, really captivating and heart breaking... also i'd venture as far as to say very its a very helpful prep for interviews [deals with the ethical/health-care-buracracy questions]

but, be careful: there are actually two books in print with this same title...one was written back in the 60's and is pretty boring and you can read the thing in about 2-3hours (i got the wrong one by accident the first time)

 

[Phil Anthropist]

I can't believe no one has mentioned this yet!!!!

First Do No Harm by lisa [insert last name here]

Its really, really captivating and heart breaking... also i'd venture as far as to say very its a very helpful prep for interviews [deals with the ethical/health-care-buracracy questions]

but, be careful: there are actually two books in print with this same title...one was written back in the 60's and is pretty boring and you can read the thing in about 2-3hours (i got the wrong one by accident the first time)

Belkin, I believe. Tough cases.

 

[Overeducated]

I bought that book by Lisa Belkin not too long ago. I'm looking forward to reading it but I'm currently reading through "Classic Cases in Medical Ethics" and some health policy book... (preparing for interviews... or trying)

 

[maggie08]

Belkin, I believe.

yep, thats the one!

 

[tank you]

i highly recommend On Call : A Doctor's Days and Nights in Residency by Emily Transue

 

[drbriggz]

I definitely recommend "complications" by atul gawande and if you are into parasitology or that thing (even if you're not, its still interesting) I would recommend "Parasite Rex." I forget who it is by, but it is a fast, interesting, and very knowledgable read.

All these posts want to make me go out and buy about 50 books. They all sound good... anything especially good for med school interviews (like health policy crap)?

 

[Shredder]

 

[CTSballer11]

"Body of Knowledge"

"The Making of a Surgeon"

"Complications"

Excellent choices.

 

[BooMed]

"Complications" is a great book! 😛 Even people I know who are not into medicine at all love it.

Also, anything by Bernie S. Siegel, MD.

 

[will8570]

I just read White Coat by Ellen Learner Rothman. Its about her four years at Harvard Medical School. It deals more with the emotional journey she took as she underwent medical training and accrued increasing responsibility for others' lives.