Books to Read Before Med School

[TheBoneDoctah]

I will be starting medical school in the fall and have some time to kill. I want to read a few good books that are medically related. Has anyone read any good books that they would recommend?

I just picked up The House of God and will be reading that first.

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[Awesome Sauceome]

Becoming Dr. Q. It is a pretty inspirational story.

 

[noolsy]

Avid reader here. Love threads like this!

Here's an older one that OP might find useful: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/some-worthwhile-summer-reading.293681/

Hopefully folks will add more.

 

[Low Flow]

About halfway through "Intern: a Doctor's Initiation" by Sandeep Jauhar and it's pretty good so far. Kind of makes me not want to do internal medicine though lol

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

About halfway through "Intern: a Doctor's Initiation" by Sandeep Jauhar and it's pretty good so far. Kind of makes me not want to do internal medicine though lol

Its weird how so many books and stories from people make IM look terrible haha.

 

[Promethean]

I'm reading -

The DOs: Osteopathic Medicine in America by Norman Gevitz.
and
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard

I usually have a couple more books going at any one time, but I have a couple classes to finish that have been taking up all my attention.

EDIT: You said medically related. A pulmonologist I know and love wrote a book about his own lung cancer diagnosis when he was a young attending. He explores what it is like to be an expert on the thing that is trying to kill you, and to gain a deep understanding of what it is like to be the on the wrong side of the stretcher, as patient rather than physician. My Own Medicine, by Geoffrey Kurland. A good read and just $4 on Kindle. I'd known him for a few years before I learned that he had written a book, so that made it extra interesting to me.

More medically related
Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker.
Pet Goats and Pap Smears, by Pamela Wible, MD <!!!
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Nursing Against the Odds !!! If you want to understand more about what is wrong with the health care system. Don't let the fact that it is written from a nursing perspective dissuade you. There are issues that apply to medicine as well.

Also, like anything on this list: http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/nonfiction-medical

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

Also:
A man's search for meaning

By a psychiatrist who ended up in a concentration camp and discusses not just what happened but some of the social and cultural things he experienced through it.

 

[Irish Luck]

I recently read Dying to Remember. it was a medical thriller that I really enjoyed.

I also read suicide med and devil wears scrubs by Freida McFadden. Both were easy reads but enjoyable

 

[AlteredScale]

"When the Air Hits Your Brain" by Frank Vertosick!

 

[CUNYguy]

Atul Gawande's Better and Complications are a good read.


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[neekzg]

^I second anything by Gawande. I read Better a couple years ago and finished The Checklist Manifesto a couple days ago. They're pretty quick reads and very easy to get through if you're looking to read something not too dense. He's a great writer and his style and storytelling are appealing to a large audience outside those interested in medicine.

 

[Mad Jack]

If you've got a religious text that you follow, you might want to give it a read so that you know what you're losing faith in once 3rd year hits.

 

[Gregor Wiesmann]

http://www.amazon.com/How-Debt-Stay-Live-Prosperously/dp/0553382020

 

[Gregor Wiesmann]

If you've got a religious text that you follow, you might want to give it a read so that you know what you're losing faith in once 3rd year hits.

If I read the book of Matthew in the Bible, and then spend a year rotating around the hospital, how is my faith in the gospel diminished in any way? The two have nothing to do with each other. That's like saying a chef will loose their passion for cooking if they attend an Engineering school for a year. If anything, I would suspect that the stresses of clinical years and residency would increase one's religious tendencies.

 

[Mad Jack]

Not sure what correlation you're thinking of, but I can assure it doesn't exist. If I read the book of Matthew in the Bible, and then spend a year rotating around the hospital, how is my faith in the gospel diminished in any way? The two have nothing to do with each other. That's like saying a chef will loose their passion for cooking if they attend an Engineering school for a year. If anything, I would suspect the stresses of clinical years and residency would increase one's religious tendencies.

It was kind of a joke. I was just saying to familiarize yourself with the god you'll likely believe to have forsaken you once you're pulling 80 hour weeks on nights in OB/GYN.

 

[gettheleadout]

The House of God is a classic, but I will say it wasn't what I expected (not entirely sure what I expected, but it surprised me.)

 

[Mr Roboto]

I really enjoyed "Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers."

 

[Gregor Wiesmann]

It was kind of a joke. I was just saying to familiarize yourself with the god you'll likely believe to have forsaken you once you're pulling 80 hour weeks on nights in OB/GYN.

Ah, gotcha! Familiarize yourself with God before you go through hell is what you're saying?

 

[Mad Jack]

Ah, gotcha! Familiarize yourself with God before you go through hell is what you're saying?

Pretty much, if that's the sort of guy you are.

 

[Mad Jack]

Stiff is an excellent book, I also highly recommend it.

 

[pepocho]

.

 

[hoihaie]

What Doctors Feel - Danielle Ofri

Medicine in translation - Also by Danielle Ofri

 

[gsjloynesyj]

I read Better a couple years ago and finished The Checklist Manifesto a couple days ago.

 

[Eppur Si Muove]

I would like to recommend "The Hot Zone" and "The Coming Plague," one of my favorite all-time books

 

[cs24]

Lots of repeats from previous threads (some of these recommendations came from here to me, and I plan on checking out some of the recommendations already in this thread) but here goes:

Hot lights cold steel- Michael J. Collins
Mountains beyond mountains- Tracy Kidder
My ambulance education- Joseph F Clark
Beating back the devil- Mary McKenna
Charlatan- Pope Brock
Cheating Death- Sanjay Gupta
Anything by Richard Preston
The Emperor of All Maladies: a biography of cancer: Siddhartha Mukherjee
How Doctors Think- Jerome Groopman
Every Patient Tells a Story- Lisa Sanders
After the Diagnosis- Julian Siefter
Final Exam- Pauline Chen
Seeking the Cure- Ira Rutkow
The demon under the microscope- Thomas Hager: more for the research minded, fantastic if you are interested in drug development. This is how it all began, story of discovery of sulfa abx, the first chemically synthed antibiotics, came BEFORE penicillin.
My Own Country- Abraham Verghese
When the Air hits your Brian- Frank Vertosick

Books that commonly get recommended that I've read and wouldn't recommend:
House of God- meh.
Blue collars blue scrubs- by same guy as hot lights cold steel but nowhere near as good. Disappointing

Also I am currently reading Forgive and remember by Charles Bosk

 

[CharmanderMD]

Unaccountable by Marty Makary is really good. It makes you furious about how healthcare is delivered but is really educational while being a pretty easy read.

 

[Reckoner]

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

 

[IslandStyle808]

I think a better thread would have been:

What video games should I play before med school?

 

[maxilofacial]

The Brothers Karamazov

 

[Dr.Wink]

I highly suggest you read "Gifted Hands" by Dr. Ben Carson. It will change your life.

 

[breakintheroof]

I highly recommend Five Days At Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink, MD, PhD. It's about the choices made at a New Orleans hospital after Hurricane Katrina, and their aftermath.

Here's the New York Times review. The book came out last year and has won many awards.

If you want a shorter read, the book is an expanded version of this Pulitzer Prize-winning article from 2009.

 

[Dr Stephen T Colbert DFA]

I'm reading this book right now: http://www.amazon.com/Charlatan-Americas-Dangerous-Huckster-Flimflam/dp/0307339890

It's about all the quack medicine that took place in the early 20th century and how the AMA tried to stop it. The main "doctor" the book follows became famous for transplanting goat testicles into men to increase their sex drive and longevity. No, really, this is something that used to happen.

 

[2Pints]

Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution by Holly Tucker was pretty interesting about the history of blood transfusions. The author really plays up the 17th century competition between France and England. Not as crazy as goat testicles getting transplanted but I'm just grateful I wasn't around when they were transfusing dog blood into humans using some pretty rudimentary jimmy rigged devices.

 

[vanillabear55]

reading "hot lights cold steel" now- I'd recommend that I think

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

I think a better thread would have been:

What video games should I play before med school?

Haha, well I already have this answer on lock. COD.

 

[AlteredScale]

Idk if this has been suggested yet but right now I'm reading "doctored" by Dr Sandeep (author of "Intern").

Lemme tell you, this book is a huge wake up call but in a very good way. I think being prepared for the worst is a good thing.

 

[ASD2019]

The Emperor of All Maladies - hands down one of the best books I have read this year

 

[Ace Khalifa]

Wow there are so many! Reading is one of my hobbies, so I thank everyone for these book suggestions. Also, I just finished reading The Empathy Exams, which is sorta medically related. I still enjoyed it, though.

 

[2Pints]

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande is coming out October 7th.

Check out this article on The Economist about the book.

 

[Bronxzoo]

regarding House of God, please know that residency is no longer like that =)

thank god

 

[Bluecollarmed]

One Doctor by Brendan Reilly M.D. was a really good read. Found myself not being able to put it down when reading before bed!

 

[PlasticBag]

"How We Do Harm" by Otis Brawley. Smooth read and some really great insights into healthcare in America
"In Stitches" by Anthony Youn. A plastic surgeon's personal story of becoming a doctor. You probably won't learn anything useful here and he talks mostly about trying to get girls in med school but it's really, really entertaining.
"Every Patient Tells a Story" by Lisa Sanders. If you like the tv show "House, MD", you'll probably enjoy that one. She was a medical consultant on the show.
Anything by Gawande.

 

[noflag]

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalinithi. One of the most profound books I've ever read that deals with an aspiring neurosurgeon chief resident who faces a terminal cancer diagnosis. Taught me so much about the different ways to approach life and death.

http://amzn.to/21C2NMX

 

[Imperius]

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalinithi. One of the most profound books I've ever read that deals with an aspiring neurosurgeon chief resident who faces a terminal cancer diagnosis. Taught me so much about the different ways to approach life and death.

http://amzn.to/21C2NMX

Well hopefully the OP is in med school by now since the thread is a couple years old, but never know.

 

[noflag]

Well hopefully the OP is in med school by now since the thread is a couple years old, but never know.

I thought I would just add it here since this is a good book for anyone in the process from Pre-Med to Attending. It definitely made me think about how fragile life can be especially when caught up in the process of becoming a physician. Sorry for reviving an old thread! Was just looking for more books to read and stumbled across it.

 

[Promethean]

Threads are never just about the OP. The comments we make today will be read by hundreds of people across years or even decades. The very fact that old threads get revived is proof that people do read down into the archives, whether brought by Google searches or links from within the site.

That is why I put a lot of care into the answers I post, even when it is a question that has come up a dozen times before. You reach more people than you will ever know this way.