Good Books to read

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I'm reading "Every Patient Tells a Story" by Lisa Sanders, MD (she writes for NY Times and is technical advisor to Hugh Laurie in "House") right now and it's really good. It's basically about the lost art of the physical exam and how too many med professionals today just shot gun approach each problem with high tech testing. They misdiagnose and mistreat patients too often because they missed a small detail by not listening enough to the patient or breezing through a physical exam.

I've been interested in House of God as well because of so many recommendations. Maybe it's better to read it after or during residency? Sounds like it's about the cynical, sarcastic side of medicine and as real as the situations it describes may be, it's probably better to form your own opinions before getting so many preconceived notions from unhappy people.
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The House of God is quite cynical; however, it is not nonsense. You should read House of God before you go to medical school!!! Don't wait. The things that happened in that book are realistic. During Shem's residency it was like that. I know a doc who did a surgical residency in the same era. If you think the book is a false perception of reality your wrong. Maybe it does not apply universally, but it certainly applies. Nurses **** doctors and doctors **** nurses and people do drugs. You will miss the point of the book if you get caught up in the sex scandals though. The point is that medicine can be a perpetual circle. Buff and Turf and move on to the next one. When you see the same patient 2 months later you utilize exact same interventions, buff, turf and anticipate their return in 2 months. I don't mean to offend anyone when I say this, but this is why I think people need to really experience a care providing position on a hospital floor before they become a doc. If you don't have that type of experience it is difficult to comprehend what really goes on. Shadowing a doc during office hours is b.s., shadowing a doc in hospital is b.s. unless you there 4-5 days a week for several months. If u want a small taste of reality read the book. Read it before med school, it might make you reconsider. Don't eliminate the view from your conscience because it is cynical, you wouldn't ignore a positive view.
 
I'll definitely read it before I start, but it won't change my mind about medicine in general. Obviously a lot of things happen that shouldn't, but it doesn't mean that pre-meds and med students should agree that's just how it is and that they can't do anything to make it better. Not everyone will spend their medical career in the hospital or ER so a 3-6 year residency shouldn't negate going into medicine altogether. Also, maybe buff and turf is the usual routine, but it doesn't always have to be. Maybe you could be the one that figures out what the hell is actually wrong with somebody instead of just slapping on a bandaid and pushing them along.
 
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I've become something of a political junkie, so most of the books I've been reading have been along that vein. The Real George Washington, The Real Thomas Jefferson, The 5000 Year Leap, End the Fed, SuperFreakonomics. Those are just a handful of what I've read in the past two years. I've got probably 30 similarly-themed books at home that are just as good. If someone asked me my favorite, I'd probably say "whatever I'm currently reading." Though I am particularly fond of The Real George Washington (a truly wonderful biography) and The 5000 Year Leap (an amazing book about the 28 principles of the Founders that underpin the Constitution.)
 
Doc 2b said:
House of God - a must read for all med students
A not entirely benign procedure
Body of Knowledge - About Gross Anatomy :thumbup: (although this gets a little boring after awhile.)
Learning to Play God - A classic easy read, I read this in Jr High
The DO's

Happy readings
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My favorites:
A Kernel in the Pod: The Adventures of a "Midlevel" Clinician in a Top-level World. (Lifestory of a PA, back when the field was just coming up)

White Coat: Becoming a Doctor at Harvard Medical School
 
Obviously this is an old zombie thread, but I'll comment anyway because I've been wanting to say something.

People alway bring up House of God. Personally, I find the idea that the only way to get ahead in medicine is to sleep with the right people completely repugnant. I am married, and I will not do that. No way. I would die first.

I simply can't believe that there are no successful residents who are completely faithful to there spouses. Sure, there are plenty who are unfaithful, but there is simply no way that it is some kind of requirement for success.
 
NurWollen said:
Obviously this is an old zombie thread, but I'll comment anyway because I've been wanting to say something.

People alway bring up House of God. Personally, I find the idea that the only way to get ahead in medicine is to sleep with the right people completely repugnant. I am married, and I will not do that. No way. I would die first.

I simply can't believe that there are no successful residents who are completely faithful to there spouses. Sure, there are plenty who are unfaithful, but there is simply no way that it is some kind of requirement for success.
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Oh lighten up - it's a satire, not an instruction manual.
 
House of God is the classic book for premeds. When I was a premed and med student I read it twice. Audrey Young has some good books too. My favorite is the new one by Dr. Tony Youn: In Stitches. It's funny, heartwarming, and tells a side of becoming a doctor I've never read before. Google In Stitches or Dr. Youn and you should be able to find it. He's a plastic surgeon on Rachael Ray.
 
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MLT2MT2DO said:
I actually found this to be kind of a crappy read. It felt outdated with a tad of fiction
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I'm finishing The DOs and I had checked out The Difference to read next. Thanks for the heads up. I'll probably skip to Complications :thumbup:
 
Darwinism said:
The Game by Neil Strauss
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Haha I read most of that book a long time ago and stopped for whatever reason. I need to finish it as it was pretty hilarious and informative. The scenes are so graphically described. I used to always make my friends read particularly ridiculous paragraphs.
 
I've got two that I've recently enjoyed.

"Overdiagnosed: making people sick in the pursuit of health" by H. Gilbert Welch.

"Crazy like us, the globalization of the American psyche" by Ethan Waters

Both excellent reads!
 
Infinite Jest - by David Foster Wallace.

It's not medically related in the least (well, there a repeating theme of substance abuse/dependency/rehab and depression throughout from multiple angles), but I've found it has insane vocab and it will work your verbal comprehension muscles. Basically, it will get you in tip-top shape for the Verbal on the MCAT. And there's no shortage of practice: it's over 1,000 pages long!

Also, it doesn't hurt that it's one of TIME's top 100 English-language novels since 1923.

I'd read it if you're interested in junior tennis, substance abuse / recovery, art film, popular entertainment, Quebecois secessionism, and lots and lots of footnotes.
 
Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese. Awesome book. About a doctor growing up in a mission in Ethiopia.

Complications - Atul Gawande. Been said, wasnt my favorite but I'll admit it had some great insight about being a surgeon.

Non-medical:

American Assassin - Vince Flynn. My mom loves these kind of books and recommended it to me. Crazy story with secret CIA missions.

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand. Another great Rand book, besides Atlas Shrugged.

The Firm - John Grisham The movie sucked compared to the book, as usual.

I'm currently reading the House of God - Samuel Shem. I am just about half way through and really enjoying it.
 
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Did someone seriously suggest The 5000 Year Leap? I'm no History major, but anything with a foreword by Glenn Beck seems a little suspect i.e. utter horse****. If you really want a good book about the motivation behind the American Revolution, Theodore Draper's A Struggle for Power is a pretty good read. Also,
The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould
Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster by Pope Brock
Black Hearts: One Platoons Descent into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death by Jim Frederick
 
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, and it's sequels: Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, and Ender in Exile.
 
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande
&
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande
Both of these are memoir style pieces where he takes individual (usually unique) cases and breaks them down, gives moral/medical lessons etc... Worth the read

The DOs: Osteopaths in America (I forget the actual title)
A little dry in the beginning, but a MUST for any incoming DO, or really anyone interested in osteopathic medicine. Good plane read.

Plum Island, The Lion's Game, Night Fall etc... These are all "John Corey" books, a series of novels based around a retired NYPD detective who now works for the JTTF and other anti terrorist stuff. Told in the first person. VERY engaging and addicting. Start in order, you won't regret. Maybe because he talks like a New Yorker, and I'm from NY, but the books are great. All written by Nelson DeMille.
 
I'm reading The Intern Blues now, it's interesting, but pretty depressing at times. It follows three interns in an NY pediatrics residency. One of the program directors asked the three interns to keep an audio diary and he transcribed their diaries. I think it's pretty cool because whenever they first bring up a new procedure the PD gives it's meaning in parenthesis so you kind of learn interesting things at the same time. It's a little old (late 1980's) so I would think that times have changed, but a good read nonetheless.
 
Medical Pick: Hospital by Julie Salamon - I really thought this was a good look at how a hospital is run (then again, what the hell do I know?). It seems to give a good idea of the politics you'll have to deal with as you climb the ladder within a hospital.

Enjoyable Pick: American Gods by Neil Gaiman - What can I say? it's just enjoyable.

Pretentious Pick: The Trial by Kafka - Actually, this is really good, and not as difficult and postmodern as some literature can be.
 
Colbare said:
Haha I read most of that book a long time ago and stopped for whatever reason. I need to finish it as it was pretty hilarious and informative. The scenes are so graphically described. I used to always make my friends read particularly ridiculous paragraphs.
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Got a copy of it free when I interviewed at OSU. If you are attending LECOM-B next year I'll give you my copy for free.
 
MLT2MT2DO said:
Got a copy of it free when I interviewed at OSU. If you are attending LECOM-B next year I'll give you my copy for free.
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I'll be at LECOM-B this year.... I've heard great things about the book, would love to borrow it. :nod:
 
Bump.

How about Hot Lights, Cold Steel? I heard it's pretty good for those going into surgery.
 
Colbare said:
I'm reading "Every Patient Tells a Story" by Lisa Sanders, MD (she writes for NY Times and is technical advisor to Hugh Laurie in "House") right now and it's really good. It's basically about the lost art of the physical exam and how too many med professionals today just shot gun approach each problem with high tech testing. They misdiagnose and mistreat patients too often because they missed a small detail by not listening enough to the patient or breezing through a physical exam.
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:thumbup: Great book. Must read.
 
rlalkire said:
Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese. Awesome book. About a doctor growing up in a mission in Ethiopia.
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Just finished this one...excellent book

And I recently started The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. So far so good.
 
I'm reading the hunger games series and the mom of the main girl uses herbs in the forests to treat the people of their town so I guess it's medically related. There's even a part where she's in a hospital setting so it has to count :D
 
These books are on my wishlist. Need a little help deciding on which to get:

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The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
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The End of Illness
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
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Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years
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When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales from Neurosurgery


 
Bonsante said:
I am currently reading Stiff by Mary Roach. It is an interesting and hilarious book about the world of cadavers. I finished Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, the sequel to Dr. Atul Gawande's Complications: A Surgeon's Note on Imperfect Science, two weeks ago. That one was pretty good too. First Do No Harm by Lisa Blinkin deals with more ethical dilemmas of medicine, and House of God is pretty lewd, but funny.
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This was my favorite book I read as a pre-med when I was trying to stay motivated during application season.

christina30 said:
Dr. Gevitz is giving my class a lecture as we speak.
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He is most likely coming to speak at our school at the end of this spring. I'm pretty excited! How was he?

HockeyDr09 said:
I'm reading The Intern Blues now, it's interesting, but pretty depressing at times. It follows three interns in an NY pediatrics residency. One of the program directors asked the three interns to keep an audio diary and he transcribed their diaries. I think it's pretty cool because whenever they first bring up a new procedure the PD gives it's meaning in parenthesis so you kind of learn interesting things at the same time. It's a little old (late 1980's) so I would think that times have changed, but a good read nonetheless.
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:thumbup:
Great book. But then again, I'm also interested in peds :) It is a cynical book that many find depressing, but well, the road to being a doc isn't exactly filled with roses and sunshine, so it's realistic. At least in theory the laws on hours docs can work have changed...haha...

If you like Robert Marion's writing, check out "Genetic Rounds." I read it over my winter break and very much enjoyed it, but again I'm interested in peds and clinical genetics possibly.

ManBroDude said:
Bump.

How about Hot Lights, Cold Steel? I heard it's pretty good for those going into surgery.
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The other book Michael Collins did, "Blue Collar, White Scrubs" or whatever it's called, is a great read. These sorts of books get so predictable and boring after you read enough of them, but Dr. Collins is highly entertaining. The one I've mentioned is written in a bit of a stream of consciousness, which I actually really enjoyed. He writes very much as a layman, which since it describes a good portion of his life prior to entering medical school, where he worked for a construction company, it's VERY fitting. I'd love to see if he adjusted his writing style, or at least if his writing style morphed once he became a physican and I think reading the Hot Lights, Cold Steel book could probably help me see that. I'll have to pick it up soon.

UTsksk said:
I'm reading the hunger games series and the mom of the main girl uses herbs in the forests to treat the people of their town so I guess it's medically related. There's even a part where she's in a hospital setting so it has to count :D
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I just started Hunger Games, hoping to finish it before the movie comes out lol. That's a stretch with boards looming ahead this summer though :)

For other non-medical reads:
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was EXCELLENT...hoping to finish the series before finishing residency lol

I enjoy anything by Barbara Kingsolver...my most recent fave of hers was nonfiction- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle....all about growing your own food and whatnot. Lots of good recipes included :)

Other than that, recently I read Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs....pretty decent, and a nice throwback for those born in the 70s and 80s with all its culture references.
 
GraceEuphoria said:
I just started Hunger Games, hoping to finish it before the movie comes out lol. That's a stretch with boards looming ahead this summer though :)

For other non-medical reads:
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was EXCELLENT...hoping to finish the series before finishing residency lol.
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Hunger Games is about kids killing each other. No thanks. I'd rather eat sandpaper.

And I just finished Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it took forever and ever to get going (who really wants to know the history of every single member of the Vanger family?) and then had a crash bang finish that wasn't really satisfying. And all the raping and killing was kind of a downer, too.
 
ManBroDude said:
Hunger Games is about kids killing each other. No thanks. I'd rather eat sandpaper.

And I just finished Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it took forever and ever to get going (who really wants to know the history of every single member of the Vanger family?) and then had a crash bang finish that wasn't really satisfying. And all the raping and killing was kind of a downer, too.
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Haha well please, tell us how you really feel :laugh:

I am barely into Hunger Games so I can't speak for it just yet....I suppose I like to read any book that has hype only so that I can understand what people are saying when they reference it. I'm not so much like that with movies, but I am a book addict, so I guess that's why I'll try to read almost anything.

As for Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I suppose I picked it up because of the hype as well, but you are VERY correct about it taking forever to get moving. I was probably almost a hundred pages in before I really didn't want to put it down. I guess I just really enjoyed putting the puzzle pieces together during the storyline. Each scenario and interaction was a chance to play Clue and see if you could figure out who dunit :) It's not for everyone I'm sure. I also read books like this because I won't let myself see the movie until I've read the book and I've heard the movie is REALLY good.
 
Ahh, I totallly forgot one medically related book that I had little expectations of and was very surprised with ultimately. "How Doctors Think" by Dr. Jerome Groopman was a nice, insightful (albeit slightly dry) book. I think the chapter I enjoyed the most was the one that dealt with radiology and the biases involved. It seems like a self-help type book by appearance, meant for patients, but I thought it was quite beneficial to have read it prior to starting med school.
 
ManBroDude said:
Hunger Games is about kids killing each other. No thanks. I'd rather eat sandpaper.

And I just finished Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it took forever and ever to get going (who really wants to know the history of every single member of the Vanger family?) and then had a crash bang finish that wasn't really satisfying. And all the raping and killing was kind of a downer, too.
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Girl w/ Dragon Tatoo: I thought the first one was good, the second one sucked, and I didn't even finish the third one because it was so bad.

Similar thing for Hunger Games. I liked the first one, the second one was almost identical to the first (but it wasn't good based on a lack of originality), and I have the third one but I haven't read it yet (and I don't really have a desire to read it due to the second book).
 
Mbeas said:
Girl w/ Dragon Tatoo: I thought the first one was good, the second one sucked, and I didn't even finish the third one because it was so bad.

Similar thing for Hunger Games. I liked the first one, the second one was almost identical to the first (but it wasn't good based on a lack of originality), and I have the third one but I haven't read it yet (and I don't really have a desire to read it due to the second book).
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Aww man, don't set me up just to be disappointed! :) I can't help it though, I will have to finish each of the series just because. Hopefully it won't be too painful in the process lol.
 
GraceEuphoria said:
Aww man, don't set me up just to be disappointed! :) I can't help it though, I will have to finish each of the series just because. Hopefully it won't be too painful in the process lol.
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:laugh: Don't be discouraged; there are a LOT of people that love the series.
 
good thread. I just wanted to comment and agree with what some said about House of God. That book sucked. Really bad actually. It was a horrible read that I couldn't get through. And I am not talking about it being unrealistic, it was just a bad read. It didn't flow, I couldn't follow, and it didn't grab attention in any other way than being shocking. Lame.

But Cutting for Stone was fantastic.
 
Mbeas said:
Girl w/ Dragon Tatoo: I thought the first one was good, the second one sucked, and I didn't even finish the third one because it was so bad.

Similar thing for Hunger Games. I liked the first one, the second one was almost identical to the first (but it wasn't good based on a lack of originality), and I have the third one but I haven't read it yet (and I don't really have a desire to read it due to the second book).
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The third book was very good, in my opinion, i feel like it made up for the second one. * for the hunger games.
 
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood and In Cold Blood by Truman Capote are both fantastic books as well. I'm considering re-reading In Cold Blood.

Another one of my absolute favorites is Inherit the Wind (scopes monkey trial book). It's a short play, but amazing.
 
ManBroDude said:
I found out how Twilight was written:

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly5d1ilEsa1rniev5o1_500.jpg
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:thumbup: I refuse to read the books or see the movies...same for Harry Pooter (intentionally mispelled)

beckhunter116 said:
The third book was very good, in my opinion, i feel like it made up for the second one. * for the hunger games.
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Glad to hear it...as soon as I finish "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" (~70 pages left), I will read "Mockingjay". In theory, I should be able to start it this week :xf:

Also, anyone read The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett? Incredible read.
 
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ManBroDude said:
I've read it twice, and the Fountainhead once, plus the rest of Ayn Rand's stuff. I thought it was the greatest thing ever until I realized that a little human compassion goes a long ways.
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I started the fountainhead, got about halfway and just couldn't go anymore. I get it dude, you don't want to conform, but if you just quarter conformed, your life would have been much easier and less stupid. And you wouldn't have had to rape that girl. And the page long sentences were over the top. She needed 60 pages to describe a scene. Too much. And her flavor of political message was overwhelmingly bland.

And after that I vowed I wouldn't waste my time with Atlas Shrugged.
 
Mbeas said:
:thumbup: I refuse to read the books or see the movies...same for Harry Pooter (intentionally mispelled)
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I vowed to never read a Harry Potter book, but my girl wanted to watch the movies. We marathon'd all of them over 3 days and I can say that I enjoyed them. They weren't the best movies evar, but I didn't complain.
 
Emergency by Mark Brown MD is a quick good read! And some of the tales are by DO's so that's cool.
 
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