Interesting literature

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Young Scientist

Young Scientist
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  1. Pre-Medical
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Any suggestions of good books? I haven't read one in a while - no time, so i want something really good.
 
Da Vinci code was pretty good, but for the medically inclined, I liked the House of God by Samuel Shem!
 
Dr_Frank_II said:
Da Vinci code was pretty good, but for the medically inclined, I liked the House of God by Samuel Shem!
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Thank you! My favorite book, when I had time to read, was Is and Forever Will Be: Hot Zone by Richard Preston. Love it.
 
The sad thing is I thought you meant new JBC papers or something...
 
Young Scientist said:
Any suggestions of good books? I haven't read one in a while - no time, so i want something really good.
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Green Eggs and Ham.
 
Well, first I suggest doing a forum search. There have been a number of threads in the past with long lists of wonderful books, both medical and non-medical.

I'll also add two books that I read recently, both of which were awesome. Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks and A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. The first is Oliver Sacks' memoir, and although it has a lot of chemistry and chemistry history in it, I was surprised that it kept me enthralled. (Actually, towards the end I got sick of reading about chemistry and wanted to read more about his family, but overall I enjoyed it immensely). The latter is really amazing. It's the type of book you read and then refer to ten times a day for the next few weeks (or years!). It's about a midwife in Maine in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century, and it's not the medical aspect that is so cool (although that is very interesting), it's the social history of the time. If you ever believed the myth of the good old-fashioned stay-at-home mother, this book will dispel that for you 😛 Also, she lived during an amazing, transitional time, when the US was just becoming a country and doctors were beginning to assert themselves more in medical practice.

So those are my recommendations. Neither is "literature", exactly, but both worthy reads!
 
Master and Margarita
Bulgakov
 
At least Green Eggs and Ham is more intellectually rewarding and on better terms with reality than The Da Vinci Code is. TDVC was total crap. Pageturning crap, but crap nonetheless.

Sorry to rag on your literary tastes, Dr.Frank--my beef is with the book, not with you.

Try "Wind, Sand, and Stars," by Antoine de Ste. Exupery (wrote "The Little Prince," was an airmail pilot between France and northern Africa and later in Patagonia, writes more vividly about travel in unfamiliar lands than anyone else I've read) or anything by Wallace Stegner, one of the finest western writers ever (and a teacher to Edward Abbey, Ken Kesey, Wendell Berry, Ernest Gaines, and many others).
 
I've been into short story collections as of late. Here are the two (three) best I've read since January:

Flannery O'Connor - A Good Man is Hard to Find and other stories
Junot Diaz - Drown
J.D. Salinger - Nine Stories

These three are, IMHO, pretty freaking good.
 
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My favorite "The Agony and the Ecstasy" by Irving Stone - biographical novel about Michelangelo.
 
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
or, if you have some time and if you appreciate a wordy book, you could read my all time favorite, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club by Charles Dickens. None of these are medically related, although there is a respiratory syndrome named for a character in The Pickwick Papers
 
Memoirs of a Geisha (the book). After seeing the movie, I had to read the book, which was much better than the movie. I usually don't read books, but this one is great.
 
Yay for the Salinger recs. Franny and Zooey is on my top ten list.

If you are the sort of person who likes literary study in addition to literary reading, I highly recommend Possession, by A.S. Byatt. If you hate poetry, this won't be for you. If you like poetry, it's incredible.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon is fantastic. His Wonder Boys is pretty good, too.

A great memoir and a lighter but still wonderful read is Rocket Boys, by Homer Hickam. It was the inspiration for the movie October Sky.

Those are just the ones that bubbled to the top of my head. Have fun reading!
 
I'm reading Prey by Michael Crichton right now. It's pretty good. It has a lot to do with biology and technology and kind of reads like a Dan Brown book.
 
Here are my top five:

Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card (science fiction)

Childhood and Other Neighborhoods, by stuart Dybek (short story collection)

Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham
 
Ender's Game is awesome, except the end. The end is way too weird for me. But I really want those desk-computer things they have in that book. I wish everybody could have those. I want my kids to grow up with them.
 
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I'm gonna second the Salinger posts. Go for nine stories. Short, easy read. you're sure to find a story in there you think is great. For more great short stories look for an Argentinian chap named Jorge Luis Borges. Fantastic stuff.

If you're not familiar with him, and you're not faint of heart, I'd recommend anything by Chuck Palahniuk. Start with his book Choke if you have never read him before. It's pretty extreme, but it's a very engaging read. Great book.

Feeling scifi? Read a classic. I still don't think I've ever read a better scifi book than Dune (except maybe hitchhikers guide, but they're hardly comparable.)

If you want some light reading, but with a good story, read "The Education of Little Tree" by Forrest Carter. I think technically its young adult lit. But don't let that fool you it's a great story. I've recommended it to a lot of people with nary a bad review.
 
TheDarkSide said:
If you are the sort of person who likes literary study in addition to literary reading, I highly recommend Possession, by A.S. Byatt. If you hate poetry, this won't be for you. If you like poetry, it's incredible.
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*Everything* is incredibly phallic in that book. Woah there Christabel! Talk about literary imagery up the wazoo. It was good though.

My suggestion:

"The Secret History" by Donna Tartt.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/14...104-7973034-4728709?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

It was on the NYT best seller list for weeks when it came out.
 
bamf7 said:
I'm reading Prey by Michael Crichton right now. It's pretty good. It has a lot to do with biology and technology and kind of reads like a Dan Brown book.
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I love Crichton, but that book was not his best. It gets a little weird (not trying to give anything away, but I liked it in the beginning too). But in general, Crichton does a good job of explaining a lot of the science and stuff within his books, which makes him a good one for me. Jurassic Park is a great book, Lost World is pretty good (not like the movie at all), Sphere's good.

I'm not sure what kind of book you are looking for. I usually read Grisham as soon as a new one comes out and I have some time. The best one by far is A Time to Kill. Stephen King is good, and not all of them are horror ones. A Green Mile is a much better book than movie. I also agree on The DaVinci Code. It was a very interesting read. Angels and Demons, also by Dan Brown is very similar.

If you want to read some Russian literature, Dostoyveski's Crime and Punishment is one of my all-time favorite novels.
 
Oh, and, "Norwegian Wood" and "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami. Amazing.
 
tigress said:
Ender's Game is awesome, except the end. The end is way too weird for me. But I really want those desk-computer things they have in that book. I wish everybody could have those. I want my kids to grow up with them.
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I second that, Orson Scott Card's Ender's series (and Ender's Shadow series) is really good.

Also recommended:
100 years of solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
F. Scott Fitzgerald books, e.g. This Side of Paradise
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Adams; if you like this, check out Terry Pratchett as well, e.g. Mort)
High Fidelity (Hornby)
The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway)
The Heart of the Matter (Graham Greene)
The World According to Garp (John Irving)
 
One of my all time favorites: Pride and Prejudice. Someone recommended Life of Pi. I second that. Amazing, amazing book.

Oh, I've also been reading a lot of short stories lately. Some fantastic ones: The Sojourner - Carson McCullers, The Sky is Gray - Earnest Gaines, Children on Their Birthdays - Truman Capote.
 
My two favorite books:

Middlesex by Jeffery Eugrnides and The Hours by Michael Cunningham.
They both received the Pulitzer prize. Great stories and great writing.

Just finished The Kite Runner, which is also amazingly good and it's a fast read.
 
the only thing im reading now is examcrackers
 
Recently read and enjoyed:

Pride&Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Practical Magic (Alice Hoffman)
The Ice Queen (Alice Hoffman)
How to be Good (Nick Hornby)
The Greatest White Trash Love Story Ever Told (Rhett Ellis) -- a novella and 2 short stories.

Currently reading and enjoying:

The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Lucia Graves)
 
"Glamorama" by Bret Easton Ellis.... male models turned international terrorists... whats not to like.
 
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tulane06 said:
If you haven't already done so, read Catch-22!
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I second this.

Check out Lolita by Nabokov for a fast-paced light read (not kidding; you'll breeze through it).

If you're looking for something longer, try Brothers Karamazov. Plus there's always the Odyssey if you haven't gotten around to it yet.
 
I've never been able to get interested in the Brothers K, though I did like "Crime and Punishment." For those fantasy fans out there, try Steven Erikson's "Gardens of the Moon" series. Erikson was an anthropologist and archaeologist for twenty years, and it makes for a facinating perspective to write from. The world is incredibly complex with many distinct cultures.
 
I forgot to add in one of my favorites - The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima.
 
I second all the Salinger and Palanhiuk posts. But if you really liked DaVinci Code, read Angels and Demons.

Aside from that, my personal favorites are
-The Frog King by Adam Davies (very easy, fast and incredibly enjoyable read)
-Ishmael by Daniel Quinn (AMAZING!)
-Spanking the Donkey by Matt Taibbi (really funny regardless of political patronage)
-Notes from the Underground by Dostoevsky (short read, very interesting)
-The Stranger by Albert Camus (incredibly depressing but brilliant)
 
I really liked "The Best American Short Stories 2005" (edited by Michael Chabon) not exactly legendary literature, but great for when you're busy and don't have hours to read, and still just as addictive as a good novel.

Also, "My Year of Meats" by Ruth L. Ozeki
 
safeflower said:
One of my all time favorites: Pride and Prejudice. Someone recommended Life of Pi. I second that. Amazing, amazing book.

Oh, I've also been reading a lot of short stories lately. Some fantastic ones: The Sojourner - Carson McCullers, The Sky is Gray - Earnest Gaines, Children on Their Birthdays - Truman Capote.
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(You are of course entitled to your opinion) IMO Life of Pi = overrated.

Everyone is always doting over this book. It was ok, the first half dragged and didn't really even have much to do with the 2nd (interesting) half. If you call that book 'Amazing, amazing' then what do you call a truly good book?? Amazing^infinity? j/k :laugh:


drinklord said:
Check out Lolita by Nabokov for a fast-paced light read (not kidding; you'll breeze through it).
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👍
drinklord said:
If you're looking for something longer, try Brothers Karamazov.
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👍 but there are so many allusions to earlier russian work that it can be tough in some parts

If you liked this stuff drinklord then check out Master and Margarita - Bulgakov or Dead Souls - Gogol.
 
My dad got me the book called "You: An owner's manual." At first I groaned and thought it was a self-help book (he had been on a roll with sending self-help books-- is he trying to tell me something?) but it turned out to be a great text that is useful for explaining certain medical details in layman's terms. So often we come out of our pre-clinical years with all this medical jargon but the patients don't want to hear that! I think all medical students should read it at some point to be able to talk to patients and get them to understand complex medical issues at a simple level.
 
for those fond of gedanken experiments:

The Elegant Universe, by Brian Greene

you never knew string theory could be so simple!
 
Here are some more recent reads that were amazing:

Michael Chabon, The Adventures of Kavalier and Klay
Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
William T. Vollmann, Europe Central
Richard Russo, Empire Falls
Philip Roth, The Plot Against America (also American Pastoral)
 
ditto on Crime and Punishment.

Some other goodies: East of Eden by Steinbeck and Bel Canto by Ann Pachett
 
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the memoirs of pablo neruda. great read!

and lol at the pickwick papers rec. that came outa left field. :laugh:
good book though.
 
RxnMan said:
I've never been able to get interested in the Brothers K, though I did like "Crime and Punishment."
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Just to avoid any confusion, I should point out that in addition to Dostoyevsky's novel, there is a recent novel by David James Duncan called "The Brothers K." There's an influence, of course, but they're two different books. I think RxnMan meant the Dostoyevsky novel (and I second his comments; "Brothers" is a slow read; you'd be better off with "Notes from Underground.")

"Pride and Prejudice" is OK, but I think it is the weakest of Austen's mature work. "Sense and Sensibility" "Emma" and "Persuasion" are all better (and all fantastic.)

John Irving is great, but there's an atmostphere of sorrow, loss, pain and embarassment in his works that I find agitating. "The World According to Garp," fantastic. "The Hotel New Hampshire" is just as well-written, but it both kept my up all night reading it and made me physically ill. It haunted me for years afterward. I don't know if anyone has ever noticed this, but it would be quite reasonable to put Irving in the Horror section next to Steven King (seperated only by horror writers named James and Jameston, presumably.)

Updike -- the rabbit novels are awesome. Anything other than stuff written in the last 15 years or so I can recomend unreservedly. He is one of the few prolific modern writers whose work is consistantly at the highest levels.

Dorothy Parker, Chekhov, Orwell, E.M. Forester ("A Room With a View" is a well-neigh perfect novel; "Howard's End" is the best book ever written about the Bush administration). Early to mid John Le Carre, Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut.

Happy hunting . . . I wish this reading list was in my future, rather than my past.
 
I loved "Reading Lolita in Tehran"

It is great because it is about Iranian history, and also about literature. It is like reading books you haven't read 😉 or is even better if you have read the books she talks about...it also gives you new perspective on the books.

Also, "The Handmaid's Tale" is an excellent read. It is also an excellent movie.
 
i've read a million books in the last few months... read: LIFE OF PI it's effin amazing. and MIDDLESEX also amazing.
 
I THIRD Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow. These are too extraordinary books. Ender's Shadow is a quick read- only like 350pgs. I read it in less than 30 hours.

The most recent book I read was Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Superb book.
 
Here are my favorites:

Complications (a classic that most like, never heard a bad review)

When the air hits your brain: Tales of Neurosurgery (Frank Vertosick) (actually part funny)

The invisible enemy (A natural history of viruses) (Dorothy Crawford)- in story form of how viruses have shaped humankind, an easy read and very informational (not like reading a textbook)
 
GA_MDhopeful said:
ditto on Crime and Punishment.

Some other goodies: East of Eden by Steinbeck and Bel Canto by Ann Pachett
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I loved Bel Canto as I was reading it, but the end totally killed it for me. I was so angry at the way she resolved the story.



I have some more suggestions:

-The Children's War, J.N. Stroyar. A really cool alternative history novel (if the Nazis had won), and at 1100 pages, it'll keep you reading for awhile. Despite its length, I've read it twice because it's that good.
-Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
-The Birth of Venus, Sarah Dunant
-Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy (okay, I haven't quite finished it, but it's really good, so read it).
-The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien

and for nonfiction, I'd recommend:

-Stiff, Mary Roach

and if you're interested in the Holocaust:
-Triumph of Hope, Ruth Elias
-Ghetto Kingdom, Isaiah Spiegel
 
Dr_Frank_II said:
Da Vinci code was pretty good, but for the medically inclined, I liked the House of God by Samuel Shem!
Click to expand...

I would wait for the movie to come out, the Da Vinci code movie that is. Until then try the Man in the Iron Mask.
 
ahumdinger said:
for those fond of gedanken experiments:

The Elegant Universe, by Brian Greene

you never knew string theory could be so simple!
Click to expand...

hahahaha, that's awesome.

hyperspace by michio kaku is pretty sweet too.
 
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