You always need an anatomy atlas (+/- foot model) first and foremost; that doesn't change and you can never know too much.
For rotations, I'd be sure to study the PI manual (podiatryinstitute.com) and Chang textbook (readily available... Amazon, Barnes, etc). Those are probably your two best resources for the money. It also helps to have a diabetic/infection book... Warren Joseph is proabably the best, and I liked Armstrong's also.
Some ortho F&A texts like Myerson textbooks and Hansen, Jr textbook are also very solid; Myerson's newer one comes with surgical videos which makes it a great buy for the money IMO.
McGlamry is good for the fundamentals, but the current edition is getting pretty dated; Chang's book covers many of the same topics and authors but more current info. Key McGlamry chapters like the instrumentation chapters, internal fixation, buinion eval, anatomic bunion dissection, etc are still classics and definitely worth reading. However, on a student budget, I'd skip it and just go with the PI manual and what you learned in surgery class; your school library or clerkship hospital libraries should have the full 2vol McGlamry if you need to read a chapter now and again. Coughlin and Mann, which is basically the ortho F&A version of McGlamry, is ok, but it's even more expensive, and I wouldn't buy it since you can get it free as a resident (Synthes website), and school/hospital libraries should have it. Browner and Jupiter's "Skeletal Trauma" is also a great textbook that should be in most libraries... you can get this one free from Synthes also, but it's definitely worth reading the ankle fracture and foot fracture chapters, and possibly others, before interviews/residency.
Presby manual is decent but pretty basic and getting dated. The Kushner NBPME pt2 book or the Crozer manual are ok if you learn well by Q&A format, but they are oversimplified and have some typos.
A pocket pharm book (Tarascon, PDR, etc), Maxwell Pocket Medicine, etc are good things to carry in your white coat pocket. Pocket Podiatrics is an ok book that's probably worth buying... it's basically entry level clinical knowledge IMO, so good for paging through during 2nd or 3rd year. However, I still carry it sometimes simply because it has a lot of good illustrations when I'm trying to explain something to a patient or junior student.
...Most of all, rember that all textbooks are outdated as soon as they are published. For that reason, your best source is just to read some current literature on pod med and foot surgery. There are way too many articles and authors out there to read them all, so start with some basic review articles and heavy hitting authors.
-Mendicino et al. Long leg calcaneal axial and hindfoot alignment radiographic views for frontal plane assessment. J Am Podiatr Med Assoc. 2008 Jan-Feb;98(1):75-8.
-Mayle et al. Current concepts review: venous thromboembolic disease in foot and ankle surgery. Foot Ankle Int. 2007 Nov;28(11):1207-16.
-Haas et al. Maintenance of correction of first metatarsal closing base wedge osteotomies versus modified Lapidus arthrodesis for moderate to severe hallux valgus deformity.J Foot Ankle Surg. 2007 Sep-Oct;46(5):358-65.
-Malal et al. Blood supply to the first metatarsal head and vessels at risk with a chevron osteotomy. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2007 Sep;89(9):2018-22.
-SooHoo et al. Comparison of reoperation rates following ankle arthrodesis and total ankle arthroplasty. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2007 Oct;89(10):2143-9.
-Pinzur et al. Current concepts review: Charcot arthropathy of the foot and ankle. Foot Ankle Int. 2007 Aug;28(8):952-9.
-Desmond et al. Current concepts review: Lisfranc injuries. Foot Ankle Int. 2006 Aug;27(8):653-60.
-Toolan BC. Current concepts review: orthobiologics. Foot Ankle Int. 2006 Jul;27(7):561-6.
-Frykberg et al. Diabetic foot disorders. A clinical practice guideline (2006 revision). J Foot Ankle Surg. 2006 Sep-Oct;45(5 Suppl):S1-66.
-Lee et al. Diagnosis and treatment of adult flatfoot. J Foot Ankle Surg. 2005 Mar-Apr;44(2):78-113.
-Vanore et al. Diagnosis and treatment of first metatarsophalangeal joint disorders. Section 2: Hallux rigidus. J Foot Ankle Surg. 2003 May-Jun;42(3):124-36.
-Vanore et al. Diagnosis and treatment of first metatarsophalangeal joint disorders. Section 1: Hallux valgus. J Foot Ankle Surg. 2003 May-Jun;42(3):112-23.
-Catanzariti et al. The modified Lapidus arthrodesis: a retrospective analysis. J Foot Ankle Surg. 1999 Sep-Oct;38(5):322-32.
-Catanzariti et al. Elective foot and ankle surgery in the diabetic patient.J Foot Ankle Surg. 1995 Jan-Feb;34(1):23-41.
-Banks et al. Juvenile hallux abducto valgus association with metatarsus adductus. J Am Podiatr Med Assoc. 1994 May;84(5):219-24.
-Sanders et al. Operative treatment in 120 displaced intraarticular calcaneal fractures. Results using a prognostic computed tomography scan classification. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1993 May;(290):87-95.
-Schoenhaus et al. Etiology of the bunion. J Foot Surg. 1992 Jan-Feb;31(1):25-9.
-Perlman et al. Traumatic classifications of the foot and ankle. J Foot Surg. 1989 Nov-Dec;28(6):551-85.
-Yablon et al. The key role of the lateral malleolus in displaced fractures of the ankle. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1977 Mar;59(2):169-73.
-Gustilo et al. Prevention of infection in the treatment of one thousand and twenty-five open fractures of long bones: retrospective and prospective analyses. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1976 Jun;58(4):453-8.
....Those are some good core and classic articles to start with. The ones that are from the last 5yrs or so should be available online in PDFs when you login at, or through, your school library, and some of the older articles should be on the bookshelves of the library.
I don't want to totally bias your literature selection, but you need a solid foundation. I think far too many students have little idea how to search and recognize good articles, and it's easy to get turned off to reading if you are wasting your time with poorly written and/or biased articles. If you start reading enough, you will find out which journals you like and which authors really seem to know what's going on. For me personally, when I'm looking for info on a foot surgery topic, I usually limit my PubMed searches to a core of 8 journals (listed in relative order of quality IMO):
-Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery
-Foot and Ankle International
-Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (Am and Brit versions)
-Clinical Orthopedics and Related Research
-Clinics in Podiatric Medicine and Surgery
-Foot and Ankle Clinics
-Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association
You can also find good stuff in other journals (trauma journals, Euro ortho journals, etc)... but I've found that those core 8 are a pretty good start for most topics. You obviously need other medical journals for medical topics, plastic surgery, diabetes, etc. I've found a good thing to do is, using PubMed, click "Limits" and then limit your search to "Review," "English," "Humans," and "Core Clinical Journals." That usually gets you high quality articles that are a good summary of your topic. UpToDate is also very good if your school or hospital subscribes to it.
