I am a fellowship applicant now so I've gone through nearly all the hoops. Here are my 2 cents
You won't hear what we say "don't pre study", I was just like you and wouldnt listen to other people, so here's something that you can actually do.
The ONLY thing that you may remotely, remotely use for resume are legitimate research work, ideally with posters. Research work now is the ONLY thing that you can really use for future career wise.
If you must do actual reading, I highly recommend using this time to gain some "liberal art" aspect of medicine. Like random fun facts that will impress people at parties and on the wards.
Some of those fun readings include
1. Google procedure for heart transplant, whipple's procedure, etc, know what major surgeries are about
2. Look for random fun facts. Did you know some obese guy in the UK fasted for 382 days? Look up that paper and blow people's mind.
3. Read some anatomy book. Don't try to remember stuff, just browse and gain an appreciation for the artistry that is the human body.
4. Leisure readings, like "the man who mistook his wife for a hat", books about Ebolas, random medical factoid books.
5. Travel. Do **** that builds character. Go work on a farm. Go hike a trail. I picked up hiking and backpacking around thjs time. Nothing like sitting down after a 10 hour hike and doing some light reading basking in the sunset.
The goal is to cultivate a sense of respect and love for the subject of medicine. Before craming the insertion of muscles, before trying to remember factoids for step 1, before disimpactig people, before forced laughter at resident's **** jokes, before the 80 hours weeks, before using stupid baby noises as mnemonic to pass boards, before learning words like RVU or TAT.
Learn to love medicine.
any text in particular that was useful for you?
