What to read for the summer

[dara678]

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Just wondering if anyone had good ideas about what to read for the summer in preparation for med school interviews. Time? Scientific Journals?

I know one of my friends talked about Anna Karenina in his interview ... so just wondering what would would be good to read so we can all be very learned for our interviews. :-D

 

[Doctor Octopus]

Read "Everything is Illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer.

This is a good read and has nothing to do with medicine. At a lot of my interviews they asked what was the last good book I read, and this one would be really good to talk about.

 

[IndyZX]

guns germs and steel, jared diamond

 

[gwugrad2003]

Hey

TIME is good to read. Get a pretty decent student discount too. I have been an avid reader for about 2yrs. Even though some writers are a little bias, it is still interesting to read some of there views, also if you have a strong opinion you might be published in the readers feed back. It you have not taken the MCAT yet, i think that reading TIME is excellent way to come up with examples for the wirting section on the MCAT. Again this is just my opinion. 😀

peace

 

[Doctor Octopus]

Originally posted by indyzx
guns germs and steel, jared diamond

Pretty good book. I always wondered why you couldn't have a zebra cavalry.

 

[solid snake]

Read "Ishmael." Dang, I forgot the author, but it's a great book and has a talking gorilla.

 

[Spelbo420]

Last two I have really enjoyed were

On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Long Walk by Stephen King

 

[kumar28]

Must read...

the celestine prophecy by james redfield...

anyone out there read this yet??

 

[Herpeto]

North American Box Turtles: A Natural History by Dr. Kenneth Dodd

OR

Life, Love and Reptiles: an Autobiography of Sherman A. Minton

Interestingly, he was an M.D. and faculty member at IUPUI's microbiology department while also a prolific herpetologist.

 

[J-Mo]

Review your AMCAS and secondary application. Check the interview website on SDN. Do a mock-interview. Read about the schools you are applying to and nothing else too serious. Relax and you'll soon be reading your admission letter.

 

[quideam]

Definetly read "Darwin's Radio" By Greg Bear. It's a science fiction book about a trait in our gene that "woke up" to propel evolution in a punctuated-equilibrium manner. Really great!!!

- Quid

 

[Illusion18]

Guns, Germs, and Steel is an amazing book.
Also, try:
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
In the Land of God and Man (it's about the Latin American AIDS crisis)
We Wish to Inform you that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch (about the Rwanandan genocide)
And the new Harry Potter book is coming out.

 

[dstn2bmd]

A good book I just read was titled

Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science.

I read it in one day. Atul Gawande is the author and he is a very good writer.

Heb

 

[Wardens]

Jeez, forget time and pick up the economist. It's up there national geographic as the hallmark magazine of our times. I'm ready for the criticism.

In terms of books, someone reccomended From Chance to Choice by Buchanen, Brock, et al. It discusses relevant biomedical ethics topics. I agree it's an overall good read.

 

[sdnsdn]

I am ashamed to mention it, but public policy bores the heck out of me. I started reading "Severed Trust" by George Lundberg and was off to la-la land in no time. Then I picked up "Teaching Hospitals and the Urban Poor" by Ginzberg and Berliner and the subject came alive. It is a short book, non-biased (or maybe written with my bias, so I did not notice) and an easy read. Plus it deals specifically with teaching hospitals. It nice to read about the institutions where you will be interviewing. However, I must tell you that none of this stuff ever came up in my interviews.
One book I read that I was able to draw on for almost every interview was "Caring for Patients from Different Cultures" by Gilanti. It is a great book and very interesting. If you have hung around hospitals alot, you will recognize many of the scenarios, but it is great to have an explanation behind many of the differences you run into.
The more you read, the better prepared you will be for the interview, but more importantly for life. There are no wrong choices, just make sure that it interests you and it will not seem like prep work at all.

 

[burlypie]

Try How to be Good by Nick Hornsby (of About a Boy and Hi-Fidelity fame). The guy makes some very interesting social commentary which I haven't come across in modern fiction in a long time...

(the protagonist is a female GP in london who justifies "bad" parts of her life by reaffirming herself that "I'm good. I'm a doctor.")

 

[Doctor Octopus]

Originally posted by kumar28
Must read...

the celestine prophecy by james redfield...

anyone out there read this yet??

I actually read this book, and the follow-up. I got into the first one, and felt strangely excited and wished that it wasn't really fiction. Then I read the second one and was let down, and the appeal of the first one vanished. There is a third that I know of, and probably more since I last checked.

 

[trubluwolv]

Originally posted by Wardens
Jeez, forget time and pick up the economist. It's up there national geographic as the hallmark magazine of our times. I'm ready for the criticism.

excellent call on the Economist! no criticism from me.... way to go global and question the status quo of seeing the world solely thru American eyes.

 

[CRAZYTERP]

I would def agree that Everything is Illuminated was a great read. I also read How to be Good by Nick Horsnby but didnt think it was as good as his other two books. Right now I just started Fast Food Nation but Jonathon Schlesser (sp?). I like it a lot but it it seems like a pretty one sided argument. I still have a lot to read left so hopefully it will develop more.

About Celestine Prophecy, I never really liked it that much. Maybe i didnt give it a chance but I actually kinda thought it was really predictable and the writing style didnt seem to suit me, but I do know a lot of peeps who enjoyued it so maybe I don't know what I am talking about. Another great book is The World According to Garp by John Irving.

 

[serge23]

A magazine that helped me improve my verbal score was Atlantic Monthly. It has tons of good vocabulary and 75% of the articles are very interesting. It has humanities and social science topics, which helps if you are mostly a natural sciences person, like me. And I also think that in the past some MCAT passages have been taken from this magazine.

Good luck!

 

[IrishOarsman]

Originally posted by solid snake
Read "Ishmael." Dang, I forgot the author, but it's a great book and has a talking gorilla.

Beware the Ishmael series. A skilled writer, no doubt, but I believe he has absolute crap ideas once he finally reveals more of them in Story of B. Takes a while to realize he has just given one side of the argument and that he might just be pretty wrong.

 

[hossofadoc]

The House of God by Samuel Shem...this is a must read for anyone going/wanting to be a doctor.

 

[Idiopathic]

House of God - Shem
Complications - Gawande
Learning to Play God and The Intern Blues - Marion
When the Air Hits Your Brain and Why We Hurt - Vertosick
The Wisdom of the Body - Nuland
Natural Health, Natural Medicine - Weil
Merck Manual 🙂

Oh, and I think that instead of mentioning Anna Karenina, you shoudl mention Anna KOURNIKOVA...I'd let you in 🙂

 

[curiousforever]

The Death of Ivan IIlyich by Leo Tolstoy.

Good stuff!

 

[Doctor Octopus]

Originally posted by curiousforever
The Death of Ivan IIlyich by Leo Tolstoy.

Good stuff!

It's a big downer, but it's very short. If you want a taste of Tolstoy and don't want to read 1000 pages then Ivan is your man.

 

[NYGirl12]

The Spirit Catches You and you fall down...great book about Hmong immigrants and US doctors who are both trying to save a Hmong girl's life.

Tuesdays with Morrie

The Alchemist

 

[ry835]

Originally posted by quideam
Definetly read "Darwin's Radio" By Greg Bear. It's a science fiction book about a trait in our gene that "woke up" to propel evolution in a punctuated-equilibrium manner. Really great!!!

- Quid

Just read that book a few weeks ago...very good read although I would't suggest it to someone without a science background!

 

[dara678]

Thanks guys!

I'll add a suggestion of my own ... there are a couple of science books written by Lori Andrews about bioethics that are especially relevant now (bioengineering, cloning, etc.) I think one is called "Clone" and she had one that came out in Feb. 2003. Very good reads. 🙂

 

[thewebthsp]

The End of Time -- Julian Barbour

Consciousness Explained -- Dan Dennett

Basic Writings of Nietzsche

On History (don't know exact title)-- Collingwood

 

[Angeliqua]

The Famished Road by Ben Okri...awesome book. Doesn't prepare you for interviews, but is a fantastic read.

I know a lot of people have strong opinions of Ayn Rand's works, but I really enjoyed Atlas Shrugged.

Also, Harry Potter numero cinco is a great beach-book.

If you want something to talk about at interviews, don't read something others tell you to read that will be "perfect" interview fodder; rather, read what YOU find interesting, your enthusiasm will show through if the topic comes up.

 

[Doc Ivy]

Originally posted by kumar28
Must read...

the celestine prophecy by james redfield...

anyone out there read this yet??

Ya I read this. Its concept is kind of neat, but I felt it was so poorly written. And the prose was very repetitive.

 

[lyragrl]

The Life of Pi was a recent--and awesome--read. It won the Booker Prize last year. It's about a boy who ends up in a lifeboat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger. It's also about religion and the existence of God. Nothing to do with medicine, but so moving.

 

[personal jesus]

If you are from the West or have any interest in the politics of corruption/ rape of the enviroment read Cadillac Desert. Its about water politics which sounds quite boring but actually reads like fiction. Definately worth reading.

 

[Califlower]

Sun Tzu's Art of War. It was supposedly written thousands of years ago, but many things are still true today. It emphasizes that true victory is to win without engaging in combat. Valuable advice for settling any disputes, minor or major. Easy to read too!

 

[kmnfive]

the Death of Common Sense by Phillip K howard.

 

[ATPase]

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Very witty, intelligent, and has an excellent message.

 

[LetGo of TheEgo]

If you want to read something interesting but still practical, especially for medical school, I'd recommend "Awakenings" by Oliver Sacks. The book follows his patients with a form of parkinsonism and the effects of the medication, L-DOPA. It was also adapted to the screen with Robert De Niro and Robin Williams. Dr. Sacks is an amazing writer and has great insights about the nature of disease and what it means to us. In fact, I'd recommend his other books, they were highly praised by friends but I havent personally read them.

Click here to see a listing of his books

If you're curious, my site would be a good resource for you. Just click the link in my profile. Happy reading.

 

[hobbes007]

i second "life of pi"...such a great book. not only is it extremely thought-provoking, but its one of those u can't put down..very exciting.

 

[jwalst55]

Life of Pi is a great book. It tackles alot of the same things Ishmeal does, yet in a much more creative way. I've been in many arguments with my friends about Ishmeal, but I agree with IrishOarsman. I really did not like the book.

As for medical related books read The Lost Art of Healing by Lown. It is an amazing book written by one of the best physicians of the past 50 years.

As for magazines, I like the new yorker simply because of the stlye of the articles. It has more of story telling feel than some other magazines.