stories of doctoring!!

[Up Doc]

"Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures!" I'm surprised no one has suggested this yet.

[RockNRollSpider]

I highly recommend Jonathan Kaplan's The Dressing Station, it's his autobiography of very exciting medical experience all over the world.
He has another one called Contact Wounds, which sounds just as interesting but I haven't read it yet.

[algy_lacey]

"Stiff" by Mary Roach is an interesting read. It's about cadavers rather than doctoring per se but it certainly touches on medicine several times.

[InnerRage]

do YOU really have time to read novels?????? i'm in my second year in med and i don't have time to read my textbooks!!!!! how do you manage it?

[M Clayton]

It's called "Work-Life Balance"

[waveygravey]

yeh im gonna give my two cents worth on this one. try
"trust me Im a junior doctor"- max pemberton
so enlightening to what we'll be letting ourseves in for when we graduate! (in 5 years time albeit..........)

[Laikey]

This is a really good thread - now I'll have lots to be getting on with in the 3 months summer before Medicine starts I would also suggest anything by Robin Cook and Tess Gerritsen - they are both doctor-turned-authors, and their books are amazing, I'd especially recommend Fever by Robin Cook

[waveygravey]

yeh its brilliant. i have lots of ideas for books that i never knew existed. right now im off to hist

[asklepios]

Awakenings by Oliver Sacks
The Woman With a Worm in Her Head by Pam Nagami
Letters to a Young Doctor by Richard Selzer (this is one I've read, but have lukewarm feelings about)
The Hot Zone and Demon in the Freezer, both by Richard Preston

And I'll second Stiff as an outstanding read, and I'd recommend Intern Blues as a fun one. Also, just about anything by Berton Rouche (I think that's the right spelling) about medical detectives is a good read about epidemiology.

Several of the other books mentioned on this thread are on my Amazon wishlist. If only my family would buy me more presents! I, too, want to read some books to get me psyched up about starting this fall. I'd begun reading an anatomy book, but thought I'm going to spend the next few years deeply studying this with more of a learning support structure, so why read this now?

[asklepios]

I recently started "Better" by Atul Gawande, and now I want to read his other book, "Complications". This is an excellent book! He's got me thinking about the science of performance in medicine. I recently read "House of God" and "Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures", two novels about doctors. Both were quite well-written with good story-telling and interesting characters. I'm reading "Bonk" by Mary Roach, but it's not as good as "Stiff". "Musicophilia" is another classic by Oliver Sacks that I've just begun reading, and I'm also working my way through "Bedside Stories". This latter one isn't exactly getting me pumped up for med school, but it is a good reality check (the author seems more bitter than amused by the NHS). I almost bought "Intern" by S. Jauhar while I was in NYC, but I think I'll wait for it to come out in paperback. The reviews have made me really want to read it.