Want to become a doctor?

Question

Hello people who is out there and medical students. I want to become a doctor, but before I want to educate myself by reading books. My question is what kind of books I should read and please tell me some books that you like and want me to read. You tell me as much as book names you want, because I have lots of time during summer. If you are medical student please tell me what you are reading now.

Answer 1

The House of God, by Samuel Shem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_God

A must read!

Answer 2

If you're interested in medicine, here's a great reading list for you (assuming you can read at least 9th grade level):

'The Hot Zone' Richard Preston - This book describes outbreaks, epidemiology and some scary, scary hemorrhagic fever! It was my first motivation to study epidemiology.

'Becoming a Doctor' Melvin Konner - This book is an autobiographical account of an archaology professor who decided to go to med school at age 36. He details his epxeriences with school, home life, and everything in between. After reading it, I spent a lot of time thinking about why I want to be a doctor. Any prospective med student needs to think about that.

'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat' Oliver Sacks - Dr. Sacks is a British neurologist who writes stories about his most interesting patients, describing their illness, and injecting a good dose of humor into otherwise incomprehensible conditions.

'The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down' Anne Fadiman - This story is about a Hmong immigrant baby with severe epilepsy, and the horrible cultural clashes between her family and the medical community. The moral of the story is that understanding between patient and doctor is crucial to care, but sometimes hard to come by.

ADDENDUM
It seems the other folks are recommending textbooks for you to study over the summer. Don't get me wrong, it's cool to check out textbooks (I still read over my biochem and physiology texts for fun). However, leisure reading can really engage you in ways that no textbook could possibly cover. The books I list are intended to be read, not studied. I hope you enjoy them (you can find most of them at the library) and become more interested in medicine as a career field.

Answer 3

Start with the Journal of American Medicine. This will familiarize you with current issues and topics in medicine. As far as books go start yourself on studying general human anatomy, Grey's Anatomy is a widely known book in the medical community, then move on to cellular biology, any introductory college text will do. Start thinking about what kind of doctor you want to be...general practice, orthopedist, etc...and if you want to specialize in a certain aspect or body system, i.e. internal medicine, surgery, etc...Becoming a doctor requires a high level of discipline and committment. Good luck!

Answer 4

You know if you read too much it will confuse you. You eed to take it step by step. I recommend that you learn first with Physiology by Reading a physiology book authored by TORTORA and GRABOWSKI. It is a really nice book which combines both anatomy and physiology. After reading it, read Bates Physical diagnosis and history taking. If, you still have time, read Robin's Pathology.

Good Luck!!!!

Answer 5

if you'd like a list of medical textbooks - here goes:

Physiology:
textbook of medical physiology, guyton & hall
renal pathopysiology
respiratory physiology

Biochemistry:
limpincott 3rd edition
biochemistry- horton (editor)

Anatomy:
clinical anatomy, snell
Mc'minn's colour atlas of human anatomy 5th edition
gray's anatomy for students

Histology:
Whether's functional histology 5th edition

Embryology:
human embryology, william j.larsen

a word of notice: these are the books i use and that were recommended to me by the lecturerers that lecture me, however they are not very easy to read, they have a lot of big words in them. don't let that discourage you though!!! you'll understand it in due time.

good luck!!!