Put down your phone, your textbooks, and your planners. Sometimes the best way to gain perspective on the best way forward is to read a good book. These are our top premed book recommendations!
why you should read outside the classroom:
Last year, about a quarter of Americans did not read a single book (pew research center, survey conducted: January 3-10, 2018). Whether you can’t remember the last book you read, or you have a personal library that rivals a small university, this article is for you.
You are reading: Medical books for high school students
pre-med students have a lot of niche scientific knowledge: who else knows about the krebs cycle? however, medical school admissions committees want to recruit well-rounded students who can demonstrate that their knowledge goes beyond basic scientific requirements; Medical schools are attracted to students who know “a little about a lot.” in other words, they want students who have been exposed to a variety of different fields and who understand how these fields can intersect with medicine (eg, the economics of health care and insurance, major ethical issues).
One of the best ways to develop this understanding (beyond completing a physician shadowing program) is to read often and widely. And no, scrolling through Facebook headlines doesn’t count. Fortunately, there are a plethora of sources that offer reliable and well-researched information. For breaking news, I recommend the New York Times, NPR, and FiveThirtyEight. You can also consult peer-reviewed journals (eg Science, Nature) for information on scientific developments. however, if your goal is to combine readability and depth, it’s hard to beat a book.
read more may sound great in principle, but difficult in practice. If your immediate reaction is to protest that you don’t have time, think of it this way. most books written for a popular audience are between 200-400 pages, with ~250-300 words per page). average reading speed is around 200-250 words per minute (try to test your personal reading speed). Roughly, this translates to ~2 hours per 100 pages, or put another way, between 4-8 hours per book. reading just 30 minutes a day means finishing a book about every two weeks; If 30 minutes seems like a lot, consider how much idle time you spend browsing social media or stuck on a long commute (Audiobooks are great for travel – use the libby app to connect to your local library and get access to thousands of books for free) ). In short, reading a few pages each day translates to reading a lot of books in the long run.
1. when breath becomes air — paul kalanithi
Few books have influenced me as profoundly as When Breath Becomes Air. The book is an intimate portrait of the life of Paul Kalanathi. the opening quote perfectly foreshadows the events to come:
“I reviewed the CT scan images, the diagnosis was obvious: the lungs were filled with countless tumors, the spine was deformed, an entire lobe of liver obliterated. cancer, widely disseminated. I was a neurosurgical resident entering my final year of training. over the past six years, he had reviewed dozens of such scans, on the off chance that some procedure might benefit the patient. but this scan was different: it was mine.
after more than a decade in school and training, paul kalanathi was finally nearing the conclusion of his neurosurgical residency program. then came the diagnosis: terminal cancer. with the clock now visibly ticking down, how would he spend the days he had left to live? How did his goals and priorities change when he was faced with an event that changed his life? Paul Kalanathi beautifully details his experiences (as a student, patient, doctor, husband, and father) in When Breath Becomes Air, a book he’ll probably never forget.
2. thinking, fast and slow — daniel kahneman
Every day, each of us makes a myriad of decisions: should I eat breakfast or skip it altogether? is it too early to put on my favorite sweater again? How should I spend my free time today? Given so many options, how do we decide? Thinking fast and slow, Daniel Kahneman, the 2002 Nobel Prize winner in economics, summarizes decades of his research on decision-making and heuristics (mental shortcuts) in an accessible and engaging way. throughout the book, he will encounter various thought experiments such as the following:
Steve is very shy and withdrawn, invariably helpful but with little interest in people or the world of reality. meek and orderly soul, needs order and structure, and passion for details.
See Also: Self-Growth Books: 15 Best Personal Development and Self- Improvement – Intelligent Change
Is Steve more likely to be a librarian or a farmer?
if you think steve is more likely to be a librarian, like most, then you have just fallen prey to one of the many cognitive biases detailed in kahneman’s book (specifically, the “availability heuristic”). Our brains are great at recognizing patterns, and since Steve’s description closely matches the stereotype of the secretive librarian (the idea is readily available), most will jump to that intuitive conclusion. in reality, the number of male farmers far exceeds the number of male librarians (about 20-1). Statistically, Steve is much more likely to be a farmer, though the description might lead you to think otherwise.
It’s okay to make a cognitive error from time to time, we all do. As you read through the book and make several, you may find that simply being aware of these innate biases helps you make better, more thoughtful decisions. The book is especially valuable to the pre-medical student who is required to make important decisions later in his medical career. If you don’t have the patience for such a long read, you can also read a summary of the book’s highlights.
3. being mortal: medicine and what matters in the end — atul gawande
talking openly about death is difficult. Physicians often have intimate encounters with the dying process as they help their patients navigate end-of-life care. atul gawande is one such doctor, who has vast experience in this challenging subject. He is an accomplished surgeon and scientist, and the author of other great books on premedicine, including Best and Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science.
In his latest book, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, presents a collection of stories that shed light on often-overlooked aspects of medicine: geriatrics (health care for the elderly) and hospice (medical care for the terminally ill).
As a pre-med student, I had the opportunity to volunteer at a hospice for a few months. I learned a lot from this experience, especially that end-of-life care involves many difficult decisions. If you’re considering volunteering in hospice, or if you’re already involved, this book would be an ideal companion. atul gawande offers a very human perspective on the medical profession and the experiences patients face as they age.
4. the emperor of all diseases: a biography of cancer — siddhartha mukherjee
siddhartha mukherjee’s engaging writing style has won numerous awards, establishing his wide recognition and remarkable success as a physician and author. As a cancer physician and researcher, he is uniquely qualified to present the fascinating history of cancer and the stories of those intimately familiar with the disease: patients and their families, physicians, researchers, and many other exceptional individuals in a story that spans many centuries. .
The Emperor of All Evils: A Biography of Cancer strikes the delicate balance between depth and accessibility: you’ll be inundated with information about cancer and its treatment, but the compelling stories detailed by the author ensure you’ll stick with the book. until the end. paraphrasing one review, “the book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist.”
5. An American Disease: How Health Care Became Big Business and How You Can Bring It Back — Elisabeth Rosenthal
medical care in the usa. uu. has many problems. during the last two decades, It has stood out from other developed countries for two consistent, if unfortunate, achievements: the us. It spends the most money on health care (as a fraction of GDP) and, somewhat unexpectedly, also has the lowest-performing health care system among high-income nations (Schneider et al., 2017).
dr. elisabeth rosenthal is on a mission to fix the system. treating the united states health care system as one of her patients, she identifies problems, makes a diagnosis and offers a prescription. Beginning with a “history of current illness and a review of the systems,” she guides the reader through the complexities of the us. uu. health system and what caused it to collapse. Once the “main complaints” have been identified, she details several specific recommendations in a section called “diagnosis and treatment: recipes to recover our health care”. This book is an excellent read for those interested in the economics of health care or those preparing to answer interview questions on the topic.
conclusion
See Also: The best books about the life of Mary Queen of Scots – History Scotland
curating this list of books was a real challenge, as there are many more that deserve the same recognition and that I could also recommend. consider these five as a starting point. making reading a habit will help you in the long run. during med school interviews, you may even be asked to talk about the most recent book you read (which happened to me more than once!)
If you’re looking to grow your personal library even further, I’ve outlined a few additional books below that I’ve also found valuable.
other book recommendations:
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psychiatry: the untold story of psychiatry — jeffery a. Lieberman & ogi ogas
A Surgeon in the Village: An American Doctor Teaches Brain Surgery in Africa — Tony Bartelme
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Accounts — Oliver Sacks
behaving: the best and worst of human biology — robert m. sapolsky
Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery — Henry Marsh
assistance: medicine, mindfulness and humanity — ronald epstein
what patients say, what doctors hear — danielle ofri
Best: Surgeon’s Notes on Performance: Atul Gawande
The Real Doctor Will See You Soon: A Doctor’s First Year — Matt McCarthy
the house of god — samuel shem