Medical Books Holiday Wish List

Practicing medicine gets busy! Looking back at (the lack of) posts on here, I realize that I have not read a good book about medicine in a while. In fact, I don't think I've read a book cover-to-cover in almost a year! While I don't know the next time I will have enough free time to break that streak, here are a few books I would consider:

• The Gene, by Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD

Written by the author of The Emperor of All Maladies, Mukherjee's new book The Gene explores both the history of the how humans considered the concept of the gene, as well as what the futures holds when we are able to edit the genetic code. Having heard Mukherjee speak in person, I can attest that he is a thoughtful and passionate believer in a deep understanding of the history of medicine in order to inform future avenues for medical research. Have you read The Gene? How did you find it?

    

• The End of Illness, by David Agus, MD

While not new, The End of Illness re-examines what it means to be 'healthy' and what one can do to live a robust life. Agus is a professor of medicine and engineering at USC, and has written several other books about life and health, but this is perhaps his most well known. If you have read it, what did you think?

 

• When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi

Paul Kalanithi was a young neurosurgeon, who has to comes to terms with his own mortality all too soon. I cannot imagine the heartache he and his family must have gone through, but hopefully writing this book provided him some catharsis.

While I used the idiom "cover to cover", the honest truth is that it's been even longer since I truly did that. In the last few years, I have started using a Kindle Paperwhite to actual read longform. While it's not a perfect substitute for the written page, I find the ability to carry many books at one time, read in low light, and look up related material very useful. A single charge lasts 30 *days*, and e-books purchased from Amazon can be read on other devices too, including any web browser. It even syncs your last read page across devices!

As the holidays approach, any of these items would also likely make a great gift for the budding healthcare professional in your life. Come across a good healthcare-related gift idea? Please share!