Digitalis' Awesome Thread of Textbooks

So I'm bored and decided to include some reviews of books I have bought and are in use on my bookshelf as it is a reasonably common question in the summer months/before going to uni, usually something along the lines of "ZOMG!! WHAT BOOKS SHOULD I BUY!!". As always, I will advocate the party line of buying nothing, yes nothing, until you go to university and look at all the books available in the library, as unlike school for all you school leavers, there is no real "core" textbook. It is down to personal preference and style.

So, here goes!

PS Current students/Drs./mods would be great if you can add your own.

Preclinical Medicine

Essential Clinical Anatomy-Moore and Agur

Spoiler

Netter's Anatomy Flashcards

Spoiler

Anatomy Colouring Book

Spoiler

Greys Anatomy for Students

Spoiler

Wheater's Functional Histology

Spoiler

Clinically Orientated Anatomy by Moore and Dalley

Spoiler

Essential Cell Biology]

Spoiler

Pocock and Richards: Human Physiology

Spoiler

McMinn's Clinical Atlas of Human Anatomy

Spoiler

Dean and Pedginton Vol. 1 2 and 3

Spoiler

BRS Pathology

Spoiler

General and Systemic Pathology

Spoiler

Basic Concepts in Pharmacology: A Student's Survival Guide

Spoiler

Rang and Dales' Pharmacology

Spoiler

Integrated Pharmacology

Spoiler

Medical Pharmacology at a Glance

Spoiler

Human Reproduction at a Glance

Spoiler

Guyton and Hall's Physiology

Spoiler

Clinical Medicine

Kumar and Clark's Clinical Medicine

Spoiler

Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine

Spoiler

Tutorials in Differential Diagnosis

Spoiler

Davidson's Essentials of Medicine

Spoiler

Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine

Spoiler

Surgical Recall

Spoiler

Surgical Talk: Revision in Surgery

Spoiler

Essential Surgery

Spoiler

Clinical Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Spoiler

Essential Orthopaedics and Trauma

Spoiler

Wards 101 Pocket

Spoiler

Clinical Examination

Oxford Handbook of Clinical Examination and Practical Skills

Spoiler

Macleod's Clinical Examination

Spoiler

Handbook of Clinical Skills

Spoiler

More to come...

Scroll to see replies

thanks digimon

Wheater's Histology - 9/10, very well illustrated.
Langman's Medical Embryology - 7/10, meh does the job...
Instant Notes in Biochemistry - 8/10, good for a concise explanation on a particular topic but cannot be used as your sole biochem revision source (unfortunately!)

Reply 3

i'm no superman

great thread digitalis!

how can you rate kumar and clark a 5/10 though? it's like the medical bible! praise be to kumar and clark!

my own personal recommendation is:
- 6th Edition McMinn's Clinical Atlas of Human Anatomy by Peter H. Abrahams, Johannes M. Boon and Ralph T. Huchings

it's amazing. near 400 pages worth of cadaver pics useful for DR prep, OSPE prep and for your own personal curiosity too. :sexface:

Reply 4

Leto

The 'pathology book as murder weapon' comment! For some reason I find the mental image of someone getting attacked by a really thick book rather amusing :o:

Victim: 'Oh, what, so you're gonna kill me? What's it going to be? A fatal overdose? Air in the bloodstream? A gun?'

Murderous doctor: 'Who needs such primitive methods? I've got textbooks from my med school days!'

This thread is indeed awesome :woo:

Reply 5

sophyy

I so inspired this :biggrin:

Reply 6

tropical-twist3

I feel like I'm missing out because I'm not excited by this when others clearly are. owh. :sad:

Reply 7

HotCoco.

You went as far as to take photos on your camera too! You were bored. Nonetheless a handy thread. Someone already handed me down "Gray's anatomy for students" and it certainly is pretty. :biggrin:

Reply 8

LetoKynes

This is gonna be useful.. :biggrin:

Reply 9

terpineol

Jameisons illustrations of anatomy can be very handy.

The concise book of muscles is useful as a basic overview also, though one will never do well in exams with it, it is great for the basics.

Reply 10

Helenia

i'm no superman

my own personal recommendation is:
- 6th Edition McMinn's Clinical Atlas of Human Anatomy by Peter H. Abrahams, Johannes M. Boon and Ralph T. Huchings

it's amazing. near 400 pages worth of cadaver pics useful for DR prep, OSPE prep and for your own personal curiosity too. :sexface:

Yeah, McMing's is good for revision - just cover up the labels and work around the pages trying to say what everything is yourself. For more applied stuff I used Moore and Dalley's Clinically Oriented Anatomy

A rather random selection of other ones I like:
Underwood's Pathology - I used this for my clinical pathology exams - I find it much more readable and less heavy (physically and academically!) than Robbins.

Surgical Talk - if you're not a born surgeon, this book tells you everything you need to know for surgical finals.

Clinical Obstetrics and Gynaecology - not one of our recommended ones (we were told either Impey or "by ten teachers") but I much preferred this one - better colours and more readable.

Lecture notes on Clincal Biochemistry - if you have a science heavy clinical path course this is useful. Also from the same series Medical Microbiology and Infection

And as a general point, I find the "At a Glance" series much easier to learn from than the "Crash Course" ones but that's just my style of learning, I think.

Reply 11

Tyraell

Helenia

And as a general point, I find the "At a Glance" series much easier to learn from than the "Crash Course" ones but that's just my style of learning, I think.

Did you find they went in to enough detail? I picked up a couple last year and wasn't too impressed. Instant notes, I found, managed to go in to a surprising amount of detail for it's size (I suppose it's not the size that matters but how you...).

Reply 12

Helenia

Tyraell

Depends what topic they're for - for stuff like psych, dermatology etc, they're fine. I wouldn't use it as a standalone for Medicine though.

Reply 13

LetoKynes

Eh just a thought.. with all these different text books, how would you know which ones cover the details that you need to know? Would you be supplied with some kind of syllabus check-list by the university?

Reply 14

Jessaay!

Pocock and Richards Human Physiology

Was the one UCL recommended, but I really like it. It has illustrations, good explanations etc etc. The only problem with it is the index. I've found myself like :lolwut:

a couple of times, because when you look up a specific word and go to the page it tells you to, sometimes it's not even on that page... maybe I've been unlucky...

I'd give it about 8/10.

Reply 15

Helenia

LetoKynes

You will normally be given a list of suggested/recommended books for each bit of the course. But pretty much everyone on here would tell you not to buy ANYTHING until you've got to uni, had a chance to try out a couple of them at the library and then make a decision.

Reply 16

Jessaay!

LetoKynes

a) Most universities recommend books.
b) The syllabus is covers the same detail across all universities as it is regulated by the GMC, hence it's not like "revision books", but the books cover the detail you need to know and sometimes a little bit more, therefore you look it up in the books. There is no real "syllabus" at university, unlike A-level where there will be specific things you should know (colour of transition metals etc) and these differ greatly for different exam boards. University is much more general and broad, so you do extra reading and reading to clarify the things you learn in your lectures. The syllabus you know tends to be much less of a check-list style than A-level.
c) You will know what you're supposed to know after lectures.

Reply 17

digitalis

LetoKynes

Please read first paragraph of the OP. :rolleyes:

That is the whole idea behind this thread, to give people a subjective view of what books are good and what are not. As the OP suggests, it is not like school where you get a chemistry objective going "Be able to describe the Born-Haber cycle". We get "learning objectives" which are broad and very vague, for example:
"Understand the approach to treatment, management and staging of lymphoma" which is an essay in itself!

Hence the vagueness lends itself to not just one book being acceptable for the job. But, freshers being freshers, adopt a herd mentality and tend to all buy the same few books, as it is the "safe" option and usually end up kicking themselves a few months later. So this thread is to open your eyes to perhaps other books and other people's opinions of them, so you can take a look and form your own. :smile:

Reply 18

munro90

Lets see
For biochemistry it has to be Molecular biology of the Cell by Alberts et al. published by GArland

Spoiler

I never found a quite satisfying physiology text book so ended up relying on a few different ones but my main text was Guyton's "Textbook of Medical physiology"
For anatomy you should not be without Instant Anatomy By Bob Whitaker ( :love:

)
website book, podcasts and CD. Concise and clear 8/10.

I'll have a think and try review a few more when i have a minute (eg. long train journey on tuesday)

Reply 19

terpineol

Jessaay!

c) You will know what you're supposed to know after lectures.

Assuming you go to them, or the lectures actually cover what they set in the learning objectives.... Lets ignore the existence of the PBL epidemic for the poor souls out there inflicted with it.

I find some books more accessible and easy to learn than the set texts, many of the lecturers prefer to base their lectures on other texts, or constantly point out errors in the set texts (most commonly marieb and drake).

I would suggest owning two or three anatomy texts is always a good idea, a different set of diagrams or interpretation in text can often make something that didn't make sense before become clear.

Last's anatomy (I would put the author in but I can't find the blasted book) is very useful for providing a different perspective I find.

Kumar and clarke I don't get on with, but would council against buying if you can 'borrow' someones GMC number and get it for free online with univadis.