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Reading for Medicine

Can anyone suggest any good books to read before i begin my AS-level chemistry course, or generally a good read - medicine related of course

Reply 1

theycallmemrpig

the selfish gene
nature via nurture

those are the ones our bio teacher told us to read

Reply 2

joyabbott

I wouldn't bother with anything textbook like. House of God by Samuel Shem is good. 'So you want to be a brain surgeon' is also useful for med applicants

Reply 3

Lucy

theycallmemrpig

the selfish gene

Yeah, The Selfish Gene (Richard Dawkins) is definitely a good read particularly if you're interested in genetics and evolution. Genome by Matt Ridley also has some interesting and relevant chapters on genetic disorders.

If you are really interested in the history of genetics, The Double Helix (James Watson) and Rosalind Franklin, The Dark Lady of DNA (Brenda Maddox) are good for background knowledge. They can become a bit tedious though (the autobiography one of Rosalind Franklin is quite a big book) so I would only recommend skimming through a couple of chapters to catch a drift about what's going on.

It's still pretty early to start reading up though, maybe you'll understand them better having done your AS levels first.