Taking a break from studying

Of course, because that's what I do best.

This evening I walked over to Borders to pick up a birthday present for someone (shh, it's a secret!). I spent over an hour browsing around the store, looking for clearance deals (my specialty) and new books to read. I LOVE Borders's new Paperchase section. The next time I'm in the UK, I have to go to one of their stores. I also like the line of postcards they carry from artunlimited.com, but I've discovered that their website isn't nearly as exciting to browse -- there are so many postcards to look through that it's just wearying.

Anyway, back to the story. So many cool books that I want to read!

Skinny Bitch, by Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman
I don't know that their dieting advice is anything new or innovative, but their writing is hilarious. Here is an excerpt from page 14, when they are telling you to give up diet soda, which contains aspartame: "When methyl alcohol, a component of aspartame, enters your body, it turns into formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is toxic and carcinogenic (cancer-causing). Laboratory scientists use formaldehyde as a disinfectant or preservative. They don't fucking drink it. Perhaps you have a lumpy ass because you are preserving your fat cells with diet soda." Ha! Love it.


Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside, by Katrina Firlik
What can I say, I like science and medical stories. You'll see that this is a recurring theme in the list. I didn't even flip through it, so it might be horrible, but it was also short, so it would probably be worth it for a few stories from a neurosurgeon that 1) are cool, and 2) would help reconvince me that I have no desire to be a neurosurgeon. Or a neurologist. And it IS kind of cool that she's one of only a couple hundred female neurosurgeons in the entire country.


That Extra Half an Inch: Hair, Heels and Everything in Between, by Victoria Beckham ("The Smash UK Bestseller!")
I love reading about fashion, which is funny, because I am not that fashion-forward myself. Nevertheless, I love watching Project Runway, What Not to Wear, and reading similar types of things. Although I don't usually read any fashion magazines. Anyway... Posh Spice tells you how to wear different items of clothing, which brands she loves the best (for instance, she likes Abercrombie and Fitch ("an American brand," she informs her British readers) for "vests" (which I discovered meant tank tops)), and how to pull off all those looks. Not that you'll be able to afford her recommendations, like Manolo Blahniks (although she does search for her signature large sunglasses, which she wears to hide her tired mommy eyes, at thrift stores), but it would still be fun to read. She also offers mommy (sorry, "mummy") fashion advice -- like, she usually carries a large purse for all her assorted baby stuff, but she's also figured out a way to roll baby wipes, a credit card, and a nappy (that's the cutest word for a diaper!) all in a tiny clutch, so not as to kill her outfit. And then she gives all her lipsticks and whatnot to David (as in, Beckham!) to store in his various pockets, "like he's a spy." It's actually a pretty endearing read (I skimmed a few pages), she seems like a fun girl to hang out with.

The Book of Lost Things, by John Connolly
So, call me superficial, but I liked this book because of the cover art, but the one I saw in the store had a red background and the vine pattern was black, which stood out at me a lot more. I don't like the version in this picture; maybe I won't read it anymore. Haha, just kidding. Sort of. I mean, I didn't open it, I just read the blurb on the back and it didn't sound horrible, so I based my desire to read it 80% on the cover and 20% on the fact that the blurb didn't suck. Yeah, I'm superficial.




A Spot of Bother, by Mark Haddon
My hyperlink is to the Google Books entry, but I took the cover art from Amazon, because that's the version I saw in the store, and again, it was the cover that drew me in. I don't know, there's just something intriguing about a man with blood pouring out of his hip, you know? Then I noticed it was by the same guy who wrote The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which was a really good book, so now it's on my to-read list. I have no idea what it's about. Damn, I'm brand- (or author-) loyal!

1,000 Places to See in the USA and Canada Before You Die, by Patricia Schultz
I have the original book, but while it's nice to aspire to get to the 1,000 must-see places in the world before I die, and I have seen some of them, some of them are in countries that, frankly, I'm probably not going to get to. So maybe this list is a little more attainable.



Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire
I've been wanting to read this book for a while but never got around to it. Wicked was really good, and so was Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Mirror, Mirror. Actually, Maguire's writing is a little heavy-handed and overly-descriptive, but I find myself continuing to turn the pages because I want to see how he's going to use the plot that I already know. If he weren't re-writing fairy tales, I don't know that I could stand to read his writing. Sorry if that's cruel, but hey, at least I still want to read about Elphaba's son.

The Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson
A book about John Snow, every epidemiologist's hero! God, I'm such a nerd. It's about the London cholera epidemic and how John Snow figured out how the cholera was spreading (not miasmas, you silly Brits!) and took the handle off the town well. From reading the Amazon material, it looks like Johnson may try to make some links between John Snow and 21st-century epidemics, with varying degrees of success, but that's OK by me. I'll still read it.



The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic that Shaped Our History, by Molly Caldwell Crosby
I don't know that I would call it "untold," but maybe not everyone knows about yellow fever in Philly back in the 1700s. My favorite anecdote of that epidemic is how the rich folks from the city fled in boats and hid in caves under the banks of the Schulkyll River to escape the disease. It's fun to picture. And here's another interesting tidbit of info: in looking for the cover image for this book, I came across another book, An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793, by Jim Murphy. It's apparently geared more toward middle-schoolers, but the name is very similar, and possibly a little more interesting (a "terrifying" story!).



Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science, by Atul Gawande
Yeah, it's another doctor's memoirs. But we all know that I like surgical stories, so what do you expect? Besides, Dr. Gawande is an awesome writer. He writes for the New Yorker, and you may recall a previous entry where I linked to an article of his, The Score, which is one of the best things I've read in a while. And, it turns out he's written a newer book, Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance.



Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures: Stories, by Vincent Lam
I've been hearing buzz about this book for a while, and I read an excerpt online somewhere a while back. It's a series of short stories loosely connected to each other, loosely based on the author's experiences becoming a physician (yes, yes, more doctor's memoirs, sort of). But it's not just me -- Lam won the Scotiabank Giller Prize (a Canadian fiction writing prize) in 2006, the first debut author to ever do so. So other people think it's good, too.



Well, there you have it. My if-I-had-time-to-read reading list. And add to it the book I'm currently trying to read, which my dad lent me, The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, by John M. Barry, and the book I've been trying to request from the library for months, How Doctors Think, by Jerome Groopman (really, you don't have to comment on the very obvious pattern of reading topics I pursue), and you'll see that this will keep me occupied for quite some time.

Now back to actually learning medicine.