Books
This list of suggested reading is not an exhaustive list of all the books on medicine, nor is it a list of books that must be read for medicine. There are countless good books on any medical theme.
We advise students to only read a book if it interests them, and to develop an area of expertise in what they believe is interesting in medicine.
The Brain, by David Eagleman
This is Going to Hurt, by Adam Kay
Bad Pharma, by Ben Goldacre
A Crack in Creation, by Jenniffer Doudna & Samuel Sternberg
The Body, by Bill Bryson
Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande
Behave, Robert Sapolsky
Life Lessons from a Brain Surgery, by Rahul Jandial
Lifespan, by David Sinclair
P53, The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code, by Sue Armstrong
An Introduction to Clinical Trials, by Jonathan Cook
Medical Ethics, by Michael Dunn and Tony Hope
Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery, by Henry Marsh
Vaxxers: A Pioneering Moment in Scientific History, by Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green
Life at the Extremes: [The Science of Survival], by Frances Ashcroft
How Doctors Think, by Kathryn Montgomery
General Book list
Sacks, O.
The Man who mistook his Wife for a Hat
Oliver Sacks's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with perceptual and intellectual disorders: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects
Goldacre, B.
Bad Pharma: How Medicine is Broken, and How We Can Fix It
Ben Goldacre puts the $600bn global pharmaceutical industry under the microscope. What he reveals is a fascinating, terrifying mess. Bad Pharma reveals several instances of malpractice and
Henry Marsh reveals the exhilarating drama of surgery, the chaos and confusion of a busy modern hospital, and above all the need for hope when faced with life's most agonising decisions.
Kay, A.
This is Going to Hurt
Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, comedian and former junior doctor Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt provides an essential, brutally frank account of what life is like for the beleaguered vanguard of the NHS. Now providing the groundwork for a sell-out stand-up tour, This is Going to Hurt is an unmissable window into Britain’s ailing health system and the lives of the people who are its lifeblood.