Day 2.

This book is a good size for putting under my laptop when I wish to work at my desk, it is not so good for putting under my laptop when I am working on my bed, due to it being paperback. If used in conjunction with a ream of A4, Robbins and Gray's Anatomy for Students, it would probably provide ample force for pressing flowers. You could also stand on it if something was 8cm out of your reach, however you would need to be careful because of the paperback thing.

Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease (7th Edition, 2005)
This book is edited by Kumar, Abbas and Fausto. However the Kumar is a different Kumar to the Clinical Medicine one. At least one of Robbins and Cotran has passed away, possibly both... This book is a pain to look up in the library because it is listed as "Robbins Pathologic... etc", while it is referred to as simply "Pathologic basis...etc". And although it is called "Robbins... etc", Robbins is not one of the authors.

It's SLIGHTLY thicker than Clinical Medicine, however if you replaced the hard cover with a soft cover, it would be slightly thinner. The page numbers go up to 1524, AND there are some of those blank pages at the end for when you discover new diseases and need to write them in yourself. I suppose the pages must be a tiny bit thinner than in Clinical Medicine.

Being hardcover it's much easier to manage when studying in bed. I think that small books are probably more manageable as paperbacks, but large books really need the support of a nice thick board. It is also suitable for putting my laptop on while studying on my bed, and is nearly large enough to hold an A4 piece of paper. But not quite. This means that I don't use it for putting under my writing paper because I don't like crumpled edges.

Robbins also has online access, and it also comes with a CD-ROM with interactive cases on it. I've never looked at the CD... perhaps I will one day.

In addition to uses as a flower press, footstool and portable desk, Robbins is a rather important looking book and would make anyone's bookcase look a bit more intellectual. Alternatively you could use it as a doorstop.

Gray's Anatomy for Students
This book is nothing like the real Gray's Anatomy book. Or like the the TV show Grey's Anatomy for that matter. It has a very shiny cover, which sold me over the other anatomy for students books. It's probably only about 5cm thick... maybe 7cm... and has a mere 1049 pages!

As you'd expect from an anatomy book, this one has loads of pictures, but they're mainly drawn, with only a few photos. I think I'd like some more photos - it's a bit sad to find out that a real pancreas isn't quite as lovely as the nice glistening specimen depicted in the book. And the body is a lot more messy than you'd expect if you had only ever seen the pictures in Gray's.

It's a paperback again, and quite a floppy one at that. Clearly the threshold for when paperback becomes better than hardback is somewhere less than 1049 pages. Although the length and breadth of the book also come into play I suppose. If it was cut in half, it would be reasonable to be paperback.

I haven't found many uses for Gray's other than learning anatomy. I do sometimes use it on my desk for giving my laptop more height, however that's about it.

Australian Medicines Handbook
A very nice sized drug reference, put together by people who don't all work for the drug companies. It has summaries of most of the major drug classes and comparative information for different drugs within classes.

I don't use this one for other purposes because it's my mother's one. I have the 2004 (and I think 2001) edition, but it just sits on my shelf.

ECG Made Easy
There are two books of this name. I have the one by Hampton. It's red, with what looks like a su-do-ku on the front. However on closer inspection it's only 8x8 squares and there are no numbers and there are yellow squiggles intended to look like ECG squiggles.

Although it is certainly not as complicated as it could be, I am still not of the opinion that ECGs can be truly made "easy". Not today anyway. But I've now read the first few chapters a few times and I think it might be sinking in.

This book is a true paperback size. Probably comparable to an Agatha Christie (but perhaps a bit broader). So it could be used for chocking up an unstable table leg, putting in a (large) pocket to protect against (rubber) bullet wounds and swatting flies.

Oxford Concise Medical Dictionary
A nice simple place to look up things like diathesis and megaloblastic when you don't want a long and confusing definition.

Similar size to ECG made easy but about 4cm thick.

Anatomy and Physiology by Marieb, 3rd Edition (?1999/2000)
Sometimes I use this for things like clotting cascades and pituitary hormones, when I don't want too much information.

Similar physical properties to Robbins but not as thick.

Rang, Dale and Ritter Pharmacology, 3rd Edition (?1999/2000)
I don't use this very often, only when people ask me pharmacology questions. It's ok. Has interesting anecdotes in the footnotes.

Usually lives on the shelf, but today it's next to my bed because I was looking up adrenergic receptors last night when a friend asked me about them. It wasn't very useful in answering his question.

The Cross of Christ, John Stott (with study guide! Apparently...)
I've tried to read this a couple of times, but this time I'm managing quite well. Some very good and consistent explanations and arguments for various things regarding the cross and why I (or anyone) should bother continuing to persevere when things don't make sense and stuff.

Pathophysiology of Heart Disease, Leonard Lilly, 4th Edition, 2006
I haven't really opened this one. I put it in my bedside pile a couple of days ago but I can't remember why. Apparently it's really good.

Bible - ESV
A translation more towards the literal end of the translation spectrum - can be a bit clumsy in parts due to the differences between Greek/Hebrew and English sentence structure, however generally fairly readable. This one doesn't have chocolate smudges in Isaiah like my old bible, but I think it has some Tim Tam crumbs in Hebrews or Romans or something.

Basics of Biblical Greek, William Mounce
If you are wishing to learn Greek from scratch and in your own time, I'd recommend this book. There's a workbook available separately (answers online). What I particularly like is at the end of each chapter it tells you what percentage of the words in the NT you know, both in terms of word occurrences (this increases very quickly once you know "the" and "and") and in terms of total distinct words. Mounce likes to minimise memorisation of tables of endings, particularly with nouns. I haven't done many of the verb chapters so I can't comment on those.

Langenscheidt Pocket Greek Dictionary
This would probably fit in your pocket if it was a relatively large pocket. It says it covers all the words that occur in the Greek New Testament and in all the standard Greek authors. I wonder who is classified as a standard Greek author?

Letters of John Newton
Reconciling the letters of Newton to the work that he did as a slave trader is difficult. Towards the end of his life he was involved in the movement for the abolition of slavery, however a lot (perhaps all?) of these letters were written before that time. I find some of the things he says very useful, but at the same time I can't stop thinking "He bought and sold people!". Interesting.

Commentary on Psalms 90-150 by Eric Lane
The sermon on Sunday was on Psalm 121. It was meant to be on Psalm 98, however the church and pastor had had a rough week with lots of stuff going on for various people, and the pastor said that on Saturday night when he looked at his Psalm 98 sermon, he realised that he couldn't preach on it that week (Ps 98 is a very joyous, rejoicing Psalm). So instead he preached on Ps 121 - I'd never thought about this one much before, or considered that "the hills" which David was lifting his eyes to were the ones the Israelites had to cross on their pilgrimage, and they were dangerous and at times terrifying places. Lots of bandits, all the pagan "high places", lots of places to fall off mountains... stuff like that.

I think I have made it to the bottom of my bedside book pile. I didn't realise there were quite so many...

Exported from the old Wiblog system on 21/01/2020 22:27:57. Thanks for being a part of this.