Two very different smelling books on medicine. Atul Gawande’s second book Better is full of observations on how doctors work and how they could do better. It smells of clean, fresh copy paper which matches the clarity of his ideas. Pauline Chen’s Final Exam is all about death and it has the unfortunate smell of a cadaver. The hardback cover has a heavy and piercing formaldehyde note to it. The book itself plots her earnest and sensitive path from student to doctor and her many meetings with death along the way.
10 May 2007
A smell review of two books
Two very different smelling books on medicine. Atul Gawande’s second book Better is full of observations on how doctors work and how they could do better. It smells of clean, fresh copy paper which matches the clarity of his ideas. Pauline Chen’s Final Exam is all about death and it has the unfortunate smell of a cadaver. The hardback cover has a heavy and piercing formaldehyde note to it. The book itself plots her earnest and sensitive path from student to doctor and her many meetings with death along the way.
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4 comments:
Ed!
if you keep sniffing things- they might "take you away" to the loony bin.
Grant
Grant,
I bought a book about wine - which I am sure smells just like one our second year med text books. Just can't work out which one. Maybe I will get your opinion when I next see you. . .
Ed
I wonder what your Harrison's smells like? Mine smells remarkably like ink, or Chateuneuf du Pape, I haven't decided.
Joe,
Depends which edition ;-)
Mine is the 13th Edition and smells somewhere like a blend of mushroom, cork taint and cream.
I have am old Hugh Johnson pocket book of wine on the desk - 2002, which smells most like Parker fountain pen ink / saffron. . .
Must stop sniffing books and get back to some wine!
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