I stopped “actually reading” fiction about a year or so ago. Now, this doesn’t mean that I don’t occasionally pick up a classic from time to time. For instance, it’s hard for me to go more than three months or so without flipping through Bronte’s Wuthering Heights or perusing Waugh’s The Loved One. Currently though, I try and stick to nonfiction, specifically to medically-relevant nonfiction.

            I’m especially selective when it comes to choosing a medically-relevant nonfiction book. It can’t be too factual and yet it can’t be too emotional and involved; essentially, it has to be delicate balance of the two. Recall that medicine is common ground between the fields of science and humanities. Few authors are able to relate the precariousness of this balance to their readers, let alone to the general public. Dr. Atul Gawande, however, is perhaps brilliantly skilled at illustrating this delicate balance – the fact that although medicine, in being categorized under the domain of science and yet also a delineation of the humanities, is subject to human emotion and therefore, to error.

            Dr. Gawande is perhaps one of the few physicians whose goal is to humanize the field of medicine. Placed on a pedestal by so many individuals, physicians and patients alike, medicine is all too often seen as infallible. In actuality, however, medicine is perhaps the least certain of the sciences, since textbook knowledge and past experience are to be applied to a number of different patients each and every day.

            I just today purchased his book entitled Checklist Manifesto and began to read it on the train on the way home. It’s incredibly detailed and yet understandable thus far, similar to his other novels, and I therefore, look forward to becoming more engrossed in the book. With regard to his past publications, his other books include Better and Complications, both of which I have read and would highly recommend.

            Many individuals are cautious in selecting in a medically-relevant book, fearful that the content of the book will not be understandable without some form of a medical background. Dr. Gawande’s books, however, are intended for the general public, as he seeks to translate the often misunderstood language of medicine into language that the common person can understand. Thus, there’s absolutely no need to fear the medical nonfiction genre, especially with physicians like Dr. Atul Gawande.