A handy textbook guide

To buy or not to buy? That is the age-old question when it comes to textbooks.

From day one of your medical career, you will be given endless lists of medical textbooks and resources.

If you are a first-year student, it can be overwhelming trying to separate your needs from the noise.

Textbooks are expensive; you should consider textbooks as investments in your education over the long-term.

Before you buy an entire collection that will collect dust over your degree, consider how you study best and what gives you the most value.

From the GPSN team, here are some concise reviews and recommendations of our favourite textbooks and resources.

Where to get your textbooks

The campus bookstore

Your one-stop shop where you can order all of your textbooks. Keep an eye out for book packs designed for first-year students. Most universities will also sell second-hand textbooks.

Other students

Many students will sell their old textbooks. Connect with them to ask what those who have come before you have used to pass their exams.

Renting

Websites such as Zookal allow you to rent a textbook. This is great if you only need a textbook for a semester or unit.

Online second-hand

Visit sites such as StudentVip, Facebook Marketplace, or Gumtree to find cheap secondhand textbooks.

Major online stores

You should compare prices across websites such as Book Depository, Booktopia, and Amazon before you buy a brand-new textbook. Their prices are often more competitive than your campus bookstore.

eReaders

Consider investing in an eReader (such as a Kindle). It is often cheaper to buy an eBook than to buy a physical copy—it will also save you the hassle of lugging around a heavy bag of books.

The campus library

You can simply borrow a textbook the old fashion way. Most universities offer the physical copy and an eBook if you only need it once, or you can review it for yourself before buying the book outright.

Topics and titles

Anatomy

Gray’s Anatomy for Students (2nd edition)
A comprehensive and detailed textbook that has simple, written descriptions and lots of diagrams. It also provides clinical cases to demonstrate the relevance of anatomy in future practice.

Clinical Anatomy by Systems (Snell)
A more concise textbook, which covers a wider breadth of clinical cases which may provide to be more interesting, relevant and memorable for some students.

Netter’s Atlas of Anatomy (Illustrated)
Incredibly well-drawn and detailed images, without the additional information of Gray’s Anatomy for Students.

McMinn and Abrahams’ Clinical Atlas of Human Anatomy

Rohen’s Colour Atlas (Cadaveric)
These two textbooks come in handy with visualising relations and structures, using cadaver images.

Neuroanatomy (Crossman)
This textbook holds a reputation for being complex and in depth—it is good in the long term, particularly going into senior years.

Clinical Skills

Clinical Examination (Talley & O’Connor)
A great investment in the long-run. This textbook shows numerous examination procedures, signs and symptoms, and underlying pathology. This is the perfect reference for OSCEs.

Clinical Examination (Epstein)
A brief and straightforward guide to clinical exams—it is a suitable introduction into clinical scenarios for first-year students.

Mechanisms of Clinical Signs (Dennis, Bowen and Cho)
A dictionary for every clinical sign, with simple diagrams, mechanisms and underlying conditions. A good resource for anyone who keeps asking “why” during clinical sessions.

Histology

Wheater’s Functional Histology
Contains many histology images and provides explanations of the related anatomy, endocrinology, cellular biology and some pathology. It will come in handy in helping cement concepts of histology.

Junqueira’s Basic Histology
A well-structured textbook with annotated histology slides and half-page summaries at the end of each chapter. It makes histology more integrated by including medical applications of histology throughout.

Microbiology

Mims’ Medical Microbiology
All your microbiology needs as well some basic immunology.

Pathology

Robbins Basic Pathology
This integrates basic science with clinical medicine—it covers a wide breadth and is sufficient for your first few years of medical school.

Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease
This is the significantly thicker and wordier version of its counterpart—catering to the budding pathologists.

Pharmacology

Rang and Dale’s Pharmacology
This contains easy to understand pharmacological concepts (pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics) and additional information about the pathophysiology of drugs.

Physiology

Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology
A massive textbook that contains incredible detail and logically sequenced chapters that come in handy during revision.

Berne & Levy Physiology
Another useful revision option.

West’s Respiratory Physiology (West)
A handy book with clear explanations of respiratory physiology. The accompanying YouTube videos are also great.

Immunology

Basic Immunology (Abbas)
Excellent and succinct explanation of immunological concepts, with informative, yet simplistic images.

Other resources

ECGs Made Easy (Aehlert)
An amazing cardiology book that literally makes interpreting ECGs easy.

GP Companion (GPRA)
A pocket-sized, low-cost resource that covers everything from screening tests to x-ray interpretations to reference ranges. It is concise, straightforward, and essential for your clinical rotations.

uptodate.com and
bestpractice.bmj.com
Point-of-care decision support tools containing reliable information about patient diagnosis, prognosis and treatment decisions.

Netter’s Anatomy Flash Cards
Flashcards of every body system that are really helpful for anatomy spot tests (and are small enough to use to study on your commute).

passmedicine.com
A free-to-use question bank with hundreds of clinically orientated questions.

USMLE First Aid (Le and Bhushan)
An excellent book for summaries of all areas and topics, with numerous mnemonic to help remember facts.