Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Currently Reading: In Stitches

Some days I think I am probably doing myself (and my GPA) a disservice by keeping this blog going. I've watched 90% of my hobbies and pastimes fall away, so I figure the blog is probably next on the chopping block. But then something really cool happens and I think, "NEVER!! They will have to pull this blog from my cold, dead, permanent-student fingers!!!!!"

Allow me to explain.

It appears that putting near-daily efforts into maintaining a blog does indeed have some benefits.  This week I received a galley copy* of In Stitches by Anthony Youn and was told that I could do a contest for a book giveaway on Asystole. I started reading it 2 nights ago and am already halfway through it. This, to me, is a genuine sign that I am enjoying it. The only commodity I have right now is time and I give that away very selectively.

It is a book about a gawky Korean-American who grows up in a 99% white community in Michigan. On top of a wildly controlling father and constant nerd-herd constellation keeping him from ever being cool, he also develops a disorder in his jaw, resulting in a lot of headgear wearing and eventual plastic surgery. He is forced by his father decides to study medicine and eventually becomes a plastic surgeon (I am not that far in yet, he is still in first year med right now).

So far I've found the book to be an easy and enjoyable read. There are some absolutely hilarious parts in it as well, and some definite parallels to my life in medical school. It is hip and self-deprecating, and honest**. It is also an interesting perspective for me to see; he was a very intelligent, driven, hardworking kid who did everything right and got into medicine. I was a rambling, traveling, musician, wanderlust ER nurse, who did everything wrong and got into medicine.

Anyway, details of the contest will be up soon, but in the meantime you can check out excerpts from the book here. Or you can go to the website for the book, here.  Heck, you can even pre-order the book here. Now back to my regularly scheduled program of pulling out my hair and typing a paper on central line infection rates in Ireland. Hooray!

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*I am pretty sure that just means an advance copy in cool-publisher-jargon-speak.

**No I am not getting paid to say this, reading is a serious matter to me and if I didn't truly enjoy it I wouldn't tarnish my good-hobbie's-name by promoting something I thought was shite.

6 comments:

Frazzled-Razzle-RN said...

How aswesome, looks good.

Absentbabinski said...

Consider it added to my "to read" list for my Kindle.

Grumpy, M.D. said...

Don't you mean Highliter ink stained fingers?

Robert said...

Please don't make your blog go away.

And thanks for the book tip. :)

PGYx said...

Added to my reading list!

As much as I love to read about your trials, travails, & victories, I'd support intermittent blog breaks in the event you could really use the time for otherwise unobtainable sleep, fun, study, or exercise.

It's strikes me as beyond challenging to be a 2nd year med student, study for boards, train for a triathlon, prolifically blog, and sleep.

ER Jedi said...

So to clarify, this contest will be for a "used" copy of the book? haha.

Sounds like a good read though.