• Question: Favourite book and how has it influenced you

    Asked by anon-328813 on 9 Jun 2022.
    • Photo: Karin Purshouse

      Karin Purshouse answered on 9 Jun 2022:

      Great question! The one that springs to mind is ‘I know why the caged bird sings’ by Maya Angelou. I bought it for a friend but thought I’d read a couple of pages – ended up devouring it in a couple of days. The way she uses language to describe her early life is so impactful. So I guess its influence on me centred on seeing the the adversity she faced, and consider how that relates to the world around us today.

    • Photo: Ryan Devlin

      Ryan Devlin answered on 9 Jun 2022:

      In terms of a medical/scientific book, Henry Marsh’s “Do No Harm” is my favourite. It was my first real look into medicine; not the flawless, golden perspective that had crystallised in my head, but an honest perspective. It showed the darker side of medicine, of being a surgeon with patients’ lives in their hands, and it convinced me to pursue medicine further.

      That is an important thing to consider – when you are looking into a career, make sure to look at the negatives too. If you still want to do the career/follow that path after examining the bad side of it, then you know it is the right path to start down.

    • Photo: Rachel Harris

      Rachel Harris answered on 10 Jun 2022:

      Harry Potter!

    • Photo: Chelsea Gerada

      Chelsea Gerada answered on 13 Jun 2022:

      This is a tough one for me to answer because I have so many. In terms of being inspirational I quite liked Brave New World by Aldous Huxley because it examines the issue of science going too far ethically in society. For me being an ethical scientist is important in making sure we are not doing more harm than good and that patient care is always a primary focus.

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