If you stick the phrase "anatomy textbook" into Google, you get in excess of 44,000 results in under 1 second! This poses a daunting task of sifitng through "legit" and "Dodgy" websites in an aid to find a book that's right for you. Over the past few years I've been lucky enough to scan and read many textbooks. Some excellent, some average, and some I remain still unsure of.
I would like to give you a few musings of my own with regard to texts worth having. But, please bear in mind that I've not experienced them all and speak only from personal opinion. Indeed, I welcome the feedback of others.
Gray's Anatomy for Students, now there's a book! Its big and bulky and fills up your university backpack or satchel with ease. But is it all its cracked up to be? Well in these short words let me say both yes and no. In the yes corner we have its superb diagrams and illustrations, they really are good and can be most helpful when tacking the pelvis or head and neck. In the no corner, well, it's skimpy on the neuro stuff and can be wordy in places. If you're like me and not a fan of the large blocks of text, have a good read of your mate's first before shelling out the cash. But with that, it does sit beside another 2 versions of Gray's Anatomy on my book shelf and gets pulled out for reference relatively frequently.
Last's Anatomy. What a good book, I have a 1976 version that I poached for "dirt cheap" on a well known website. Someone at one of the colleges where I used to work with claimed it changed the way she saw anatomy. It is good, and I would recommend it. But I'm gonna reserve true judgement until I can afford a newer copy.
Neuroanatomy by Crossman and Neary. Good book, covers the basic neuro stuff nicely, and I think is a must have for medical students. But it is on the basic side, so beware if your wanting something more indepth.
Grant's Atlas. I love a good atlas, and I think you'd hard pushed to find an anatomist who doesn't. But with atlases there tends to be less words. It's ok if like me you like pictures and figures... but if your a wordy person, perhaps Gray's for Students is the better bet for the bulk of your learning. Most Uni librarys stock a good selection of atlases.
Anyway, that's all the time I have to muse just now. I'll be back in the future with more.
Adam Young rated this article 5 stars
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