Paper Books vs. e-Books

 

From the previous posts (Links given below) you must be aware of the importance of reading. In this digital age, the next big question is whether to read paper or e-books. E-books can be in various formats such as pdf files, epub or Mobi files, kindle books, or even material available on websites.

https://agnipathdoctors.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-basic-key-to-success.html 

https://agnipathdoctors.blogspot.com/2021/06/video-lectures-vs-reading.html 

Some of the advantages of e-books are: 

They are very portable, depending on the storage space available on your mobile, tablet, or laptop you can literary carry thousands of books with you. 

They are usually cheaper than their print version as the cost of paper, printing, transportation, distribution, and storage, etc. is saved in e-books.  Additionally, there may be a lot of free reading material related to your topic available on the internet. Many online teachers provide free digital reading material with their courses. 

You can easily search for something using the search function in e-books. 

They are usually up to date and have the latest information, as they can be easily updated electronically. And they are environmentally friendly as they save paper which saves trees.

So with so many advantages why have printed paper books not become extinct?

One is that paper books are distraction-free. It is easy to become distracted while using an e-book. You may be tempted to use the device on which you are reading the e-book for surfing the internet, chat with online friends or check on Facebook or WhatsApp messages.

You may get distracted by the e-books themselves. With the vast numbers of e-books or the reading resources available on your device or online you may get easily confused and end up reading few pages from here and there rather than in-depth study from a single standard textbook.

Paper books generally are up to some standard. All the e-books available may not be up to the mark. There is a substantial cost involved in printing and distributing a paper book. Therefore the publishers try to assess and try to publish and print only those books they are convinced that will be bought and read by a large number of readers. There are obviously many exceptions and some authors may not get published by the established by publishers due to this high barrier to paper books. Remember, even J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter was rejected first by 12 publishers.

Printed books are easy on the eyes. Although the screen display technology has vastly improved from the time when there were only Black-n-White CRT monitors (like the old box type TV) to read e-books, reading paper books still cause less eye strain than reading e-books.

Paper Books are invaluable for revision and last-minute preparation. Printed books are easy to revise, skim, and flick through. It is easy to get a rapid idea of the material while going through a printed book than an e-book. You can more easily speed read a printed book than an e-book. Remember Warren Buffet’s around 500 pages of reading every day? Most of this reading he does from printouts taken by his staff of the material available digitally.

Most importantly – Better memory and recall. One big advantage I find in paper books as compared to e-books that you have better recall of the things you have studied from a printed paper than from a screen. There is better long-term memory retention with printed material. 

If you are just reading for pleasure or fun like a novel, e-books may be good enough. But if you are doing the reading for academic purpose, serious about learning some subject and want to score great marks in exam then studying from paper books should be your primary or preferred method of study.

But in the end, it’s up to you and whatever preferences you have.

— ND

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal, and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal, and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board norms.

The Anatomy Atlas

There was a small Unit library, with various surgery books, maintained in Doctor’s Duty room of Surgery Unit III in AIIMS, New Delhi. 

The books there were donated by the doctors themselves and some by patients. The books were kept in an open locker which was accessible to all the doctors of the unit 24 x 7. Yet there was no pilferage or loss of books as all the doctors of the unit used to follow strictly the rule of the unit head Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji (Fictional Name) regarding the unit library. 

The rule was that under no circumstance the books from the library will be taken outside the Duty room, not even in the ward.

The library was a boon to the doctors as they can consult it even during odd hours, such as late-night when they were on emergency duties. Even the faculty members, including Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji, used to come in between operation or before going to Operation theatre to brush up or review the steps or anatomy of the operation.

For Non-Medicos: Anatomy is the basic branch of medicine which deals with the structure of the human body, such the various tissues, organs, blood vessels, muscles, bones, etc. Thorough knowledge of the anatomy of the part/region being operated by the surgeon is must to avoid any injury to important structure and perform the operation perfectly.

Dr. Dev (Fictional Name) who was a junior resident in the Surgery Unit III noticed a new book in the unit library locker. It was Giant Atlas of Anatomy (Fictional Name). The atlas had excellent diagrams and photographs of the anatomical structure of the human body. He found to it to be an excellent book to learn and revise the anatomy while on duty in the unit.

He noticed that even Dr. TK Chaturji consult the book in between cases and even otherwise. His respect for the book further increased after seeing Dr. Chaturji using the book.

After a few months, he noticed that the book was suddenly missing from library locker. As he was busy in the daily ward work he did not pay any attention to it.

 A few days later, Dr. MK (Fictional Name) a junior resident, who was senior to Dr. Dev, was assisting the senior resident in an operation in the operation theatre (OT). Other unit doctors were standing and watching the operation in OT. 

Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji suddenly stormed in the OT. Looking angrily at the unit doctors, he demanded, who has taken the ‘Giant Atlas of Anatomy’ from the unit library?

It appeared that Dr. Chaturji wanted to revise the anatomy related to a certain operation which he was to do later in the day. When he searched for the atlas of anatomy, he was surprised to not find it in the library locker. Knowing Dr. Chaturji strict rule of not taking any books outside even the duty room from the departmental library, everyone was stunned. 

All work stopped in the OT and everyone silently looked at each other, as if enquiring by their eye, who was the culprit of this felony?

After few seconds of silence, Dr. MK hesitantly replied, ‘I had taken the atlas to my hostel room.’

Dr. TK Chaturji angrily remarked, ‘Look at this creature. Taking the atlas to his room, when he does not study anything at all’ and angrily left the OT.

After Dr. Chaturji has left, the surprised unit doctors looked at Dr. MK and asked, ‘Why did you take the atlas to your room when you know Dr. Chaturji does not like the books to be taken even outside the duty room?

Dr. MK replied, ‘I took the atlas to my room as it was my personal book!’

It happened that Dr. MK had purchased the book during his second year of junior residency. As he was most of the time in the hospital due to heavy patient workload, he had placed the book along with the other books in the unit locker to read whenever he gets some time. 

When his third year of residency had started and he found more free time to spend in his hostel room, he took his atlas book to study in his room. Nobody had noticed his name written in the first inner page of the book and everyone assumed that someone had donated the book to the unit library.

So Dr. MK got scolded for taking his own book to his room.

If you bring some book, equipment, article to your office or workplace, better keep it separate from the official articles. It is not the just junior staff even senior employees and doctor may get blamed for taking their own things back with them outside their office building. See another example of senior doctor: The Slide Projector

(Based on allegedly true incident)

— ND

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm.

Which Book to Study? — 2

Dr. Dev (Fictional Name) while a junior resident, followed the advice of https://agnipathdoctors.blogspot.com/2018/06/which-book-to-study-1.html  and studied from the same book as his Surgery Unit head and Professor (Dr.) Tarun Kumar Chaturji (Fictional Name). 

This was an easy decision as for ages there was only one minimum standard textbook for surgery recommended for both Undergraduate (UG) and Post Graduate (PG) students, at AIIMS, New Delhi. For post-graduates, this textbook was to be supplemented with other advanced textbooks and scientific review articles.

Once during ward round Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji while discussing hemorrhoids (piles) asked what is pecten band? Dr. Dev tried to recall such a thing but he could not recollect reading such a thing in his book. So he told truthfully that he had not read anything like this. At this Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji got angry that the PG residents today are not studying even the basic recommended textbook at the UG level. Dr. Dev at night consulted his textbook copy but he could not find any mention of pecten band.

Sometimes later, during ward rounds, Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji asked the change in heart rate in a patient with jaundice. Again Dr. Dev and other residents were stumped as there was no mention in the standard textbook regarding this. They told if the patient develops an infection of the stagnant bile in the case of jaundice, then the heart rate may rise. Dissatisfied with this answer Dr. Chaturji, said there may be bradycardia, i.e. a decrease in the heart, as a depressive action of the bile salts on the SA node in the heart.

The residents collectively said that such a thing is not written in their books. At which Dr. Chaturji countered, “It may not be in your textbook, but it is written in my textbook.”

Enlightenment dawned on Dr. Dev. That night he went to BB Dixit Library in AIIMS and traced a dusty old copy of the textbook which he used to read, but the edition around 20 years old. 

In that old edition, he found the mention of the bile salts action on the heart, the pecten band which was reported by Miles in 1919. Many of the things were found not to be true later on and over the time had been removed from the subsequent edition of the book.

So to impress Dr. Chaturji, Dr. Dev searched the old and second-hand booksellers of Chandni Chowk and Daryaganj and finally managed to buy a copy of the book around 20  years old, of the edition Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji used to study.

Now he read from the latest edition of the book for up-to-date knowledge and from the old, ancient edition to answer Dr. Chaturji’s special question.

So, read not just the textbook which your examiner has read, but also read from the same edition.

Remember:

'Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer' — Charles Caleb Colton

(Based on true incident)

— ND
© Author. All rights reserved. 

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm. 

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The Three Book Study

Dr. Dev (Fictional Name) while MBBS student in AIIMS, New Delhi was sitting and gossiping with one of his seniors, A in his hostel room, when another senior, B, came to the room. This second senior was due to appear for theory exam the next day.

The second senior asked the first senior to lend his textbook on that subject for one day. Dr. Dev was surprised at his request as he was already carrying on copy of the same book in his hand.

After the second senior had left with the book, Dev could not stem his curiosity asked the reason why the second senior was borrowing the textbook when he was already having one copy of the textbook.

The senior replied, “If you find this curious then you will be further surprised that he has another personal copy of the same textbook in his room.” 

The senior explained, “B takes 3 copy of the textbook while going to give his theory exams."

"One book he places with a bang on the table before the invigilator to show that he has deposited the text-book before the exam.” 

“Another copy of the book is strategically ‘placed’ (hidden) at the table where his role number is allotted and he is going to write the exam. The third and final copy of the book is kept in the washroom (Loo) for ‘consultation’ during exam.”

(Based on true incident)

— ND
© Author. All rights reserved. 

Highly not recommended for any student, however good or otherwise. This has been written only to forbid anyone from following this example.

If viewing from Mobile, switch to Webpage view to see a list of popular posts and index of topics of previous posts.

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm. 

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