14th edition. Volume 5: The Best in Science, Technology, and Medicine. 975 pages. New Providence, NJ: RR Bowker; 1994. $110.00. ISBN 08-352-332-00. Order phone 800-521-8110.
When you wish to read in a topical field whose literature you do not know, where can you get well-informed guidance on what to look for? If you live in an academic community, you might turn to the astronomy professor who lives next door. If you have a big chain bookstore on Main Street, you can scan the shelves labeled "psychology." If your town has a public library directed by a polymath, he or she may be able to steer you into the road for geology. But what if you do not have such resources at hand?
Since 1921, The Reader's Adviser (known for a few years as The Bookman's Manual) has suggested the best of available books likely to meet such needs, including both recently published books and current editions of classic works. For many years, The Reader's Adviser was a single-volume book. The scope and depth of recommendations that its compilers now see as needed has called for a multivolume work. Volume 5, The Best in Science, Technology, and Medicine, covers that which its title states; the other volumes cover general literature, the social sciences, history, the arts, philosophy, and religion.
The content is an annotated bibliography. Each entry gives the author, title, publisher, publication date, price in United States dollars, International Standard Book Number, and an annotation (which is likely to run from 25 to 75 words). Entries are grouped into chapters and sections by broad categories, such as history and philosophy of the volume's fields, and by specific disciplines. Many chapters contain a section on eminent persons in the field, which includes brief biographies and annotated entries on those persons' major works. Three detailed indexes cover names, titles, and subjects.
How good a guide is The Reader's Adviser? I can judge only its coverage of medicine.
The references directly relevant to medicine are distributed among six chapters: "History of Science, Technology, and Medicine," "Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Medicine," "Ethics in Science, Technology, and Medicine," "Medicine and Health," "Illness and Disease," and "Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry." Within these chapters, references are grouped by special topics—for example, "Nutritional Disorders" as a section within the chapter "Illness and Disease"—and, at the end of each chapter, in the eminent-author section.
The books recommended are, in most sections, a mix of academic, scholarly works and books written for a wide, lay audience. For example, the section "Neurological Diseases" includes a reference and a lengthy annotation for Owsei Temkin's scholarly The Falling Sickness: A History of Epilepsy from the Greeks to the Beginnings of Modern Neurology and a reference for a layperson's The Complete Book of Sleep. Most of the references for lay readers are to books of real substance. In general, standard clinical textbooks are not represented; this volume of The Reader's Adviser is not a substitute for a source like "A Library for Internists," the periodically revised bibliography issued by the American College of Physicians. Some classic works, such as those of Harvey and Osler, are represented in the eminent-author sections. Most books listed are currently available; some are out of print and thus labeled.
Whom in medicine will this compilation serve? It is a useful guide for physicians looking for readable surveys of fields about which they know little, both in medicine and in other sciences. It will also help them find books they can recommend to patients. If they are looking for a reliable guide to the classic literature that represents the growth of medical concepts and practice, the much superior guide is still Morton's Medical Bibliography: An Annotated Check-List of Texts Illustrating the History of Medicine.
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