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2026 Reading Challenge

2026

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David Roberts has read 25 of 45 books.

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David Roberts

Goodreads Author

Born

in Detroit, Michigan, The United States

Website

http://www.davidrobertsmd.com

Genre

Memoir, Humor and Comedy, Spirituality

Influences

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, James Herriot, Abraham Verghese, John Irving ...more

Member Since

February 2013

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The author's nom de plume is David Roberts, M.D. He graduated from The University of Michigan Medical School in the 1970s, and completed his Internal Medicine residency training in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He began in private practice in the early 1980s. The book chronicles the first five years of his medical practice.

In addition to medical practice over the past 30+ years he has held a variety of administrative positions, from his first position as an Internal Medicine Residency Program Director at his large, Midwestern community hospital to being the President of New Mexico's largest health plan.

In 1990, he began giving presentations on interesting and unusual patients at his state's American College of Physicians (ACP) annual meetings. Thes The author's nom de plume is David Roberts, M.D. He graduated from The University of Michigan Medical School in the 1970s, and completed his Internal Medicine residency training in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He began in private practice in the early 1980s. The book chronicles the first five years of his medical practice.

In addition to medical practice over the past 30+ years he has held a variety of administrative positions, from his first position as an Internal Medicine Residency Program Director at his large, Midwestern community hospital to being the President of New Mexico's largest health plan.

In 1990, he began giving presentations on interesting and unusual patients at his state's American College of Physicians (ACP) annual meetings. These presentations became extremely popular, and are often the highest rated sessions at the conference. Each of Dr. Roberts' cases is presented in a mystery format, with him sequentially revealing the patient's medical history, examination findings, laboratory, and x-ray studies. Having given more than fifty of these presentations, usually to audiences of 200 to 1,000 physicians, David has learned the basic mechanics of creating interesting patient "mysteries" that keep an audience hanging until the end. These patient cases have become an important part of the foundation for his writing career.

In 2009, David began to sense that healthcare, even in the face of the enormous national political focus, struggled to "change from within." Building on his deep love for his patients, and his thirty years of continuous medical practice, he left his executive role, returned to the care of his patients, and to begin writing their stories. From this decision comes Practice Makes Perfect: How One Doctor Found the Meaning of Lives.

One of the great honors of his career, and most relevant as a source of expertise for this book, he was named one of America's Best Doctors in 1997, and every year since then. He has also been named a "Top Doc" and the Number 1 Geriatrics Specialist every year since returning to practice in the Albuquerque metropolitan area, where he currently sees patients three days per week.

A lively, entertaining, and very popular national public speaker, David continues both his national medical presentations as well as regional and local engagements. He also addresses large lay audiences on medical topics. He lives in an adobe home in the beautiful desert south of Santa Fe, New Mexico. ...more

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David Roberts’s books

Average rating: 4.48 · 145 ratings · 13 reviews · 1 distinct work

Practice Makes Perfect:: How One Doctor Found the Meaning of Lives

4.48 avg rating — 145 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions

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David is Currently Reading

David Roberts is currently reading

The Yacoubian Building

by Alaa Al Aswany

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Sep 25, 2026 09:16PM

David Roberts is currently reading

James

by Percival Everett

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Sep 24, 2026 05:22PM

David Roberts is currently reading

The Moral Economy: Why Good Incentives Are No Substitute for Good Citizens (Castle Lectures Series)

by Samuel Bowles

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Aug 13, 2026 05:52PM

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Quotes by David Roberts (?)

“If you can't laugh at yourself, then likely other people will.”
― David Roberts

2 likes

“There are, aren’t there, only three things that we can do about death: to desire it, to fear it, or to ignore it.” C.S. Lewis (1898 - 1963, English author, in
Letters to an American Lady (7 June 1959)”
― David Roberts, Practice Makes Perfect: How One Doctor Found the Meaning of Lives

0 likes

“A wise man has doubts even in his best moments.
Real truth is always accompanied by hesitations.
If I could not hesitate, I could not believe.” Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), American author and naturalist”
― David Roberts, Practice Makes Perfect: How One Doctor Found the Meaning of Lives

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David’s Quotes

“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.”
― Rita Mae Brown, Alma Mater

1211 likes

“It's better to understand a little than to misunderstand a lot.”
― jackie carter

4 likes

“While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.”
― Steven Covey

13 likes

“Bound only by the paper-thin wrapper of mortality, a soul here lies, struggling to be free.”
― Eric Ingerson

1 likes

“Education is not a product: mark, diploma, job, money in that order; it is a process, a never-ending one.”
― Bella Kaufman

1 likes

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