,

Love science? Want to learn about medicine that works? An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but a good book keeps the quacks away for life.

Check out these books that received positive reviews and recommendations by the folks at ScienceBasedMedicine. Vote for your favorites, but please don't add random medical books that haven't already been discussed.

www.sciencebasedmedicine.org


NOTE: Several people have added books to this list that have not necessarily been endorsed by ScienceBasedMedicine. While recommendations are always appreciated, please be wary of books that have questionable standards of evidence!
1

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9

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4.16 avg rating — 120,309 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 44,590 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 9,193 ratings
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4.16 avg rating — 3,779 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 3,091 ratings
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15

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4.23 avg rating — 6,868 ratings
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16

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4.09 avg rating — 25,166 ratings
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17

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18

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19

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3.45 avg rating — 852 ratings
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20

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4.04 avg rating — 44,718 ratings
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21

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3.99 avg rating — 2,636 ratings
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22

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3.71 avg rating — 446 ratings
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23

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3.93 avg rating — 51,020 ratings
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23

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4.11 avg rating — 3,407 ratings
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25

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4.02 avg rating — 2,035 ratings
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26

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4.20 avg rating — 2,253 ratings
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27

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4.11 avg rating — 4,569 ratings
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28

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3.86 avg rating — 29 ratings
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29

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3.89 avg rating — 55,610 ratings
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29

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4.07 avg rating — 5,863 ratings
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31

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3.76 avg rating — 1,450 ratings
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32

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3.90 avg rating — 8,607 ratings
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33

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3.86 avg rating — 4,225 ratings
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34

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3.74 avg rating — 2,181 ratings
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35

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4.28 avg rating — 17,499 ratings
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36

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4.07 avg rating — 16,922 ratings
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36

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4.10 avg rating — 67 ratings
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38

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4.32 avg rating — 44 ratings
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39

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3.59 avg rating — 315 ratings
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39

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3.70 avg rating — 1,550 ratings
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41

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3.66 avg rating — 4,804 ratings
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42

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4.11 avg rating — 454 ratings
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43

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3.82 avg rating — 3,345 ratings
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44

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4.01 avg rating — 346 ratings
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45

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 23 ratings
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46

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3.44 avg rating — 400 ratings
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46

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4.54 avg rating — 37 ratings
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46

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4.24 avg rating — 439 ratings
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46

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3.69 avg rating — 3,617 ratings
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46

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4.20 avg rating — 25 ratings
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46

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4.31 avg rating — 1,150 ratings
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46

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 20 ratings
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46

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3.89 avg rating — 325 ratings
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46

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3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings
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46

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4.65 avg rating — 496 ratings
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46

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4.28 avg rating — 80 ratings
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46

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4.39 avg rating — 4,786 ratings
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46

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4.62 avg rating — 16 ratings
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46

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4.31 avg rating — 267 ratings
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46

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4.06 avg rating — 17 ratings
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61

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3.82 avg rating — 9,823 ratings
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61

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4.45 avg rating — 89 ratings
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63

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3.74 avg rating — 121 ratings
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64

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4.05 avg rating — 148,611 ratings
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64

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3.44 avg rating — 43 ratings
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64

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4.31 avg rating — 96,897 ratings
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67

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4.31 avg rating — 659 ratings
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68

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4.04 avg rating — 10,603 ratings
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68

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3.33 avg rating — 3 ratings
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70

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4.30 avg rating — 33,040 ratings
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70

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4.19 avg rating — 1,076 ratings
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72

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4.04 avg rating — 213 ratings
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73

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4.29 avg rating — 14 ratings
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74

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4.08 avg rating — 1,709 ratings
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75

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76

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77

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3.79 avg rating — 63 ratings
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78

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4.38 avg rating — 1,160 ratings
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79

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3.65 avg rating — 295 ratings
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80

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4.12 avg rating — 147 ratings
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81

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4.01 avg rating — 8,266 ratings
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82

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3.78 avg rating — 322 ratings
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83

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4.05 avg rating — 863 ratings
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84

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3.94 avg rating — 531 ratings
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85

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4.01 avg rating — 103 ratings
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86

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4.02 avg rating — 3,271 ratings
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87

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3.83 avg rating — 65 ratings
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88

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4.11 avg rating — 246 ratings
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89

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7 ratings
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90

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3.67 avg rating — 659 ratings
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91

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4.19 avg rating — 2,552 ratings
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92

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4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings
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93

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3.44 avg rating — 190 ratings
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94

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it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings
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95

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4.15 avg rating — 866 ratings
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96

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3.92 avg rating — 132 ratings
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97

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3.55 avg rating — 11 ratings
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98

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3.68 avg rating — 44 ratings
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4.15 avg rating — 1,019 ratings
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100

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4.01 avg rating — 10,699 ratings
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131 books · 100 voters · list created January 14th, 2014 by Adam Sawyer (votes) .
142 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Adam 1367 books
1 friend
James 153 books
0 friends
Beyond Words 169 books
57 friends
Dania 804 books
8 friends
Steven 11287 books
236 friends
Mark 1 book
10 friends
Anna 990 books
40 friends
Robert 1 book
5 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-8 of 8 (8 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by immisceo (new)

immisceo Thanks for putting this together! Saw it in the comments section of Harriet's article yesterday. Extremely helpful!


message 2: by Adam (new)

Adam Sawyer shn525 wrote: "Thanks for putting this together! Saw it in the comments section of Harriet's article yesterday. Extremely helpful!"

You're welcome. Goodreads has lots of lists of books on science, medicine, and skepticism, but they all tend to have the same 20 books or so at the top. I was happy to discover such a wide variety of books that undoubtedly deserve a bigger audience.


message 3: by Marian (new)

Marian Deegan Delighted to have this list. Thank you!


message 4: by James (last edited Jan 16, 2014 05:39AM) (new)

James Thomas Great work Sawyer. Adding a few now. - windriven


message 5: by Adam (new)

Adam Sawyer James wrote: "Great work Sawyer. Adding a few now. - windriven"

Glad you figured out how to vote for stuff, but I'm curious about some of your selections. Is there useful content about medicine in the Fermat book or in Freakonomics? These are certainly interesting reads but not really in line with the other books on the list. I vaguely recall some brief coverage of abortion statistics in Freakonomics.

Sorry for being such a stickler. Your Diamond and Pinker selections are certainly good choices. I noticed that despite several books on neurology, there was only one real psychology book on my list, and nothing along the lines of tackling consciousness or innate behaviors. Need to force Dr. Novella to do some book reviews.


message 6: by James (new)

James Thomas Adam, I added the Fermat because I loved the process. It doesn't have squat to do with medicine. But it is appropriate to logic and reason. Still, I'll delete it if you'd like.

Really, the Diamond doesn't have anything much to do with medicine either. But again, the reasoning made me think it was an appropriate addition.

I have more to come and I'll try to toe a closer line.


message 7: by Trenton (new)

Trenton James wrote: "Great work Sawyer. Adding a few now. - windriven"

I wish this book list was exactly what it said it is. A list of books from Dr. Novella. I added a book because it didn't appear on this list and Steve said it was " a rip-roaring good read"


message 8: by Adam (new)

Adam Sawyer Trenton, I originally intended it to solely be books explicitly recommended on the SBM blog, but those rules got bent pretty quickly. Feel free to add anything from the SBM/SGU/Orac/etc. sphere. Since I'm not a Goodreads librarian I can't remove the handful of books that clearly *don't* belong on this list, so the more positive stuff the better.


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