Book excerpt: “Humorous, poignant, provocative and educational,” this essay collection by a doctor “offer[s] fresh takes on the ever-changing field of medicine.” (Kirkus Reviews) Doctor and medical columnist John Launer has written on the practice and teaching of medicine for many years. How Not to be a Doctor includes over fifty of his essays covering a range of topics including music, poetry, literature, and psychoanalysis, as well as contemporary medical politics and the personal experiences of being a doctor. Taken together, they set out an argument that being a doctor—a real doctor—should mean being able to draw on every aspect of yourself, your interests, and your experiences, however remote these may seem from the medical task of the moment. From lessons on what they don't teach you in medical school to the author's poignant account of being a patient himself as he received treatment for a life-threatening illness, the essays in How Not to Be a Doctor combine erudition with humor, candor, and the human touch that will inform and entertain readers on both ends of the stethoscope. “Witty and wise. Shows how important it is that doctors are allowed to be human.” —Kit Wharton, author of Emergency Admissions: Memoirs of an Ambulance Driver