what fiction to buy for an urologist?

May 17, 2006 12:46 AM

what fiction to buy for an urologist?

My brother's birthday's coming up. I would like to buy him something to read. Do you have any recommendations for books that would be specifically interesting for an urologist? He's an avid reader (poetry too) and I would like to surprise him with something appropriate. Hope you can help me out. Thanks.

posted by ouke to media & arts (25 comments total)

Uh, really?

If you're looking for penis fiction, perhaps Portnoy's Complaint?
posted by sourwookie at 1:03 AM on May 17, 2006

There's always John Irving's The Water-Method Man.
posted by hannala at 1:21 AM on May 17, 2006

Hannala beat me to it. Man, that was a boring book.
posted by disillusioned at 1:33 AM on May 17, 2006

In my experience doctors have absolutely no sense of humor.

Buy him anything absurd and then laugh when you give it to him. He will laugh because you did and will not understand if you were trying to make a point or a joke.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 1:43 AM on May 17, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

The Green Mile by Stephen King?

The main character has a swollen prostate, I believe - I've only seen the movie and I can't stand Stephen King, so YMMV for an avid reader who likes poetry - he may have slightly classier tastes. That's the best I could do, I tried to think of a great work of literature that deals with micturation.... well, you could just buy him a copy of The Big Lebowski.
posted by tweak at 2:07 AM on May 17, 2006

If you are looking for books about penises, pretty much anything by John Updike will do nicely.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 3:45 AM on May 17, 2006

If you're looking for books written *by* dicks, go with Norman Mailer.
posted by enrevanche at 3:51 AM on May 17, 2006

Thanks, for the sugggestions so far. And no, I'm not trying to steer this in the realm of penis related literature. Isn't there something written about a character suffering from a painful case of kidney stones? If nothing else comes up, I'll follow hannala's suggestion.
posted by ouke at 4:32 AM on May 17, 2006

He'll probably have had enough of those books/gifts to last him a life-time! Really original wit, I'm sure he's never heard those penis jokes before.

I would recommend some history. The life of John Hunter, the reluctant surgeon and some of his contemporaries is actually very interesting. There are very few biographies of this amazing individual, one of the fathers of modern surgery, so if he's interested in history, I would buy him this!
posted by Wilder at 4:39 AM on May 17, 2006

Oops! Sorry, fiction, will look some more!
posted by Wilder at 4:39 AM on May 17, 2006

Buy a used, hardcover, thick manual of urology, glue the edges of the pages together, hollow out the inside, and insert a flask of whisky. Perfect for the office shelf. Check Amazon for listings of used texts.

If he likes poetry, you could also get him poems by doctors. William Carlos Williams, for instance, though he might have that already if he's into poetry. There's an anthology called "Blood and Bone: Poems by Physicians" that might be his cup of tea.
posted by pracowity at 4:53 AM on May 17, 2006

Quicksilver, book one of Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle, ends with a horrifying scene of 17th century kidney stone surgery. Since the three books are something like 3000 pages, though, this might not be readily apparent at the time of gift-giving.

I, too, would suggest just getting him something he'd honestly want instead of a gag gift. You say he's an avid reader...maybe if you list some of the other authors he loves, we can recommend other writers he's likely to enjoy.
posted by Ian A.T. at 5:20 AM on May 17, 2006

Me again, sorry. If you go with Pracowity's excellent suggestion, there are plenty of online tutorials about making a book safe, none of which seem too hard.

Respected novelist Ethan Canin is also a physician. Perhaps someone who knows his work better than me can recommend one of his books that's specifically about his experiences in the medical field.
posted by Ian A.T. at 5:26 AM on May 17, 2006

My friend seconds The Water-Method Man.
posted by jb at 6:04 AM on May 17, 2006

The main character in Richard Russo's book Straight Man suffers from the inability to pee towards the end of the story, which is the source of much agonizing and tension-building.
posted by jessamyn at 6:28 AM on May 17, 2006

A little different area of the excretory system and a different family member, but Mark Leyner's My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist is a funny, surreal trip of a book. You could make your own cover for it. My Brother, The Urologist.
posted by rabbitsnake at 6:33 AM on May 17, 2006

Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions spends an inordinate amount of time on body parts, including blue whale penii and other sundry things.
posted by kcm at 7:12 AM on May 17, 2006

A Few Notes on Tropical Butterflies is a stunning collection of short stories written by a surgeon. Many of the stories are about doctors or medical professionals, many deal with family dynamics, and many deal with people who have obsessive tendencies or are extremely systematic in their world views. I can't recommend it highly enough. I bought it on a whim at a book store, and it's great.
posted by alms at 7:36 AM on May 17, 2006

This is just my opinion, of course, but I am a huge John Irving fan, and I hated The Water Method Man. It was nowhere as good as any of his other books.
posted by nekton at 7:55 AM on May 17, 2006

I'm with tweak on this one--The Green Mile by Stephen King. The protagonist has a wicked urinary tract infection that he just leaves untreated, and it sort of serves as a catalyst for discovering the truth about the man they've got locked up on the green mile. Plus it's a good book (and a good movie).
posted by monochromaticgirl at 8:37 AM on May 17, 2006

This has nothing to do with urology, but I bought "Game of Shadows," the new expose on Barry Bonds, for my brother, who's not the world's biggest baseball fan but is a chiropractor.

He was fascinated. Lots of science that a medical person would appreciate, lots of juicy gossip, solid reporting, and it relates to both sports and a current-events issue that's going on right now.
posted by GaelFC at 9:32 AM on May 17, 2006

My dad was a urologist. When he read Richard Hooker's MASH, he laughed out loud. Same with Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim. Neither of them has anything to do with urology.
posted by theora55 at 10:15 AM on May 17, 2006

Isn't there a big assumption here that he likes spending his leisure time reading about work? Personally, much of my fun reading has nothing to do with my work. Some people don't like getting work-related gifts for a variety of reasons: the giver doesn't know the culture well enough to pick a good gift, the house gets flooded with them, the receiver might already have it.

Share with him a good book that you loved. Then you have something to talk about at the next family gathering.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 11:38 AM on May 17, 2006

I know you said fiction, but I can't help but recommend "Uncle Tungsten : Memories of a Chemical Boyhood"by Oliver Sacks (a doctor who grew up in a family of doctors)
posted by Megafly at 3:21 PM on May 17, 2006

my dad's a urologist and he loved "Saturday".
It's about a neurosurgeon but it is very well written and a nice all around book, methinks.
posted by shokod at 5:34 PM on May 17, 2006