I'm interested in learning about anatomy.

January 9, 2004 9:43 AM

I'm interested in learning about anatomy. Trouble is, most medical textbooks are horribly boring, so I'm looking for something easier, maybe interactive. My memory of biology is, well, non-existent, so I'm looking for basic/beginner's stuff. I didn't find what I was looking for by Googling. Any bio/med students out there w/suggestions?
posted by widdershins to Education (8 answers total)

Well, I'm not a med student, but I'll suggest the obvious copy of Gray's Anatomy (which I found new and hardcover for just a few bucks.) It's a classic, it looks great on a bookshelf, and it can sometimes be a help (when you ask yourself, What could it be that hurts in my side? ...and Gray's shows you a variety of organs, the colon, gall bladder, etc, in that area.) Boring and non-interactive, yes, but a classic.
posted by Shane at 9:59 AM on January 9, 2004

My massage therapist friends all had copies of The Anatomy Coloring Book during their training. Coloring isn't boring. (Gray's Anatomy is, though, but I agree with Shane that it's a good reference.)
posted by jennyb at 10:15 AM on January 9, 2004

jennyb beat me to it. I still have fond memories of happily coloring in the neurons as a kid, only to realize years later how sneaky my parents were being. A surprising amount of information has stuck with me over the years: I can still picture some of the diagrams. On the other hand, I now have the unshakeable belief that axons are orange, and dendrites are blue.
posted by ook at 11:11 AM on January 9, 2004

I second the idea of the Anatomy Coloring Book; many of my med school classmates used it as a study aid.
posted by TedW at 11:12 AM on January 9, 2004

Third for the Anatomy Coloring Book and I begged my parents for, and finally got one of these as a kid. I learned so much from that model!
posted by Lynsey at 1:37 PM on January 9, 2004

Oh man...the joys of bright blue vulvas and neon green brains...

I need to get myself a new Coloring Book.
posted by Katemonkey at 3:24 PM on January 9, 2004

I'm not an expert but the coloring book and Antatomy of Movement by Germain were pretty useful books for me.
posted by rdr at 4:39 PM on January 9, 2004

Med student here. If you're interested solely in the anatomy, I'd go with the Netter Atlas. If you want to also learn how the muscles and rest of the body work, you'll want a physiology text, too.

I was at my local Barnes and Noble and found a bunch of great beginner books there--they didn't get as in-depth as Netter, but were a lot more specific than I thought they'd be.

I'm not a big fan of Gray's Anatomy--there are much better diagrams done in many better angles and cross-sections now; Gray's is also a little too specific for any beginner purposes. (Netter is fairly advanced, but still understandable.)
posted by gramcracker at 6:07 PM on January 9, 2004