This book will stay with me for a long time. Such poignant insights into first life as a surgeon, and later living with a terminal illness, all underpinned by questions of existentialism. The parallels drawn between medicine/neurosurgery and the philosophical/literary idea of The Sublime really stuck with me. I think I feel a similar calling towards medicine, in addition to my inclinations towards human biology and literature.

Really helps you put life into perspective.

I read this book in one day. I couldn't put it down. It's hopefully heartbreaking. One of the themes that kept coming up that I resonated with is the way the healthcare system dulls the empathy of it's professionals. How it's easier to disconnect into the statistics and turn the patient into another number. I found his philosophy on medicine fascinating. 

Our culture doesn't like to discuss death but this does in such a thoughtful way. It's real and honest.  But it's also about living. And how living and dying are connected. Living with the knowledge you are dying. 

This one had been on my TBR for ages and has been recommended to me by so many people and it does live up to the hype. I loved reading about Paul finding his passions in life as it truly is so rare to find someone who cares so deeply about anything they do. His writing holds a beautiful balance of matter-of-fact directness and emotion that I greatly appreciated as well. The book also reminds me of my favorite book, The Bright Hour, which is a memoir of similar topics. A beautiful read and insights even if sad