Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

I just finished the book Beat the Reaperby Josh Bazell. Apparently he is a physician and this is his debut novel. I think I downloaded it based on a recommendation from audible.com. The book is relatively short, just over six hours, but it packs a punch. To avoid spoiling the book, I won't tell too much of the story. The protagonist is a medical resident in an internal medicine program in a New York hospital, who got there as a result of his placement in the federal witness protection program due to his involvement with the mob in his earlier life. It is exciting, entertaining and especially poignant for someone who has gone through a medical residency. Even though my training program was not that similar to the hitman doctor's, so much of his experience still rings true. My only minor complaint is that many of the events are way over the top in terms of believability, but I expected that after reading the reviews on Audible. Its kind of like a mix between The Godfather, Rambo and House M.D. There is also a good deal of vulgarity (not a complaint, just a heads up).

The Galactic Pot Healer

I just finished "The Galactic Pot Healer". I really liked it. It was incredibly bizarre. While listening, I was struck by a statement - "The child is the father of the man." - and it lit me up for the rest of the day. I hoped that it was an original of Dick's, but I searched it and it's a quote from a poem of a well known individual. Without searching the webs do you know who this came from?

METHRECLUSE is no sub for METHICORN

The below spider drawing is obviously no where near the legendary METHICORN. The METHICORN was and still the original depiction of a mythical beast that does its deed in the dark of night. This always involves the unsuspecting injection of a substance and following infection at the injection site. My apology to the original author of the METHICORN who called me out in a previous post. He was and is the hero of this blog, even though he posts almost nothing on it.