Top five books for doctors on World Book Day.

Here are the top five books I would like to recommend to doctors this World Book Day - some are written by doctors, some are written for doctors and some of them are just great books that could be helpful for you or your patients.

1. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande- a beautifully written book about the deeper and more meaningful side of things we experience as doctors.

2. Also Human by Caroline Elton - a book about her experiences as a psychologist working with doctors who are struggling with their wellbeing or their career choices. It has some lovely stories about doctors who have come to her at different stages of their careers.

3. Overcoming series - this is a series of books such as Overcoming Anxiety, Overcoming Low Self Esteem, Overcoming OCD etc. I recommend these books to doctors all the time for them and their patients - they are essentially CBT in book form.  Overcoming Low Self Esteem is particularly good!

4. The Idealists Survival Kit by Alessandra Pigni - this has 75 simple tips to beat burnout which is something we see all too often in medicine. She's working in a humanitarian environment and she's written about the idealistic people who go out to help in disaster zones and their increased risk of burn out. It could have been written about healthcare and people working in medicine and the tips are really relevant.

5. Daring Greatly by Brene Brown - she is an amazing author and storyteller and her Ted Talk on vulnerability is one of the most watched Ted Talks of all time. This book is all about her research on vulnerability and how we can use the courage to be vulnerable to really transform our lives. Often as doctors we believe we're not allowed to be vulnerable and if we can show some of our vulnerability it can transform our lives.

Happy World Book Day everyone!