So... After asking around (and hopefully also reading my opinion), you've finally decided which books you want to buy. The question is, where should you buy them ?
Mireva is one of the staples of medical education in Malta and a kind of Alladin's cave for every even-slightly-nerdy medical student. The variety of medical titles offered is excellent and if you're looking for something ΓΌber-obscure you can order it and they will have it within a month or so.
Agenda (on campus) offers a much smaller variety of books, and also seems to target the students in the intermediate years much more than those in the clinical ones. However, you will probably find most of the faculty-suggested books there, and the book prices are usually a bit lower than in Mireva.
Amazon might have excellent prices compared to UK bookstores, but is extremely expensive compared to the local ones (and that is way before postage costs are added !). Only recommended if you're really desperate for a specific book, and you can't wait a whole month for Mireva to get it for you .
Last, but certainly not least, we have the Internet !!! Sometimes you will find yourselves looking for a very specific piece of information in a book, and it's rather silly to invest Lm20 (or almost €50, as of 1/1/2008 :-P) in a book that you will only use once ! But worry not ! Google is your friend, and it can trawl through zillions of med student forums to discover links to .pdf versions of the book you desire :-)
4 comments:
many medical books can be found and downloaded for free from the internet. Even though most are of an older edition than recommended i found 4 or 5 new books from the recommended booklist as well other very helpful ones.
You should check out: Dr. eBook as well as avaxhome.com and softarchive.net. Dont forget the torrents too.
Thank you for your contribution :-D
To save our visitors some Googling, here are the links :
[ http://doctorebooks.com/ ]
[ http://avaxhome.org/ebooks ]
[ http://softarchive.net/ebooks/ ]
And as regards torrents, the most popular tracker seems to be :
[ http://thepiratebay.org/ ]
Don't forget Kekoo Modi: he sells books from his home in Naxxar at extremely competitive prices, and carries most if not all the books you're ever going to need.
Usually cheaper than most other bookstores, there's only one drawback: he WILL try to sell you extra books. Go in with a set list in mind and stick to it. If something's out of stock, he'll have it in a month and will call when it's arrived.
He's got posters in the med school library with contact details.
I buy all my medical books from Kekoo Modi in Naxxar. His books are cheaper than most other places and his service is excellent. He has, over the years, become a friend as he takes personal interest in all his clients and will go out of his way to help you.
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