• clinical neurology

The idea of neurology book club meetings is growing and spreading, partly we hope through Practical Neurology’s regular reports of such discussions from various neurology centres. Wanting to help and encourage others to set up neurology book clubs, we asked the organisers of existing neurology book clubs to recommend the books that had generated the best discussions at such meetings. Not everyone has to like a book to prompt useful discussion: sometimes controversy makes for better engagement. And not every recommended book has to be completely neurology centred, but all must be relevant to neurologists and to have the potential to change the way we think about an aspect of our work.

From the suggested selection, the largest category comprises those that describe the experience of neurological disorders from the perspective of either the patient or a member of their family. Some are reflections from doctors of their clinical experiences. Some are works of fiction where the stories are woven around a patient with a neurological disorder. Finally, there are several that have no direct link to neurology, or in some cases to medicine, but are thought provoking and, more importantly for a book club, successfully engender animated discussion. Most of the recommended books are modest in length and reasonably priced, which increases the participation; readers might wish to leave the penultimate recommendation until everyone has got into the book club habit.