When I found out I had matched General Surgery, I made a decision, among others, not to let residency take away the simple pleasures I currently enjoy, especially my favorite hobbies. In order of importance, I enjoy football (soccer), music, writing, reading, and food. I knew I would have limited time to do all of these things, but I was determined not to let myself be so consumed by residency that I did not make time for other things.

Some of my extracurriculars have been harder to keep up with than others. For example, I have not played a single soccer game since I can to Pennsylvania, which I am baffled about as I thought Philly was a huge soccer city. I am still looking for somewhere to play regularly, and the hope is that I do my research enough in the winter to find one by the summer.

For music, the challenge depends on the context. In every city I have lived I have been a cantor at the Catholic Church I choose as my Parish. In our current city we have two churches next to our home, and it took six months for us to decide which we wanted to call our home church. I introduced myself to one of the cantors two weeks ago, and obtained the contact information for the choir director. I have yet to reach out. I started piano lessons on The Great Courses sometime in June, but I am having way too exhausted by the end of every day to concentrate for thirty minutes to an hour for lessons. I also prefer in-person lessons because I have the attention span of a housefly, and will have to be physically tethered to the piano bench for the duration of practice.

When it comes to food, I am a bit conflicted. I am a pretty decent cook, if I do say so myself. I love experiencing new cuisines, but I have the small problem of trying to balance my fitness goals with my love of food. I am not a gym fanatic, but I would love to see my fitness progress not only in strength and flexibility. but also aesthetically, so I am learning some food discipline.

Which leaves me with books.

I love reading. Any booklover will understand why. There is something about reading a book and finding, either that the author is speaking straight into your soul, or finding your thoughts, anxieties and musings so perfectly understood by someone you have never met. One of my favorite movies is Words and Pictures (Clive Owen & Juliette Binoche, 2013: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2380331/), and it asks the penultimate question of whether words or pictures are more important. I am of the school of thought that words win, because while a picture ma be worth a thousand words, words are the powerful tools that can shape, distort, make or break any picture.

In that vein, I threw a challenge at my husband: to see how many books we could read between the two of us in 2025. My husband is also a book lover, but at the time his reading pace was one book to every three or four of mine. He does, however enjoy good competition, and he said it would give him an opportunity to read some of the books that had been gathering dust on his shelves.

In 2010 I discovered the joy that was audiobooks, and while I am not a very auditory learner, audiobooks gave me a chance to absorb many of the works I had been eager to read. Between 2010 and 2014 I relied on my Public libraries and Librivox (https://librivox.org/). Overdrive was the main audiobook platform for public libraries, which has now been replaced by Libby (all you need is a library card and the app: https://libbyapp.com/interview/welcome#doYouHaveACard. All one needed for these was a library card. In 2014 I decided I could spend money on audiobooks, and between 2014 and 2024 amassed over 150 audiobook titles. In 2024 I decided maybe it was time I became a somewhat responsible adult, and buy my books in print. I canceled my Audible subscription and went back to Libby for free audiobooks.

It would be impossible to list of all the books I have read or listened to so far, but I would like to share a few of my favorites. Every now and then I will leave a few books I have come across or something I am currently reading, in case anyone else is looking for a new read/listen to dive into.

I should mention that I did win the 2025 challenge I did with my husband-he read more print books, but I listened to many more audiobooks, and our bet was on the total number of books we finished, so…I win. However, out of respect to the head of the household, here is a list of five books my husband read last year:

T’s Book List:

1. The Fatal Decisions: Six Decisive Battles of the Second World War from the Viewpoint of the Vanquished by Seymour Freidin (Editor), William Richardson (Editor)
2. Red Dragon by by Thomas Harris 
3. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir 
4. Dark Forest The Dark Forest (The Three-Body Problem Series, 2) by Cixin Liu (Author), Joel Martinsen (Translator)
5. The Strain by by Guillermo del Toro (Author), Chuck Hogan (Author)

My Book List:

1. The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Author)
2. My Friends by by Fredrik Backman (Author): This is my favorite author right now. I highly recommend reading/listening to *all* of his works
3. The Bridge of Sighs by by Olen Steinhauer (Author): This is the first book in a series of 5 books called Yalta Boulevard. Highly recommend, the narrators are fantastic if you are an audio listener
4. Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays by Paul Fussell (Author)
5. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Author)

Hope you enjoy these first few book recommendations! I will continue to periodically post more of the books I have read and enjoyed, and hope you will enjoy them as well.

Have a great week!