Gray's Anatomy

I often refer to Wikipedia for anatomy info, and they mainly use images from the 20th edition (1918). In searching for a copy, I found the hardcover slipcase. I don't think this is a true 20th edition copy, but it seemed satisfyingly vintage, so I sprang for it. This is one of the best-looking books I own. The striking red and gold of the hardcover befits an anatomy textbook, and pairs nicely with the subtler, off-white color of the slipcase. Excellent aesthetics. My main complaint is the text size, which is absurdly small - I'd guess around 7-8pt for body text, with most diagrams featuring labels too small to read. Pg. 94 displays the external surface of the right hip bone. I had to google a higher resolution image to read the label for "Reflected Tendon of RECTUS" (dead-center), which looks more like "Befleaked Tendon" in my copy. Most of these diagrams are just straight up impossible to read. And that's assuming the label itself hasn't been distorted by resizing, or by the underlying drawing. That hip bone label was small enough to fit within the width of my index finger (not a joke). Good luck reading label text that microscopic when it's placed over a shaded (black) portion of the diagram. There's also no index, which limits its use as a cross-referencing resource. I bought this book mainly for decorative purposes, so I'm fairly satisfied with my purchase; I have other anatomy books to study out of. But it'd be nice to kill two birds with one stone, with an anatomy textbook that's as useful as it is pretty.

I purchased this book for my art, to create collages and delve into medicine, human anatomy, and the "creepiness" of the human body in my art. As a book itself, it is beautifully illustrated. I never read it as a whole, though.

This book is the Medical Bible, I highly suggest this for newcomers unto the medical world. Search not high nor below, but within.

Obviously not up to date with today’s medicine, however this in itself makes it interesting.

This is a very good book if you are like me and use it for artistic reference. While it doesn't contain a lot of colorful pictures it is just enough to give you some insight into how the human anatomy is constructed and moves. It is also good to refer to when you read an article about Jennifer Aniston and you want to know what a septum is.

Gray's Anatomy, first published in 1858, is thought by the average layman to be merely a historical classic, and is usually purchased as a paperback reprint of the 1905 version.If you want the most up-to-date description of human anatomy, steer clear of the paperbacks and buy the 38th edition in hardback. It costs a lot more, but it is more than worth it. It contains an amazing amount of technical information that has only been discovered in the last ten or twenty years (such as the spiral architecture of the heart, MRI imagery, and details of microbiology and cellur arcitecture). It even contains a nice summary of the history of the universe. If I had the rest of my life (I'm a 35-year old engineer) to do nothing but read this book, I could not come close to absorbing all knowledge it contains.I firmly believe that this is the most important book I own.I recommend this book highly to anyone who wishes to learn more about the marvelous machine that is the human body.

Selected for "Core Collection in Nursing and the Allied Health Sciences" from Oryx Press, 1990.