Neurosurgery Help
The problem is that I imagine medical texts about neurosurgery aren't going to do you much good, and that's mostly what you'll find in the library. I would guess that you're looking for something that will give you a taste of a neurosurgeon's life.
I find blogs are more useful than books because you get a better idea of what people who engage in different professions sound like, the things they obsess about, what makes them excited and so on. In my opinion, books are often TOO professionally edited to give you the feel of what these folks think about.
Try
Living the Dream by a neurosurgery resident in Virginia, or
George Samandouras's blog (he's the author of HANDBOOK OF NEUROSURGERY), or the
UCLA neurosurgery blog that has a lot of patient testimonials about their procedures. For the best places to hear neurosurgeons engage in the kind of geekery and shop talk that gets their blood racing, try
Neurosurgery Info or the frankly named
Neurosurgery Blog for a more technical take on new procedures in neurosurgery.
That's all very day-to-day, nuts and bolts stuff. To get an idea of the kind of big, romantic ideas, cases, and attitudes towards neurosurgery that got folks into the field in the first place, I'd suggest any of Oliver Sacks's books about medicine (not his memoirs, however). These are the kinds of sexy case studies and stories that often seduce people into neurology in the first place. There's also the somewhat dry, but groundbreaking MAN WITH THE SHATTERED WORLD by Aleksandr R. Luria.
In terms of bigger medical issues, check out the articles by Atul Gawande
on his website. He's the New Yorker's staff writer who's an MD and who also does most of their medical stories and I think his stuff is pretty spot-on.
Hope that helps!
