While reading Selling Sickness the purpose and view of the people that wrote it was very clear. The book shocked me with its very secretive facts and revealing stories. I think the purpose of this book is to educate people of the corruption in the pharmacy field. All of the issues discussed in the book are mostly directly affecting the people who buy from these companies. Anywhere from side effects to the cost and production of the drugs, it is directly related to the people who are taking these medications. This book shows the hidden relationships between the people we trust, our doctors, and the pharmaceutical companies. For that reason, the harsh critisism and revealing relationships, the book would be written by middle aged people who understand the medical system. I think it is written for young adults to middle aged people who are skeptical of the multi-million dollar pharmaceutical companies that most of the world is buying medications from. The language and content make it clear it is not for young children. Being older men that wrote it, I think the targeted audience would also agree with who it was written for. The audience to this book would be hard working people who are interested in the math and science fields. I think it targets middle aged people because they understand more about business and they have more experience with the pharmaceutical companies. Also, some of the language shows it is not meant for younger children. It would attract people who are both against the pharmacy companies and also people who are interested in the “behind the scenes” of pharmacy.
I thought this book would not interest me or I would not want to read it, but I knew I had to and it was a good choice for the blog. Even reading the first couple pages I almost put it back on the shelf. The only thing that attracted me to the book was the front cover. The cover says, “How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients.” There were both interesting and disappointing things in the book, but I read through both. I thought the most interesting part of the book was all the information it shared that you would think would be a secret. The book shares a lot of secrets and stories of the pharmaceutical companies, and how they have made their companies thrive by making everyone else think they are sick and need medication. For the most part, the only thing that disappointed me about the book was the lack of personal stories and I question some of their facts. They state doctors are corrupt and are bribed by the companies, but I’m not sure if I believe most doctors are like that. At least I hope that the companies are not that far into our society that they have control over our health care providers. It was a book of a lot of facts and information but I would have liked it better if it would have more personal stories that I could either relate to. Personal accounts are what make the book of facts interesting, and this book only had a few of those stories.
The book had a lot to it. It had interesting facts, a few very skeptical stoires, but the main stories involved ethics in some way. I think this book would have a conversation of corporate ethics and influence on society. It reveals and discusses the issues inside these large corporations and how they are taking over the medical industry. It has specific examples of corruption and abuse in the companies. I knew the book would talk about corruption. The cover implies that there is something going on inside these companies, that is tricking us into buying into them and making us all be considered sick. Just reading the first few pages, it starts out right away spilling the secrets held by the companies. It keeps that conversation all throughout the book. Every chapter has a different drug, but it discusses how each company has spread it's corruption and how it effects us as people buying these medications. The book was overall interesting and shared good information. I was surprised what kind of facts they had which made it even better. I would not recommend this to anyone for a free read book, but it is a good book for the career I am trying to go for.
