Anyone NOT highlight their casebooks? Forum

(Study Tips, Dealing With Stress, Maintaining a Social Life, Financial Aid, Internships, Bar Exam, Careers in Law . . . )
User avatar
California Babe

Bronze
Posts: 239
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 9:45 am

Re: Anyone NOT highlight their casebooks?

Post by California Babe » Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:33 pm

JazzOne wrote:I buy new books. I never highlight in them. I don't like to bring them to class because my book bag will bend the corners of the hard cover. I also don't like to crack the spine, so I only open my books to a maximum of 158 degree angle. I try to touch the pages as little as possible, and I certainly don't handle my books for at least two hours after I put on any kind of lotion or soap. The books should never be left in the car lest the heat dry and crinkle the pages. No chips, no dip, and never let your forehead or face touch the paper.
I assume you only read your books under lighting specifically designed to minimize damage to the pages? And it goes without saying, I'm sure, that you do most of your reading in a low-oxygen chamber.

smittytron3k

Bronze
Posts: 197
Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2009 4:32 pm

Re: Anyone NOT highlight their casebooks?

Post by smittytron3k » Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:26 am

tired meme is tired, highlighting is not tired. /thread

User avatar
zeth006

Silver
Posts: 1167
Joined: Tue May 12, 2009 2:54 am

Re: Anyone NOT highlight their casebooks?

Post by zeth006 » Thu Sep 16, 2010 3:52 am

Each to his own. I underline the less important stuff with pencil, add any short side notes, and hilight any rules and issues I encounter.

Riles246

New
Posts: 96
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2009 12:29 pm

Re: Anyone NOT highlight their casebooks?

Post by Riles246 » Tue Sep 21, 2010 9:48 am

As far as I can tell, at least half of these posts are jokes meant to scare 1L's. For real, it depends on who you are. I can't stand highlighting, it makes it impossible for me to read the case in full (in regards to a used book with old highlights), and I never highlight because after you go over the case in class, there should be no reason to ever revisit the case in your book assuming you took good notes.

Highlighting implies that you'll be reading through your book again at a later time. Once you've gone over the case in class, you have another 100 pages to read for next week, and so on. You'll never have time to go back and re-read it, and realistically you shouldn't have to. Once the prof has parsed the important parts of the case in class, there shouldn't be a need to go back and read the entire opinion.

Anyway, I gather from the posters that say "impossible" to not highlighting that they are joking and that they also don't highlight, since it definitely isn't impossible and they should know that by looking around in class and seeing a bunch of unhighlighted casebooks. As for buying new over used, the $40 difference between a new and a used book isn't enough for me to jeopardize my $150k education.

Whatever works for you, do it. If you don't like it, don't!

Want to continue reading?

Register now to search topics and post comments!

Absolutely FREE!


Post Reply

Return to “Forum for Law School Students”