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LawandOrder wrote:

aguacaliente wrote:You are assuming that reading all of those supplements over the summer, rather than with your assigned reading over the semester, will result in higher grades. That's flawed logic and a dangerous assumption, as far as I'm concerned.

Unless you can show that it is actually detrimental to grades, then it would be in someone's best interest to do the reading, as it can either do nothing for them, or prove beneficial.

But then again I should encourage everyone else to not do the reading, because that is just one more advantage for me.

It actually could hurt grades... Seeing this stuff the 2nd time around isn't as interesting. Sure, you'll catch the general concepts, but there will be things that are important to your prof that they will emphasize and you may just be daydreaming thinking you already know the stuff when he/she covers it.

Has anyone read Making Your Case by Scalia and the other dude? Came out last year I think.

Dude, if you want to read... read Tom Clancy or something ENJOYABLE. You wont want extra information going in, it might conflict with something that is crucial to a final (though that probably wont happen, you never know). Just RELAX enjoy a life while you still might have one.

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Read Ivy Briefs: True Tales of a Neurotic Law Student by Martha Kimes. It's a very funny book by a Columbia graduate.

Bye the way, for those of you who want to purchase Law School Confidential, there is a revised edition now. I didn't know this until after I bought the original version. I found a cheap copy of the revised editions since it has extra stuff in it.

Fyi.

badlydrawn wrote:Has anyone read Making Your Case by Scalia and the other dude? Came out last year I think.

I heard good things about it and bought a copy, but being in the middle of the semester right now I've been too busy with reading cases to open it.

It's probably been said a hundred times on here, but read most of the porn you can get your hands on before school. That way, with your newfound pickup skills, you'll be hooked up by weekend 1. That in turn will clear your head, and you'll make law review by the fourth week of your first semester. Bow chica bow wow.

AR never disappoints

Esc wrote: I like and agree with how you phrased "Tom Clancy or something enjoyable," because the two categories are definitely mutually exclusive.

I would generally second the recommendations to avoid supplements before 1L, but if you're going to do it anyway or just want to figure out which to buy, I'd say that I've found the ones in your list pretty helpful. It does vary by prof a bit, but mostly in that I've found some profs' styles to be completely incompatible with supplements (e.g. I hear Dressler is great for Crim, but it seems like it'd do nothing for my Crim class. If anyone here in my section sees this and disagrees, pleeeeease let me know. haha) It would have been annoying/confusing/maybe harmful to have read that before getting to this class.

The Glannon Civ Pro E&E might not actually be a bad thing to flip through if you really, really, really want to start reading law school supplements. I found it really simplified relative to what you'll actually cover in class, and it reads nicely. Chirelstein on Contracts wouldn't be bad either -- it's a quick read and not too in depth (but very helpful for review). I'd avoid reading for Property before law school starts -- topics really seem to vary by profs, and I think even the best supplement varies (I'd just go with whatever your prof recommends or is keyed to your casebook -- no need to use both Emanuel's and Gilbert's; I don't think there wasn't really a difference in quality or content between them). Oh and, FWIW, I found that the Emanuel's Civ Pro outline was more useful than the Glannon E&E once you're actually outlining and/or clarifying your knowledge.

Mostly, I'd just second the recommendations to read Getting to Maybe (I read this before law school and actually found it useful), A Civil Action (just a good book and the nerdy I'm-going-to-law-school setting makes it better), and books that are completely unrelated to law school.

CE2JD wrote:AR never disappoints

Or adds anything worth a shit.

http://www.amazon.com/Constitutional-La ... 700&sr=1-2
http://www.amazon.com/Constitutional-La ... 679&sr=8-1

sorry to hijack sorta, I took a con law & civ pro class in college, using these 2 books as the main text. Anyone ever read them? I was thinking about reading them again to understand the wording since its confusing and what not. They give pretty good explanations too.

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Read The Omnivore's Dilemma. Does it have anything to do with law school? No, but it's certainly fascinating.

Seems like everyone that says "Don't read them" is kind of speculating or did not read them but many people that did very well did but "Do not know if they helped".......seems kinda fishy to me! I think I might read now, haha.

Take it from a 1L...read Law School Confidential and then relax...

Supplements won't help you at this point. Read them concurrently with your lessons next fall.
Your classes will probably only cover about 1/2 the material in those E&E books....you'll be unnecessarily clogging your mind with the rest.

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This is repeating what others have said, but I'd like to second those reccomending that you not read supplements over the summer.

Read frequently in areas of personal interest that are related to the law in some tertiary way (Getting to Maybe, maybe biographies, I think there's a book out about the supreme court right now that's good...)

No one is going to be able to tell your for sure whether you'll be helped or harmed, but take it from those who have been through it - the time off is very meaningful when the semester starts. I did nothing - literally nothing, I didn't even have a job - the entire summer before law school. I firmly believe it was a great decision.

thepounders wrote:I think there's a book out about the supreme court right now that's good...

If you're talking about "The Nine" by Toobin it is very good and was one of the things I read before law school. Don't know that its a particular help, but you do get at least some exposure to judicial decision making, a (very) brief overview of a number of areas of constitutional jurisprudence, etc. I think similarly "The Supreme Court" by (then) Justice William Rehnquist is a good introduction to the Supreme Court that doesn't get too technical but is a good beginning introduction to the history of the court and some landmark cases.

i don't know about recent books about the supreme court but i bet the bob woodward one is pretty good: http://www.amazon.com/Brethren-Inside-S ... 0380521830

AR75 wrote:It's probably been said a hundred times on here, but read most of the porn you can get your hands on before school. That way, with your newfound pickup skills, you'll be hooked up by weekend 1. That in turn will clear your head, and you'll make law review by the fourth week of your first semester. Bow chica bow wow.

LOVE. YOUR. 'TAR.

Im sorry but the thought of reading supplements prior to the class, as a 1L, is a CRAZY idea.

That would be like reading a book on how to drive a car without knowing what a car was.

The supplements wont help you because you wont have knowledge of how to read a case, and furthermore how each professor WANTS you to read a case.

I am currently taking FOUR classes, and in each class each professor wants you to include different things in each brief. If you are smart enough to get into a top 50 law school, you won't have a problem with the kinds of issues that hornbooks are meant to help you with.

If I wished I could have done ANYTHING prior to law school, it would have been practicing identifying issue statements in vaguely written cases before 1850. If there a book filled with that, stock up.

Shameless plug....

I'd highly recommend the book (I wrote) called Making Law Review. Of course I'm biased beyond belief in my opinion of this since it is my book. But I honestly think it is a useful book to read your 1L year (though it may not be too useful to read BEFORE you even begin law school). The good thing is, you shouldn't even have to pay to read it. First, it is available in most law school libraries. Second, I am giving away free copies of it at the book's Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/editpicture.php ... 703&ref=mf).