Great Books to Read Before Heading to Law School Forum

[vpintz]

A couple law-related books I thought were interesting:

Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault
Law and the Rise of Capitalism by Michael Tigar

For fun and mental stimulation, Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach. And anything by Jorge Luis Borges.

Aaaah, Foucault! I love Discipline and Punish. <3

[Stringer Bell]

Just finished his blatantly conservative Basic Economics and Applied Economics. They were good though.

Sowell's a sharp cat. There are definitely counters to some of his positions but he has plenty of evidence to back up his side. I've also read Economic Facts and Fallacies as well as The Housing Boom and Bust. I thought the first one was really good. The second one had some interesting ideas, but was too repetive to comprise a whole book. It probably would have been better as a 20-30 page essay.

[keg411]

From the first page: do not read "Bleak House" by Dickens unless you are in desperate need of ambien. I had to read it for a class in college and never actually finished.

Suggestion: "The Breathren" by Bob Woodward. Liked it far better than The Nine as far as "inside SCOTUS" books go. It's also way more "gossipy" and detailed for what it's worth, and it holds up well even after 30 years.

[downing]

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

A truly awful book. Do not read this.

What made you think that Atlus Shrugged is truly awful? Genuinely curious, as I've been thinking about adding it to my dystopian-future reading list.

I read Orwell's 1984 a few weeks ago. Quite amazing. About to finish Fahrenheit 451 - amazing so far. And Catch 22 is waiting to be read on my shelf.

[mighttransfer]

Books that I read the summer before 1L:

(1) Law School Confidential
(2) Getting to Maybe
(3) One L
(4) Gideon's Trumpet
(5) Delaney's Learning Legal Reasoning
(6) Writing to Win (I did not read this during the summer, but I highly recommend doing so)
(7) Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges (Scalia book)

[WayBryson]

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

A truly awful book. Do not read this.

What made you think that Atlas Shrugged is truly awful? Genuinely curious, as I've been thinking about adding it to my dystopian-future reading list.

I read Orwell's 1984 a few weeks ago. Quite amazing. About to finish Fahrenheit 451 - amazing so far. And Catch 22 is waiting to be read on my shelf.

lol. I'll assume this isn't a clever flame and give you my take on it. In any event, you won't have trouble finding various opinions on Ayn Rand around the internet. They are legion. Basically, Ayn Rand was an uncompromising woman, who professed an uncompromising philosophy that was quite polemical. As a result, the conversation around her is usually characterized by self-professed Ayn Rand zealots on the one hand (cock sure d-bags for the most part) and die hard haters on the other. Both have fair points to make, but there is certainly room for measured voices in the middle. If you do decide to give one of her books a go, then I would recommend reading The Fountainhead. It is shorter, starts off much quicker, and plays to her strengths--individual creativity/the individual vs society--more than Atlas Shrugged does. I've read both and liked both. If her philosophy interests you, then you might also look at the Virtue of Selfishness which is a collection of her shorter essays, but from what very little of it I have read, it struck me as rather weak.

If you like the dystopian genre, then you ought to pick up Brave New World by Aldous Huxley if you haven't already done so.

[Flips88]

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

A truly awful book. Do not read this.

What made you think that Atlus Shrugged is truly awful? Genuinely curious, as I've been thinking about adding it to my dystopian-future reading list.

I read Orwell's 1984 a few weeks ago. Quite amazing. About to finish Fahrenheit 451 - amazing so far. And Catch 22 is waiting to be read on my shelf.

Her protagonists and antagonists are caricatures that could never function in reality and yet her writings are supposed to embody her political philosophy of objectivism, which lots of people, especially young college kids claim to belief in strongly. I've only read The Fountainhead, but Howard Roark (the protagonist) is a huge d bag and her writing is pretty transparent and, imo, awful. Also, the rape scene weirds me out.

[cmckid]

Atlas Shrugged- Great, because it is an excellent piece of literature
Atlas Shrugged- Awful, because it is propaganda. Worse than that, its a fictional story in which the rules of the universe are set up to convince you that her ideology is the only correct one, which people then generalize to the real world.

I'm reading the Legal Analyst by Ward Farnsworth. Its basically a bunch of concepts that the law refers to in decisions, but not explicitly. Very good read.

[downing]

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

A truly awful book. Do not read this.

What made you think that Atlas Shrugged is truly awful? Genuinely curious, as I've been thinking about adding it to my dystopian-future reading list.

I read Orwell's 1984 a few weeks ago. Quite amazing. About to finish Fahrenheit 451 - amazing so far. And Catch 22 is waiting to be read on my shelf.

lol. I'll assume this isn't a clever flame and give you my take on it. In any event, you won't have trouble finding various opinions on Ayn Rand around the internet. They are legion. Basically, Ayn Rand was an uncompromising woman, who professed an uncompromising philosophy that was quite polemical. As a result, the conversation around her is usually characterized by self-professed Ayn Rand zealots on the one hand (cock sure d-bags for the most part) and die hard haters on the other. Both have fair points to make, but there is certainly room for measured voices in the middle. If you do decide to give one of her books a go, then I would recommend reading The Fountainhead. It is shorter, starts off much quicker, and plays to her strengths--individual creativity/the individual vs society--more than Atlas Shrugged does. I've read both and liked both. If her philosophy interests you, then you might also look at the Virtue of Selfishness which is a collection of her shorter essays, but from what very little of it I have read, it struck me as rather weak.

If you like the dystopian genre, then you ought to pick up Brave New World by Aldous Huxley if you haven't already done so.

Fountainhead and Brave New World added. Thanks.
After reading this objectively informed response - Atlas Shrugged deleted.

edit:
Not that anyone cares, but I've added Neuromancer and A Clockwork Orange as well.

[WayBryson]

If you like The Fountainhead, then Atlas Shrugged is well worth reading. She basically lays out her whole political philosophy in Atlas Shrugged, which makes it the more profound book. Nonetheless, I still prefer The Fountainhead.

[orm518]

Links for laziness

Re-reading my favorite Hemingway: For Whom the Bell Tolls. Then a few new ones, I'm halfway through this list:

Legal:
1) GTM

2) Whose Monet? (Got for free....)
http://www.amazon.com/Whose-Monet-Intro ... 737&sr=1-1

3) The Brethren
http://www.amazon.com/Brethren-Inside-S ... 777&sr=1-1

Not:
1) U.S. Grant's Personal Memoirs
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Personal ... 657&sr=1-1

2) Game Change
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Change-Clint ... 690&sr=1-1

3) Dharma Bums
http://www.amazon.com/Dharma-Bums-Pengu ... 573&sr=8-1

4) The Things They Carried
http://www.amazon.com/Things-They-Carri ... 714&sr=1-1

5) A Sport and a Pastime
http://www.amazon.com/Sport-Pastime-Nov ... 617&sr=1-1

[TheFutureLawyer]

If you like the dystopian genre, then you ought to pick up Brave New World by Aldous Huxley if you haven't already done so.

Fountainhead and Brave New World added. Thanks.
After reading this objectively informed response - Atlas Shrugged deleted.

edit:
Not that anyone cares, but I've added Neuromancer and A Clockwork Orange as well.

The Road (as with so many other works, the novel was definitely better than the movie)

[TheFutureLawyer]

Links for laziness

Re-reading my favorite Hemingway: For Whom the Bell Tolls.

My first great novel. Read it again for the first time in 10 yrs a few months back.

[FantasticMrFox]

If you like the dystopian genre, then you ought to pick up Brave New World by Aldous Huxley if you haven't already done so.

Fountainhead and Brave New World added. Thanks.
After reading this objectively informed response - Atlas Shrugged deleted.

edit:
Not that anyone cares, but I've added Neuromancer and A Clockwork Orange as well.

The Road (as with so many other works, the novel was definitely better than the movie)

And McCarthy's use of words is impressive (mind you, there are people who read The Road and don't know the meanings of half of the words he use and how he use them; they don't appreciate the writing but just the plot...that's not how it won the Pulitzer)

[Verity]

Just finished his blatantly conservative Basic Economics and Applied Economics. They were good though.

Sowell's a sharp cat. There are definitely counters to some of his positions but he has plenty of evidence to back up his side. I've also read Economic Facts and Fallacies as well as The Housing Boom and Bust. I thought the first one was really good. The second one had some interesting ideas, but was too repetive to comprise a whole book. It probably would have been better as a 20-30 page essay.

Yeah, he is sharp. He's good at aphorisms, too.

[TheFutureLawyer]

If you like the dystopian genre, then you ought to pick up Brave New World by Aldous Huxley if you haven't already done so.

Fountainhead and Brave New World added. Thanks.
After reading this objectively informed response - Atlas Shrugged deleted.

edit:
Not that anyone cares, but I've added Neuromancer and A Clockwork as well.

The Road (as with so many other works, the novel was definitely better than the movie)

And McCarthy's use of words is impressive (mind you, there are people who read The Road and don't know the meanings of half of the words he use and how he use them; they don't appreciate the writing but just the plot...that's not how it won the Pulitzer)

to be fair, McCarthy is a pulitzer prize winning author, so he is comfortable using a much larger number of words than most people know about. can't remember if I had to do it with the road, but I still gotta search for definitions every so often.

[Verity]

If you like The Fountainhead, then Atlas Shrugged is well worth reading. She basically lays out her whole political philosophy in Atlas Shrugged, which makes it the more profound book. Nonetheless, I still prefer The Fountainhead.

AR was a downright lousy writer, a lousy philosopher, a wimp, a fatty, and a nympho. Probably also a Fembot.

[MC Southstar]

Green eggs and ham.

[fatduck]

If you like The Fountainhead, then Atlas Shrugged is well worth reading. She basically lays out her whole political philosophy in Atlas Shrugged, which makes it the more profound book. Nonetheless, I still prefer The Fountainhead.

AR was a downright lousy writer, a lousy philosopher, a wimp, a fatty, and a nympho. Probably also a Fembot.

you forgot communist

[TheFutureLawyer]

If you like The Fountainhead, then Atlas Shrugged is well worth reading. She basically lays out her whole political philosophy in Atlas Shrugged, which makes it the more profound book. Nonetheless, I still prefer The Fountainhead.

AR was a downright lousy writer, a lousy philosopher, a wimp, a fatty, and a nympho. Probably also a Fembot.

lol, for some reason this reminded me of Kurzweil (robot god guy). he sounded kinda interesting, so I picked up one of his 1000 some page books. it was honestly just the most incoherent piece of writing I've ever seen. He honestly had no clue how to begin organizing a book, his thoughts were just all over the place. I think his writing style nicely complemented his prediction style, which is really just guess work pulled out of his ass.

edit: so ends my rant on a guy who wasted 2 hrs or so of my life.

[downing]

If you like the dystopian genre, then you ought to pick up Brave New World by Aldous Huxley if you haven't already done so.

Fountainhead and Brave New World added. Thanks.
After reading this objectively informed response - Atlas Shrugged deleted.

edit:
Not that anyone cares, but I've added Neuromancer and A Clockwork Orange as well.

The Road (as with so many other works, the novel was definitely better than the movie)

And McCarthy's use of words is impressive (mind you, there are people who read The Road and don't know the meanings of half of the words he use and how he use them; they don't appreciate the writing but just the plot...that's not how it won the Pulitzer)

The Road was a great book. I had the hard cover version, and it was destroyed in a flood, but I chiefly remember the stylishness of his prose, especially in the way he detailed the bleak environments. The future he described was so desolate and wrecked that I'd risk inventing a new category for it: the "futureless" sub-genre of dystopian lit. Where tales like 1984 fall more typically under dystopian fantasies that comment on the state of radically different, often autocratic, societies, there really isn't much of a society to comment on in The Road - it has all been completely eradicated.

A book that took this idea in a different and more lighthearted direction was The Gone Away World, by Nick Harkaway. It's definitely more comical, and it finishes on an uplifting note.

[downing]

If you like The Fountainhead, then Atlas Shrugged is well worth reading. She basically lays out her whole political philosophy in Atlas Shrugged, which makes it the more profound book. Nonetheless, I still prefer The Fountainhead.

AR was a downright lousy writer, a lousy philosopher, a wimp, a fatty, and a nympho. Probably also a Fembot.

lol, for some reason this reminded me of Kurzweil (robot god guy). he sounded kinda interesting, so I picked up one of his 1000 some page books. it was honestly just the most incoherent piece of writing I've ever seen. He honestly had no clue how to begin organizing a book, his thoughts were just all over the place. I think his writing style nicely complemented his prediction style, which is really just guess work pulled out of his ass.

edit: so ends my rant on a guy who wasted 2 hrs or so of my life.

The singularity is an interesting idea, but I couldn't stomach much of "The Singularity is Near", because it seemed like hyperbolic nonsense. Also, I disagree with Kurzweil, and can't bring myself to believe that humans will merge with machines anytime soon.

[RUM]

I second anything by McCarthy, The Road is a great book you can read in one sitting, but Blood Meridian is awesome, I've never read another book like it really. Also, a classic epic piece, East of Eden, I'm going to have to read again.

[thecilent]

smh at no DFW itt

[driftwood6]

AR was a downright lousy writer, a lousy philosopher, a wimp, a fatty, and a nympho. Probably also a Fembot.

you forgot communist

Hahah well played FD.

Also, I agree with the suggestion of East of Eden. not law related but still a great read.