Books to read before law school? Forum

[evilxs]

Maybe become familiar with the Blue Book (Citations)

Which book is this?

It's the style manual for legal citation formats. Don't even think about looking at it before you have to. It was co-authored by Satan, Hitler, and Dracula.

Thanks, I'll definitely be avoiding that like the plague

[JOThompson]

Tagged.

[clevinger33]

Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho. Get a jump on understanding corporate culture and how to handle the finer things in life (aka hookers).

[angioletto]

I started reading PLS II and so far it just sounds like a whiny, bitter law student who maybe had things a bit too cushy in undergrad and therefore felt like he had been blind-sided when he started law school. What he is describing is what I am expecting, as far as what law school is like. I thought that was what everyone expected when they start law school. Do people really think it will be anything like UG?

So far I haven't come across any actual advice and I am not sure how much more time I am willing to dedicate to reading this monster of a book. His history lessons and other tangents are a bit boring.

ETA: I have continued reading and have come across some advice in the book. Now the question is how much do I really trust this one person to tell me how I should spend hundreds of dollars and countless hours prepping before law school begins.

[James Bond]

http://www.amazon.com/Damn-Feels-Good-B ... 476&sr=8-1

Pretty funny. Has nothing to do with law school though, thank god.

[traehekat]

I started reading PLS II and so far it just sounds like a whiny, bitter law student who maybe had things a bit too cushy in undergrad and therefore felt like he had been blind-sided when he started law school. What he is describing is what I am expecting, as far as what law school is like. I thought that was what everyone expected when they start law school. Do people really think it will be anything like UG?

So far I haven't come across any actual advice and I am not sure how much more time I am willing to dedicate to reading this monster of a book. His history lessons and other tangents are a bit boring.

ETA: I have continued reading and have come across some advice in the book. Now the question is how much do I really trust this one person to tell me how I should spend hundreds of dollars and countless hours prepping before law school begins.

I've made it through about half of the book, skipping some sections/long, bitter rants along the way. He basically warns against all this horrible stuff to expect in law school, which wouldn't be bad on its own, but then it seems like he thinks we just won't believe him unless he reiterates it a hundred times.

There is some useful information in there, and he makes a lot of suggestions of what to do to prep for law school and the exams themselves, but most of this book is just useless dicta.

In other news, I am about 60 pages into GTM and I am really enjoying it. The forks metaphor they use really seems to make sense to me and it is pretty easy to read through. I definitely suggest this book over PLS, especially for exams. If you want to be scared shitless, then go with PLS.

[rockchalk86]

Read something fun! I suggest "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff". Probably the funniest book I have ever read. If you are suuuper christian religious though, may not be for you.

[waverider]

I'm also reading the road to maybe.

Its surprisingly interesting and is a nice distraction from status checking which is my only other law related hobby.

[washed out]

The Citizen's Constitution.

Seabiscuit. Again.

[trialjunky]

Um provided an extensive book list to consider reading before law school...goodbye freedom, hello library!

[josephscott]

Can someone clarify some of the abbreviations you all are using, such as: PLS, GTM and LSC? Thanks.

[lbeezy]

Can someone clarify some of the abbreviations you all are using, such as: PLS, GTM and LSC? Thanks.

I assume they are Planet Law School, Getting to Maybe, and Law School Confidential.

[keg411]

I just finished "1L" by Scott Turow. He want to HLS around the same time as "The Paper Chase" was supposed to take place and it's basically an autobiographical view of his 1L year. Easy read, though it also has the "scare the crap out of you factor". There must have been an evil Contracts professor at Harvard then, because there is one in both the book and the movie (which are independent of each other).

But I'm on a 70's kick because I had previously read "The Brethren" by Bob Woodward. Now I'm reading "The Nine" (which is pretty good so far) and I think the former was more interesting despite the latter being more modern .

My only point of doing the reading is to get used to reading a lot since I've been out of school for a while and rarely read except for the occasional bad fluff book on vacation.

[trialjunky]

I just finished "1L" by Scott Turow. He want to HLS around the same time as "The Paper Chase" was supposed to take place and it's basically an autobiographical view of his 1L year. Easy read, though it also has the "scare the crap out of you factor". There must have been an evil Contracts professor at Harvard then, because there is one in both the book and the movie (which are independent of each other).

But I'm on a 70's kick because I had previously read "The Brethren" by Bob Woodward. Now I'm reading "The Nine" (which is pretty good so far) and I think the former was more interesting despite the latter being more modern .

My only point of doing the reading is to get used to reading a lot since I've been out of school for a while and rarely read except for the occasional bad fluff book on vacation.

Ooh sounds interesting! I'm going to have to take a gander. My school has recommended Suze Orman's 2010 Action Plan. I am wavering on reading it. Has anyone else read it?

[kalvano]

One L was almost total crap. I've rarely wanted to punch someone in the teeth the way I wanted to punch Turow.

His incessant whining, the attitude that he was being put through something approaching Navy SEAL training, his constant complaining about how aggressive some people were and wondering if law school is stripping away his soul...it just made me want to kick him in the shins. He sounded like a little rich boy whose daddy had bought everything for him all his life, and then all of a sudden had to find a real job.

I did find it interesting that, 30+ years ago, they were talking about the state of the legal market and how there weren't enough jobs waiting for graduates. Sounds familiar.

[mwazaumoja]

What I've read of "The Bramble Bush" by Karl Llewellyn I've enjoyed.

It's essentially an introductory lecture which Llewellyn gave to the incoming Columbia Law class in the 30s. It might sound dry, but the style of delivery is strange at worst, and highly entertaining at best. Such gems as "pickle yourself in the law" and "if you must vegetate, then be a bean and climb."