Dense books Forum

[Sh@keNb@ke]

Was wondering what dense books would be good to read in my spare time? I've been reading A Theory of Justice by John Rawls, but need more suggestions please.

For God's sake, no one mention The Economist...

[tomwatts]

I started reading In Brown's Wake (by none other than the Dean of Harvard Law!) and was struck by how much it read like an LSAT reading passage. I don't know if this was just my preconceptions — I teach the LSAT, but I don't often read stuff written by law professors — or if this was real, but it was a pretty funny reaction.

[071816]

Nonzero by Robert Wright

[EarlCat]

Anything by Shel Silverstein.

[incompetentia]

Anything by Shel Silverstein.

/thread

[zpetrov]

I think more important than reading dense books is reading them the right way.

For example, rather than flying through the pages of complex writing and understanding 50% of it, as we all usually do, it's more important to read as though you're actually reading an LSAT passage- in enormous detail with 100% attention to every word and its placement. That's what I've been doing with basic stuff like "Everlasting Man" by GK Chesterton and even more basic stuff like "Freefall" by Joseph Stiglitz. I usually read a passage, then stop and ask myself all the questions that the LSAT typically asks. It does help, I think.

To me personally GK Chesterton's stuff seems perfect reading for LSAT prep because it is moderately dense, but it gives you plenty of leeway to sit and think about the way he structures the flow of his thoughts, his word use, etc. Chesterton writes very "tightly", meaning that every word has a very deliberate and carefully established relationship with every other word, which seems to be true for all passages in both the RC and LR section of the LSAT. He also covers a LOT of ground with very few words, so every sentence is rich and open to all kinds of analysis. That's my take at least, not sure if others would see it the same way.