Recommended novels/non-fiction books that can help with RC Forum

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Angie85

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Recommended novels/non-fiction books that can help with RC

Post by Angie85 » Sun Sep 14, 2014 12:17 am

Hi people! Any non-fiction books or novels that you recommend me to read in order to improve on RC? I'm doing poorly on the RC section so far and I've been out of school for over a year so my RC skills are pretty rusty. Add to that the fact that English is not my first language...


Are there any books that have helped you with this? Thank you!

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RZ5646

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Re: Recommended novels/non-fiction books that can help with RC

Post by RZ5646 » Sun Sep 14, 2014 12:35 am

Standard TLS advice is the Economist and Scientific American, but those are magazines/websites. Also, while they're often very similar to RC passages, there are important differences. For example, those articles are sometimes purely informational, while for RC you focus on the argument instead of facts.

Idk about actual books. Doing RC is fundamentally different from reading a novel or nonfiction book; it's a totally different mode of reading. If you want to improve your reading in ways relevant to RC, you don't really want any material you can just skim through or read "for the story." You'd want hard fiction that makes you think and pay attention (DFW maybe?) and difficult nonfiction books.

Philosophy books are probably ideal. They're dense and boring, they use words in unusual ways, and they're all about arguments. Right now I'm reading the Critique of Pure Reason and it really forces you to concentrate and go into a tightly focused reading mode.

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loomy78

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Re: Recommended novels/non-fiction books that can help with RC

Post by loomy78 » Sun Sep 14, 2014 12:43 am

dont read novels if trying to improve RC. Do RC passages or read the economist and pretend they're RC passages.

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JamMasterJ

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Re: Recommended novels/non-fiction books that can help with RC

Post by JamMasterJ » Sun Sep 14, 2014 12:44 am

just read economist/scientific american

hopeboaltberkeley

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Re: Recommended novels/non-fiction books that can help with RC

Post by hopeboaltberkeley » Sun Sep 14, 2014 5:01 am

The passages are just articles, rather than full-fledged books (clearly hahaha) -- so like the posters above say if you want to simulate the section most closely just read articles. Reading some Scientific American would probably help with getting familiar with the feel of science passages if that is your weak spot, but honestly I think waking up everyday and reading any articles at all would probably help.

And I'd think that it probably doesn't matter whether it's The Economist, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, or some other publication of your choice -- as long as your making an effort to understand the main ideas and arguments in each piece. It might help to start with a topic you're actually interested in.

If you really want to read a book, I doubt reading more of any kind of book -- novel or otherwise -- would hurt your reading comprehension. But although some LSAT passages discuss fiction and novelists, they don't tend to be written in a novel's narrative format. So reading a nonfiction book would more closely simulate what you're actually doing on the LSAT. However you might find a novel more enjoyable depending on your interests. You could always do both!

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Irish11

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Re: Recommended novels/non-fiction books that can help with RC

Post by Irish11 » Sun Sep 14, 2014 11:05 am

If you're looking for books I'd recommend nonfiction essay collections, which are essentially pieces that could have appeared in magazines or newspapers. David Foster Wallace and Joan Didion spring to mind as wonderfully entertaining essayists that require your full attention.

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hetookmetoamovie

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Re: Recommended novels/non-fiction books that can help with RC

Post by hetookmetoamovie » Sun Sep 14, 2014 3:35 pm

Irish11 wrote:David Foster Wallace and Joan Didion
I recommend these writers for novels/non-fiction books that can help with life, period :)

For the LSAT, though, I'd range toward things that aren't necessarily entertaining or artfully written. I've found that books with a sociological bent are helpful for the sort of reading skills required for the LSAT -- they're persuasively written, (fairly) well organized, with a lot of discussion of data. Erving Goffman and CW Mills are wonderful. When I have a little more fuel in my tank, I work on Pierre Bourdieu's Distinction.

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RZ5646

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Re: Recommended novels/non-fiction books that can help with RC

Post by RZ5646 » Sun Sep 14, 2014 4:45 pm

DFW's nonfiction is great but his fiction is tedious and overcomplicated. I always get the sense that he's trying to prove how smart he is.

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