Thanks for the A2A, so let’s see what kind of reading list we can scare up for you. Let’s start with the books good for a high school and early college-age student.
One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School, by Scott Turow. This is a very good book written about one brilliant student's experiences at Harvard Law School. What Turow writes about is traditional rituals and events that go back for centuries, in a few instances, and many are still being done to students today. It is a good start in introducing you to what it may be like in your 1L class at law school.
An Introduction to Legal Reasoning Second Edition, by Edward H. Levi (Author) and Frederick Schauer (Author). This book is not for everybody. It was written and released in the 1940s if I recall, and the language and writing style very much make it hard for some students to read. But, if you are the type of student that will think about the little nuggets that are in this book, then you should do well with it. The key, for me, is that it contains good old fashioned advice on how to think about things. Add this to your catalog knowledge of “Critical Thinking” pollution you got as an undergraduate and you’ll start to see that there is much more to intellectual thinking than just a few rules taught to en masse.
The Official Guide to Legal Specialties: An Insider's Guide to Every Major Practice Area, by Lisa L. Abrams, JD, and published by the National Association of Law Placement (nalp.org). This book will give you insight into 30 major specialty areas, including appellate practice, entertainment, immigration, international, tax, and telecommunications. This book gives you the insights and expertise of top practitioners-the issues they tackle every day, the people and clients they work with, what they find rewarding about their work, and what classes or work experience you need to follow in their footsteps. Over 120 government, public interest, corporate, and private attorneys are featured.
Now let’s turn to some good books about what it is like to be a lawyer. I strongly encourage these books because you will get a new insight into the profession and the different methods used in day to day practice of law.
Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks: The Essential Guide to Thriving as a New Lawyer by Grover E. Cleveland. With an easily readable style, Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks continues to teach new lawyers the ropes from their first day on the job. Humorous, real-life examples illustrate the lessons along with bulleted tips that provide comprehensive advice quickly.
Chances are you’ll be working with or for one in your future career, I’m talking about curmudgeons of course, and so this book is only fitting as a must read for any pre-law student. The book is The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law, by Mark Herrmann.
The book is a collection of essays written by The Curmudgeon, this tome offers practical, honest, and “you need to know this advice” for surviving and thriving in a law firm. The book covers the basics of law practice and law firm etiquette, from doing effective research and writing to dressing for success, dealing with staff and clients and building a law practice. Concise, humorous and full of valuable (albeit curmudgeonly) insight, this is a must-read for every newly minted law school graduate or new lawyer.
The Bramble Bush: On Our Law and Its Study, by Karl N. Llewellyn and Stewart Macaulay. The updated version still holds true to the original lectures given at Columbia Law School in 1929, and there are some new details that help apply the material to the modern practice of law. In the end, this is a great work for learning some of the theoretical and practical sides of how to study the law.
Llewellyn's pointed and clear explanations of case briefing before class, visualization of case facts, active learning in class, the use of precedent, exam formats, and the limits of logic have proved timeless and highly practical. They remain excellent advice for current students to consider and implement in their own journey into the law. This is no Chamber of Commerce speech of mere platitudes about law practice and the grandeur of the bar. To be sure, Llewellyn believed in law school and legal education, and in dreaming big about life in the law. But he was—famously—a realist above all, and this book gets to the nuts and bolts of studying law successfully in traditional legal education.
The final book I would recommend is a novel, and on the surface, it would appear to have nothing to do with the law. The reality, though, is that the book is filled with insights into bureaucratic systems, government projects, legal issues, and ultimately, the use of power to control one’s destiny. The book …
THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, Don’t Panic. Err … I mean, by Douglas Adams. You do not have to be a science fiction fan to enjoy this book, though I am. I had already read it before I was even admitted to law school (back in my first years in high school), but when I found it on the reading list for my Property I class, I had to ask what the purpose was in reading it.
The professor carefully explained that the book dealt with many of the issues of property law that we would deal with within the class. First, there was the right of ownership, which was then trampled upon by the government, who used bureaucratic methods to confound the process and then took their sweet time getting things almost right again. In the end, always bring your own towel, don’t panic, and enjoy yourself a bit before you start law school. After you start, you probably won’t time to even read the funny papers.