Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner

Step 6:  Choosing helpful books for law students.

What books helped you in law school or law practice?  I want to start a list of useful books for law students.  I am searching the web for recommendations.  Please consider sharing your favorites in the comments.

To start, Law School Academic Support Blog recommends the following books:

• “Whose Monet? An Introduction to the American Legal System” by John A. Humbach.
• “Hidden Sources of Law School Stress” and “A Deeper Understanding of Your Career Choices” by Lawrence S. Krieger.
• “Five Types of Legal Arguments” by Wilson Ray Huhn.
• “Succeeding in Law School” by Herbert N. Ramy.
• “1000 Days to the Bar - But the Practice of Law Begins Now: How to achieve your personal best in Law School” by Dennis J. Tonsing.
• “Pass the Bar!” by Denise Riebe and Michael Hunter Schwartz.

Stephanie West Allen recommends

• “Should You Really Be A Lawyer?: The Guide To Smart Career Choices Before, During & After Law School” by Deborah Schneider and Gary Belsky.

Top Law Student recommends:

• “Law School Confidential: A Complete Guide to the Law School Experience: By Students, for Students”by Robert H. Miller.
• “Getting to Maybe: How to Excel on Law School Exams” by Richard Michael Fischl and Jeremy Paul.
• “Guerrilla Tactics For Getting The Legal Job Of Your Dreams: Regardless of Your Grades, Your School, or Your Work Experience!” by Kimm Alayne Walton.

Here are a few books on legal writing I want to add to the list: 

• “Legal Writing in Plain English: A Text With Exercises” by Bryan A. Garner. 
• “Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, Seminar Papers, and Getting on Law Review” by Eugene Volokh.  (Professor Volokh is a co-author of The Volokh Conspiracy blog).

What books do you like?

Orientation Series:  21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner:
Step 1:  Setting your learning objectives
Step 2:  Taking an inventory of your skills
Step 3:  Taking an Inventory of Your Learning Tools
Step 4:  Finding opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship
Step 5:   Determining the "IIQ" of what you read

Comments

[Stephanie West Allen]

Hi, Anastasia. For taking an inventory of your skills (plus aptitudes, values, interests, and more) I recommend _Don't Waste Your Talent: The 8 Critical Steps to Discovering What You Do Best_ by Bob McDonald and Don Hutucheson. (Don is the publisher of _The Complete Lawyer_.)

[Stephanie West Allen]

Oops. That's Hutcheson. Sorry.

[Anastasia]

Thanks, Stephanie!

[Stephanie West Allen]

Oh, and I also really like James Boyd White's _The Legal Imagination_ and Jack Himmelstein's _Becoming a Lawyer_.

One more (for now): I like what Jeffrey Schwartz and I wrote in the article for law students about a well-rounded life that you linked to here:

http://lawsagna.typepad.com/lawsagna/2007/07/stephanie-west-.html

[Anastasia]

It is a great article, Stephanie. Thanks for reminding me, and for additional books. I will eventually pull all the suggestions into one list, so keep'em coming.:)

[TomL]

During law school, I discovered that occasionally--but regularly--reading 17th and 18th Century literary masterpieces had the effect of fine-tuning my legal writing style and provided excellent models of organization and clarity. Henry Fielding's novels (Tom Jones) were particularly beneficial, but the writings of Boswell, Johnson, Addison & Steele, Swift, and Richardson were also helpful. Fielding was a judge, by the way.

I read these authors during law school, not so much the first year, but quite a bit the second and third years, and continued reading them as I concentrated on brief-writing as a specialty for about ten years after a judicial clerkship. I cannot recommend them too highly to both students and lawyers as a preventive measure for avoiding dry legalese.

[Anastasia]

What better way to learn than from great writers. Thank you very much for your suggestion!