Dennis Tonsing, 1000 Days to the Bar: But the Practice of Law Begins Now. The hardest part of 1L year is developing the skills you need as a lawyer.  Dennis Tonsing, former Dean of Students at Roger Williams Law School, walks you through the most important skills you should develop, shows how you will use them as a lawyer, and gives practical methods for developing them.  If I were to read only one book about law school, this would be it. Michael Hunter Schwartz, Expert Learning for Law Students.  Fight the tendency to skip the first hundred pages, which are about developing "self-regulated learning" strategies.  If you persevere, you'll find this an incredibly valuable book which will give you excellent strategies for learning the law and thinking like a lawyer.  John Delaney, Learning Legal Reasoning: Briefing, Analysis, and Theory. Extremely useful, and easy to understand, volume on the process of briefing a  case. Valuable examples of good and bad briefs, plus beginner's and advanced briefs. Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus, Mastering the Law School Exam. This is the best available book on taking law exams, with lots of concrete examples of good answers and how to transform poor answers into lawyerly ones.  Wilson Huhn, The Five Types of Legal Argument.  This is destined to be a classic, with its simple breakdown of examples of the way lawyers think and argue. Wayne Schiess, Writing for the Legal Audience. Put your other grammar books aside.  Starting with e-mails, Schiess shows why excellent writing is necessary and interweaves grammar and usage tips with a focus on the needs of the reader.  Carolyn J. Nygren, Starting Off Right in Law School. Ties together “real world” lawyering with law school and teaches the building blocks of legal analysis. Good section on the difference between good and bad answers. David S. Romantz and Kathleen Elliott Vison, Legal Analysis: The Fundamental Skill. Good explanation of rules, critical facts, case synthesis, and broad and narrow use of analogies. Useful practice questions. Ruta K Stropus and Charlotte D. Taylor, Bridging the Gap Between College and Law School. Good materials on academic skills for 1L success, including outlining, flowcharts, time management, and briefing. Richard Michael Fischl and Jeremy Paul, Getting to Maybe: How to Excel on Law School Exams. As much a primer in legal thinking (what is an issue? what is a rule?) as a text on exam-preparation and exam-taking techniques. Especially useful discussion of ambiguity or "forks in the road." John Delaney, How to Do Your Best on Law School Exams. Excellent sections on outlining and learning to spot legal issues, plus examples of good and bad exam answers. For more suggestions for books and movies, check out the 2008 Summer Reading List.  Last updated 2008-06-18