I actually would have recommended "One L". It's an exceedingly quick read, and you can take away three valuable lessons from it: students at Harvard read the same cases you do; law school is a lot of work but most of the pressure we put on ourselves; law school often strains personal relationships with family and friends not in law school. Sure, it's hardly great literature, but why do you find it "ridiculous"?

Then again, I might recommend "Love in the Time of Cholera", because I think many law students could really benefit from a dose of magic realism...

Dave, I thought One L was ridiculous because Scott Turow seemed to manufacture crises. By the end of the book, I was convinced that he was either making it all up or creating outlandish situations so that he could write about them in his book.

I agree with Dave! on both One L and Garcia Marquez. The funny thing about One L is that Turow was so neurotic that everything was a crisis. Oh, no -- moot court! Oh, no -- finals! On, no -- outline swap! But there were people in law school just like that. I remember a woman (sorority girl, er woman) who about Nov. 1 stopped wearing makeup and wore only sweat suits. One week, she repeatedly asked every friend whether they thought she could spare an evening to go to an event. Finally one of her friends pointed out to her that she had spent at least four hours of study time obsessing about this event when she could have just gone.

Neuroses aside, all of the details of Scott Turow's first year were exactly the same as my first year, down to the classes and the topics and the moot court. Funny how law school didn't change much in 20 years. I think now some schools have had curricular changes -- courses don't go the entire year, maybe a first-year elective -- but my year was exactly the same.

Yes, I know some people as neurotic as Turrow in One L. My experience has been a little different (although not as much as you might expect) because I'm an evening student. And I have the benefit of having a spouse who is already an attorney, so she can laugh at me frequently and say, "See? I told you so," which helps keep me sane.

Phil Johnson, Reason in the Balance.

Are there no other Kafka people here?! I'd absolutely make every law student read The Trial as a cautionary tale both of their expected life in law school and their upcoming role in society.

and "Know Your Rights" is a MUCH better Clash song, both in general and for law students...