Anarchy and Elegance: Confessions of a Journalist at Yale Law School

As a current 1L at YLS, I can vouch for the accuracy of Goodrich's account - even down to Guido's "Evil Deity" speech, which apparently remains unchanged 15 years later. In fact, not much seems to have changed at all in 15 years, which is a little daunting given Goodrich's insightful criticism of the state of legal education. This is an excellent book for anyone thinking of law school - both as preparation for the stressful academics of first year, and for the tremendous and disconcerting shift in perspective and thought processes that nearly every law student undergoes. The author's description of the personal costs is a bit overdone at points - I at least have not observed such profound personality changes in any of my classmates - but the basic concept is sound. An entertaining and informative book.

The kind of people that make the choice to sell their souls and begin their study of "the Law" are often typically the sort of overachieving people that overresearch, and look for ways to win the game several moves deep. As such, they peruse the different "how to do law school" books: Law School Confidential and Planet Law School being the foremost names in this category. That exhausted, they move on to Scott Turow's "1L", which is an autobigoraphical account of his first year at Ha-vad, and from that, and repeated viewings of "the Paper Chase", get a picture of what their lives will soon be like. And often it is an erroneous picture.This book is one man's attempt to describe HIS 1L year (or his only L year, as he got the one-year M.L.S. or whatever it is called from Yale). This is a tremendously good book: it presents law school as most find it: the amorality, the confusion, the lack of praise, etc. inherent in conquoring that beast. And it's a pretty good read as far goes these books written by journalists posing as professional students. It's a DEFINATE must read for anyone who's making the mistake of trudging off to study these endless rules, but it's an interesting take on our society if you're not. Totally, this is a book that you should read. I recommend it fully...