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What are you reading? (for the sake of reading....and RC

Tom_TangoTom_Tango Alum Member
in General 902 karma

Anyone else find that the best way for them to improve RC was to actually just read more?

What books are you currently reading and what do you like about it?

Currently reading Pimp by Iceberg Slim...book was featured by Dave Chappelle in case it seems like an odd choice.

Hoping to find out about more fun reads

Comments

  • BinghamtonDaveBinghamtonDave Alum Member 🍌🍌
    edited March 2018 8689 karma

    Steven Pinker:Enlighttenment Now. Actually finished it last night. I’m going on to Norman Finkelstein’ Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom, starting this weekend.
    I have found that close reading helps with RC.

  • NotMyNameNotMyName Alum Member Sage
    5320 karma

    @StephenASmith

    Ever read anything by Michael Eric Dyson?

    I have not. Why do you ask?

  • Tom_TangoTom_Tango Alum Member
    902 karma

    @jkatz1488 said:
    @StephenASmith

    Ever read anything by Michael Eric Dyson?

    I have not. Why do you ask?

    That book just kind of reminded me of Dyson for some reason..check him out if you have some time

  • HemingwayHemingway Alum Member
    177 karma

    The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Not far enough in to really be able to describe the book, but so far it’s very well written and the characters are pretty interesting.

  • ad_coelumad_coelum Alum Member
    285 karma

    A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I’m a classic book fan. The story also includes a couple of attorneys so it has been a neat read. You need a Merriam-Webster nearby to look up some of the Old English words so it is great for learning new vocab!

    I agree that reading for pleasure helps with reading comprehension on the test!

  • teamteamvicsterteamteamvicster Alum Member
    774 karma

    Ah! I love the brothers k! I just finished Is Everyone Hanging Out without me? by Mindy kaling, halfway through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip k. Dick (all of his books are great!), and I'm about to start The Year of Yes for my ladies' bookclub (wine + book talk). I'm super psyched about the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. So that's up after Year of Yes.

    I make it a habit to read every day, and I think it has helped with reading comp. I'd suggest checking out the read harder book challenge. Lots of great options to expand you reading genres!

  • btownsqueebtownsquee Alum Member
    1207 karma

    I've read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks--it's so interesting!! Should be required reading in schools IMO.

    I'm reading a lot of Jane Austin--I'm finally able to get through her longer and convoluted sentence structures. Thanks LSAT. :P

  • lTexlawzlTexlawz Free Trial Member
    277 karma

    This is the stuff that I read that helps.
    The Jurist
    Economic research papers from Von Mises Institute, a bit denser than the Economist.
    Anything from Scientific America
    Haaretz-any articles from them
    Foreign Affairs magazine from the Council of Foreign Relations

  • @StephenASmith said:
    Anyone else find that the best way for them to improve RC was to actually just read more?

    What books are you currently reading and what do you like about it?

    Currently reading Pimp by Iceberg Slim...book was featured by Dave Chappelle in case it seems like an odd choice.

    Hoping to find out about more fun reads

    Almost finished with Aristotle's unedited 'Metaphysics'.

  • Kermit750Kermit750 Alum Member
    2124 karma

    @teamteamvicster I'm about to start the Year of Yes!

  • testfromawaytestfromaway Alum Member
    edited March 2018 280 karma

    I started Six Four yesterday and have found it so addictive that I've demolished 400 pages of it so far (200 left :(! It's really hard to get English books where I live, so I'm BUMMED that I burned through this one).

    I worked as a bookseller for awhile, so if anyone needs book recs, please! Tell me! Let me tell you what to read! If law school doesn't work out, I dream about opening a little bookstore in a mountain town and making everyone appreciate Maggie Nelson's Bluets.

    @btownsquee said:
    I've read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks--it's so interesting!! Should be required reading in schools IMO.

    The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks actually was required reading in my high school! I did not appreciate it nearly enough at the time.

  • Will DearbornWill Dearborn Alum Member
    218 karma

    I'm reading Sapiens a Brief History of Humankind, I highly recommend this book. It's like a brief yet in depth guide to the human species, that's also easy to read. The writing style is similar to the RC Humanities passages, it also parallels LR because it makes arguments that follow logical trains. My favorite part is the theories on why the other types of humans didn't survive while ours did, it has to do with Homo sapiens ability to have an imagination/ability to imagine things that aren't there.

  • Aristotle JonesAristotle Jones Alum Member
    166 karma

    I am currently reading the biography of Betty Shabazz, the late widow of Malcolm X. "Betty Shabazz, Surviving Malcolm X: A Journey of Strength from Wife to Widow to Heroine"

    The author, John R. Rickford, really paints an enormous, painful, and beautiful picture of Betty, by showing how warm and sincere she was. Also, the more I read this book, the more certain I become that Malcolm needed her, just as much as she needed him. Almost as if it they were destined to be husband and wife.

  • PearsonSpecterLittUpPearsonSpecterLittUp Alum Member
    588 karma

    I am currently reading Samantha Power's book "A problem from Hell" about America's response to genocide, it is really fascinating (though to be honest I am still in the early chapters thus far).

    Another book I really like is by Yale professor Amy Chua, called "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother", about how her strict "Asian" parenting style worked/didn't with her two daughters, its much more interesting than this description hahaha

  • ksh9880ksh9880 Member
    33 karma

    Iceberg Slim? Never thought I would hear that name on 7sage. Try Edward Bunker if you prefer white-trash prison slang over liquor house Ebonics. Both are equally amusing.

    I read mostly political and academic publications for parsing; dry, convoluted, intellectual gibberish with the occasional nugget of wisdom.

  • keets993keets993 Alum Member 🍌
    6045 karma

    I've been reading a lot of Jane Austen recently. Currently reading The Shining by Stephen King. Read a lot of dry theory-based papers in undergrad so it's nice to have time to read novels again.

  • Tom_TangoTom_Tango Alum Member
    902 karma

    @ksh9880 said:
    Iceberg Slim? Never thought I would hear that name on 7sage. Try Edward Bunker if you prefer white-trash prison slang over liquor house Ebonics. Both are equally amusing.

    I read mostly political and academic publications for parsing; dry, convoluted, intellectual gibberish with the occasional nugget of wisdom.

    good to have a sense of humor, thanks for the rec

  • _oshun1__oshun1_ Alum Member
    edited March 2018 3652 karma

    Despair by Nabokov
    The Emotional Brain by Joseph LeDoux
    Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil Degrasse Tyson
    A People's History of the US by Howard Zinn
    $2 a Day by Edin and Shaefer (book on poverty in the US)

    Recently read/working on the above

  • Raphael RiveraRaphael Rivera Alum Member
    176 karma

    I want to do International Law with a focus on armed conflict and refugee law so I like to read about stories of human strength in those conditions so I read:

    The Last Girl
    (About the Yazidi Genocide, made me cry so many times, I was affected for weeks)

    I, Who Did Not Die
    (Incredible firsthand account of both sides of the Iran-Iraq war and how war changes individuals and countries)

    A Dream From Damascus
    (About an Iraqi refugee helping journalists and refugees in Syria prior to the civil war)

    I also like reading about Latin America’s narcotic insurgency, so any of Ioan Grillo’s books (El Narco, Gangster Warlords)

  • Eric25Eric25 Member
    720 karma

    I recently started reading Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean. So far its a great read! Very interesting to get a different perspective on American culture and life from the mid-1900's and how that has manifested into modern culture and views

  • jagerbom79jagerbom79 Alum Member
    23 karma

    Definitely recommend reading! I try to read as much as I can between reading the news via the WSJ or economist and denser-than-LSAT books before bed. I find that it makes it much easier to digest complex stims and passages. I definitely recommend reading more denser than lsat books than not, but as long as you’re reading something well-written your reading comprehension(generally speaking) will improve and you’ll be better at retaining/recalling details from things you read. As for I it also helps that my work requires a lot of technical reading too

  • BinghamtonDaveBinghamtonDave Alum Member 🍌🍌
    8689 karma

    @"surfy surf" Edin's book is nothing short of shocking. I believe it pairs well with Hillbilly Elegy.

  • olepuebloolepueblo Alum Member
    235 karma

    Leviathan! -Hobbes

    Probably good to read argument dense texts like philosophy, economics, science, or anything that has good argumentation.

  • JPJ July2021JPJ July2021 Core Member
    1532 karma

    I haven't had time to read books as much as I want to but I read the NY Times everyday. It's good practice for those long RC passages.

  • doyouevenLSATdoyouevenLSAT Core Member
    609 karma

    @Patroclus you look familiar.

  • IgnatiusIgnatius Alum Member
    382 karma

    I can't read. jk. I've been wanting to read Pimp since watching that Chappelle standup. I just started reading Blindness by Jose Saramago. It's translated from Portuguese and follows a group that has been quarantined after an epidemic of blindness that strikes a community. I believe there may be some sort of social commentary within, but I've yet to figure it out. It's pretty good so far.

  • lsatplaylistlsatplaylist Member
    5249 karma

    So I enjoyed reading Henrietta Lacks, too. The afterword was chilling, in addition to the main story. Just Mercy was a good book and interesting commentary on public service/legal nonprofits.

  • Seeking PerfectionSeeking Perfection Alum Member
    4423 karma

    I have been reading some lighter stuff(mostly scifi). My roommate recommended the Vorksigan Saga so I read two or three of those on my plane trip to Duke Law and back for the ASW. I might read another one tonight.

    I read a Stephen King book recommended by my neighbor a couple of weeks ago.

    I'm also reading/working my way through the LEEWS book and have the Torts E and E on its way in the mail.

    My schedule is lighter this year so I'm finally getting some reading time.

    I might try to read Worm sometime since the guy who recommended the Vorksigan saga which I like okay swears by it. Additionally, the most enjoyable read I have had at all recently was definitely Red Rising which was recommended to me by the same person.

  • goingfor99thgoingfor99th Free Trial Member
    3072 karma

    @"Seeking Perfection" said:
    I have been reading some lighter stuff(mostly scifi). My roommate recommended the Vorksigan Saga so I read two or three of those on my plane trip to Duke Law and back for the ASW. I might read another one tonight.

    I read a Stephen King book recommended by my neighbor a couple of weeks ago.

    I'm also reading/working my way through the LEEWS book and have the Torts E and E on its way in the mail.

    My schedule is lighter this year so I'm finally getting some reading time.

    I might try to read Worm sometime since the guy who recommended the Vorksigan saga which I like okay swears by it. Additionally, the most enjoyable read I have had at all recently was definitely Red Rising which was recommended to me by the same person.

    I envy your attention span. :'(

  • Seeking PerfectionSeeking Perfection Alum Member
    4423 karma

    @goingfor99th said:

    @"Seeking Perfection" said:
    I have been reading some lighter stuff(mostly scifi). My roommate recommended the Vorksigan Saga so I read two or three of those on my plane trip to Duke Law and back for the ASW. I might read another one tonight.

    I read a Stephen King book recommended by my neighbor a couple of weeks ago.

    I'm also reading/working my way through the LEEWS book and have the Torts E and E on its way in the mail.

    My schedule is lighter this year so I'm finally getting some reading time.

    I might try to read Worm sometime since the guy who recommended the Vorksigan saga which I like okay swears by it. Additionally, the most enjoyable read I have had at all recently was definitely Red Rising which was recommended to me by the same person.

    I envy your attention span. :'(

    Well then you would really envy my old roommate's attention span. We are taking a finance class together for fun/since our scholarships require us to be full time and it is impressive in a strange sort of way to see him focussed about half of the days on a book he is reading to the exclusion of the class itself.

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