What’s the most useful book you’ve ever read? And, why?
My “most useful” book isn’t one book, it comes from a series of books.
You see, law students rely on a couple commercial devices to help survive. They include outlines, such as “Gilley’s” (short for Gilbert’s Law Summaries), and the books in the West Nutshell Series. Both have volumes covering particular areas of law. In fact, the publisher’s website indicates that are currently 156 books in the Nutshell Series. Gilley’s follows a trditional outline format for those who didn’t want to do or wanted to supplment their own outlines. The Nutshell paperbacks, in contrast, are entirely in a narrative format.
Gilley’s were great for cramming and test preparation but the Nutshells were handy summaries that you would use over the course of a semester or year. They were a particularly welcome break from the casebook approach of law school. Although I don’t remember the last time I picked one up, I still have half a dozen on my bookshelves, largely a sentimental attachment. And any law school graduate who claims study aids weren’t “useful” in making it through isn’t being completely honest.
Oh, sweetheart, you don’t need law school. Law school is for people who are boring and ugly and serious.
Elle Woods’ father (James Read), Legally Blonde
Now, that’s a blast from the past. I’d forgotten entirely about Professor Gilbert (pronounced Jil-Bear), my favorite professor during law school.