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I really enjoyed A People's History of the Supreme Court by Peter H. Irons. Here's the synopsis

"Beginning with the debates over judicial power in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to controversial rulings on slavery, racial segregation, free speech, school prayer, abortion, and gay rights, constitutional scholar Peter Irons offers a penetrating look at the highest court in the land. Here are revealing sketches of every justice from John Jay to Stephen Breyer, as well as portraits of such legal giants as John Marshall, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Earl Warren, and Thurgood Marshall. Astute, provocative, and extremely accessible, A People's History of the Supreme Court illuminates and pays tribute to a system of justice that both reflects and parallels our country's remarkable legal history."

https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-Supreme-Court-OurConstitution/dp/0143037382

I would recommend brushing up on American History. That was the one thing I played catch-up on. It’s amazing how much it helps when reading cases. The historical context and political climate will often help you make sense of a ruling that otherwise seems completely arbitrary. I spent much of my “free” time reading books about historical events and found it to be very helpful. If you want books that are law related, but not necessarily about law, I loved The Nine and Ivy Briefs. Don't worry too much about knowing legal stuff beforehand, you don't want to start school burnt out and stressed out, let your professors take care of that for you.

The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law is a good one. Amusing and practical, and very on point. I received it as a gift from one of my mentors early on in my career and thought it was a wonderful aid.

I would also look at templates and examples of court documents on Practical Law's "Standard Documents" portion of its website (along with the website in general). Very, very good baseline materials and law on several important topic areas for the modern practitioner.

Law 101 by Jay Feinman is pretty good.

Making Our Democracy Work by Justice Breyer is a pretty good overview of constitutional law.

I'll probably get down voted for this but... try reading "The Tempting of America" by Robert Bork. Yeah, the controversial conservative judge. An upperclassman suggested I read this during my Con Law class, and it was a much more interesting way to understand a lot of the conservative vs. liberal wrangling over cases like Roe v Wade. I think it will be a good read even if you lean to the left.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Tempting-America-Robert-Bork/dp/0684843374

P.S. good choice of careers. Personally I'm pushing my kids to fields like C.S. versus the law.

"Making Our Democracy Work" by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is a pretty good laymens description of constitutional law.

Do you want to read CASES or do you want to learn about the entirety of an area of LAW?

If you are more interested in the "whole" view of a certain area of law, I would recommend reading a treatise or something on an area you're interested in. Cases alone are interesting somewhat, but usually they are just a smaller piece of a much bigger topic. It would be like trying to learn about a forest by just studying one tree.

For example if you like Law and Order you probably are interested in criminal law. A book like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Loewys-Criminal-Nutshell-West-Publishing/dp/0314194967/

Would give you a very thorough understanding of criminal law as a whole. Case by case reading might help you understand certain particulars (like the procedure for holding someone in jail in order to pay off outstanding fines) but without being able to see the whole picture it's going to seem really meaningless and confusing.

As many others have noted, bar exam summer isn't exactly a great time to expand your knowledge of the law outside of the review process. So I'd strongly consider suspending your jurisprudential inquiries until after July. Or, at least, being okay if you don't make much progress on the summer reading.

Here is an excellent reading list:

• Alexy, The Argument from Injustice
  
• Dworkin, Law’s Empire
  
• Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Rights
  
• Fuller, The Morality of Law
  
• Hart, The Concept of Law
  
• Rawls, A Theory of Justice
  
• Rawls, Political Liberalism
  
• Simmonds, Law as a Moral Idea
  
  I'd probably add Holmes' "The Common Law" to that.
  
  And, if you want more breadth, try this compilation of sources
  
  I read both Friedman's first and second books, which were much simpler than the jurisprudential tomes above. But because they're about the history of the law, they're VERY LIKELY to mix things up for the bar exam.
  
  Again, I'd listen to everyone else here, and stay away from real jurisprudential inquiry. Stick with light and silly law-y things (e.g., Jeffrey Toobin) or quick reads (Michael Lewis). Better: don't plan to read much about the law.

I just finished law school. Try getting a book. I'm in California, so I don't know how Iceland's law school differs. I liked law school confidential: http://www.amazon.com/Law-School-Confidential-Complete-Experience/dp/031224309X

Also, take as many practice tests as you can. When I took the bar, I took dozens of practice tests for each subject. I wish I had done more when in school.

Making friends, and other advice on here is also very true.

>Can any of you give some advice on some books that a young teen could look into to learn more about the profession and what's involved with it, what types of things she would be studying and such?

It might be a bit advanced for a 13 year old, but A Civil Action is a pretty interesting non-fiction read. It discusses the experience of a litigator in a major trial and the various trials and tribulations that he goes through. I don't remember anything in there that would be inappropriate for a teenager and it is used in high school curriculum.

It might be a bit advanced for an average 13-year-old, but I doubt that an average 13-year-old is actively trying to be a lawyer.

As blackbird17k said, that question is hugely broad. If you're new though and looking to understand how the law works I highly recommend Law's Empire by Ronald Dworkin. http://www.amazon.com/Laws-Empire-Ronald-Dworkin/dp/0674518365

This book is sufficiently detailed to give understanding yet also coherent and enjoyable. Hope you find it helpful.

Collapse of the American Criminal Justice System. It blew me away, mostly because the author offers a unique perspective on how we ended up with the criminal justice system we do. It is more unique and in-depth than many of the more liberal critiques of the system. It made me appreciate the value of democratic institutions, of local control, of true justice.

One thing I meant to recommend and forgot was to buy and read this book:

http://www.amazon.com/History-American-Law-Third-Edition/dp/0684869888/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407940051&sr=8-1&keywords=history+of+american+law

Bryan A. Garner recommends Friedman as a very good legal writer. Also, the content will give you more than a leg up in law school. It presents the entire history of and an explanation of American law. You will go into your classes with a deeper understanding than anyone else. Would make law school a lot easier, I believe.

Also, take some writing courses in undergrad.

1. Don't go to law school.
   
   
2. If you insist, anything by Chemerinsky is good for an overview of constitutional law. Dworkin is also interesting and pretty accessible. For an overview of the types of theory you'll learn in torts, check out Coase's The Nature of the Firm (pdf).

Are you looking to specifically how to structure the brief or how to write a well written brief?

Writing the Winning Brief is a good overall writing guide.

http://www.amazon.com/Winning-Brief-Persuasive-Briefing-Appellate/dp/019517075X

Put differently: It may have been traditional, but it is now often an indicator of poor-quality paper. And I'm consequently embarassed for reddit for approving such an antiquated practice.

If you're looking for further reading on the matter, this is an excellent typographical guide. I keep it next to my Federal Rules.

Peter Iron's People's History of the Supreme Court for the real history of the law, and Kafka's Metamorphosis for what it feels like to be a law student.

Are you wanting to read substantive legal materials (e.g., what does the First Amendment say?) or about the history of law, or biographies of famous or interesting lawyers, or are you looking for information about what the practice of law is like?

"A Civil Action" might be a reasonable start. http://www.amazon.com/Civil-Action-Jonathan-Harr/dp/0679772677/

I highly recommend the book Law 101:

http://www.amazon.com/Law-101-Everything-American-System/dp/0195395131/ref=pd_sim_b_7

It's written in an easy to understand style. I used chapters as a review for my 1L exams to understand the big picture of what I had been studying.

The Innocent Man. It was largely responsible for the answer that I give when people ask me why I am an ADA- Someone is going to do this job. I trust myself to question, to work, not to slide into laziness or complacency. I don't trust others to do a job this important. I do it because it matters.

But as for why the law in general? When I was in high school I read The Tempting of America. I could not have disagreed with it more strongly. I STILL inherently disagree with basically the entirety of Robert Bork's jurisprudence. However, it was an eye opener- this is what "the law" is about. It showed me that the law can have both big ideas and petty squabbles, and that they can both be equally interesting.

Adam Winkler's Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America does a good job of covering District of Columbia v. Heller, the history of gun control in the US, and the interest group politics around the issue. Here's a good interview he did about the book for UCTV's Legally Speaking that led me to it in the first place.

I remember reading this book a decade ago and it pretty much covered what law school and the early years of practice were like --particularly if you're aiming at big law. It's a little on the alarmist side, but I don't think that's a bad thing for people considering the profession.

I really enjoyed reading A History of American Law followed by American Law in the Twentieth Century, both by Lawrence Friedman of Stanford Law School.

Check out the book Typography for Lawyers by Matthew Butterick. There is a section in it about what you can do within the limits of pleading requirements that really help readability and presentation.

I’ve always been a fan of the Nutshell series. The fifth edition is the current one: https://www.amazon.com/Criminal-Nutshell-Nutshells-Arnold-Loewy/dp/0314194967/ref=nodl_

Keep in mind that when you get material on criminal law, you are just getting the statutory construction/interpretation of the black letter law. To fully under the system, you also need to delve in evidence, criminal procedure, and Constitutional law (sometimes at advanced levels and multiple jurisdictions).

For entertainment, the best TV show ever was the original Law & Order. The writers would take two or three real cases that were similar and mash them together for each episode. It got a little scary when I could start naming the cases an episode was based on.

I would recommend Law 101 by Jay M. Feinman. It goes into a fair amount of detail about constitutional law, litigation, torts, business law, property law, and criminal law. I think it would be a good starting point for you to decide where you might want to delve a little deeper.

I highly recommend The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law for BIGLAW associates and summers.

• Typography for Lawyers.
  
  
• The Winning Brief.
  
  
• Legal Writing in Plain English.
  
  Also, get a subscription to the Chicago Manual of Style online. Look up every stylistic question you come across and make no assumptions.

Bryan Garner's Redbook helps me to not sound like an idiot.

Matthew Butterick's Typography for Lawyers helps me to not look like one.

The Redbook sits on my desk, Typography for Lawyers is never far away.

https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-Supreme-Court-OurConstitution/dp/0143037382/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543117844&sr=1-2&keywords=people%27s+history+of+the+supreme+court

I have learned a lot from this one.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/This-Nonviolent-Stuffll-Get-Killed/dp/082236123X/

https://www.amazon.com/Better-Angels-Our-Nature-Violence/dp/0143122010/

https://www.amazon.com/Gunfight-Battle-Over-Right-America/dp/0393345831

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Guns-Liberals-Second-Amendment/dp/1610391691/

https://www.amazon.com/More-Guns-Less-Crime-Understanding/dp/0226493660/

https://www.amazon.com/Origin-Second-Amendment-Documentary-Commentaries/dp/0962366439

https://www.amazon.com/Armed-America-Remarkable-Became-American/dp/1595552847

https://www.amazon.com/Keep-Bear-Arms-Origins-Anglo-American/dp/0674893077

https://www.amazon.com/Targeting-Guns-Firearms-Control-Institutions/dp/0202305694

https://www.amazon.com/Second-Amendment-Biography-Michael-Waldman/dp/147674744X

Courtroom 302

Do you mean Point Made?

Mark Herrmann's "The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law"

http://www.amazon.com/The-Curmudgeons-Guide-Practicing-Law/dp/1590316762

The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law
http://www.amazon.com/The-Curmudgeons-Guide-Practicing-Law/dp/1590316762

Law 101 basically does really short topic overviews of everything a 1L would learn

Hahahah, as a 2L I can say this is absolutely true and it was really frustrating to work under 2 partners that had two different viewpoints of the one or two spaces viewpoint.

Btw get this book: http://www.amazon.com/Typography-Lawyers-Matthew-Butterick/dp/1598390775

It's one.

• The Nine
  
• Gideon's Trumpet
  
• Make No Law
  
• Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
  
  >What about readings like The Federalist Papers
  
  Don't be that guy. Seriously.

I read [Gideon's Trumpet] (http://www.amazon.com/Gideons-Trumpet-Anthony-Lewis/dp/0679723129) in middle school. Had a tough time with it at the time, but it did stoke my interest in criminal law, so there's that.

I can't imagine how I would have read a law book during bar study (I went with A Song of Ice and Fire), but I'm really enjoying The Collapse of American Criminal Justice by the late Harvard and UVA law prof William Stuntz. It's a really engaging discussion of the history of our criminal system and some of the factors that led to its current state. Most people who write about this come from either a hard left or libertarian viewpoint, but Stuntz is very thoughtful and balanced in his discussion.

1. 1L of a Ride
   
2. Point Made
   
3. The Buffalo Creek Disaster
   
   And if you're a glutton for punishment, The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Read Law School Confidential. It will give you a look at the good, bad, and ugly of law school and the first few years of practice.

Also, read this blog post by The Criminal Lawyer - "Is Law School Right for You?". While it was posted on a blog predominately about criminal law, it is still true for any specialization that you may be thinking about pursuing.