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Hello and welcome to this week's Top 5 Wednesday post, the second Top 5 Wednesday post this month. This week's prompt is about books I would save in a fire, which sounds like a really exciting prompt! Obviously, if I did get caught up in a fire, I would probably be evacuated to safety, but if it was safe to do so and I was quick enough, what are the Top 5 books I would take with me. More often than not, with the Top 5 Wednesday posts, I have to be more lenient on myself as I have not read many books relevant to a given prompt.
This week, however, I am taking a different approach and being much harsher on the books I choose. Firstly, because I am currently living in university accommodation, I will only refer to my bookshelf here, which, believe it or not, is already packed, as well as a bag full of books I also brought with me! Where possible, I will not pick two books of the same type twice, and I will include books which I have not yet read but are on my to-read list. Also, if this were the case, I would most definitely also take my Kindle (and a charger), but that does not count as a book in itself, and I would also rescue my own book, of which I have a copy, but for this post, I will only be referring to books written by other authors.
I am sure I am not the only person who would save five books and their Kindle, which likely features many more, and I am sure that anyone who has written and got a copy of their own book would also save that. If you have written multiple books, you may only save your first or most recent, but you would still save it, I am sure! Anyway, I go off topic, outlining some of the restrictions I am giving myself, so in no particular order, let us get straight into this week's Top 5 Wednesday post of the Top 5 physical books (not including my own), which I would save in a fire!
1. The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
This is one of only two books on this list that I have not yet read, and I would take this book as opposed to the previous four books as I have read the two most recent ones before this one but not those first four and so it seems logical to stay as up to date as possible and then catch up thereafter. It was an incredibly difficult choice, but I love this series, and this is one of the books I am most excited about reading this year, so I thought it just had to come. This series has been so entertaining so far and is of an outstanding standard and quality, so why wouldn't I save it? Not only that but because the books in this series are long, if the fire caused damage to my property, at least I would have something to keep me entertained whilst waiting for insurance to sort out the damage to my belongings!
2. Letters To A Law Student by Nicholas McBride
It was a very hard decision to choose which law study skills book I was going to choose out of the three. I have; them being one, Glanville Williams: Learning the Law and The Successful Law Student. All three of these books essentially cover the same content, but all in a different way and structure, and all have some different features. The Successful Law Student is a very good book for pre-law students and focuses very much on technique both in the studying and assessments, giving out essay structures, which the other two lack to an extent. Learning the Law, in contrast, is a much more advanced and detailed read, which is very holistic in its nature and includes everything one needs to know both during law school and after. However, although this book is good, it lacks some of the things which the other two books have.
Letters to a Law Student is very reader-friendly, written in a conversational style, and, again, very comprehensive, but I find it perfect for both pre-and current law students. I think this may partly be because it gives you the most important advice and tips on both a general and specific level, and I do really like the conversational tone of this book and some of the humour. In addition, whenever I am in need of some law-specific academic advice, this is often the first book I refer to before moving on to the other two. Plus, I have even sent some quotes from my non-law friends from this book as they are really helpful and not specific to law. As I said, it is an incredibly difficult decision, but I think I can say that Letters to a Law Student makes a good bridge between the other two books sitting somewhere in the middle.
3. How To Get A First by Thomas Dixon
This is the second academic book on this list; this time, it is a more general study skills book. One may wonder why, out of all the books I have with me, I would pick two study skills books, one specific to law and the other more general. I don't really have an answer to that question, although for purposes of justification, maybe it was to provide some variety to this post rather than choosing two law study books, two Robert Galbraith novels, and so on. Although law-specific study books can help with this, this particular book was written especially to help students secure a first-class degree. This is one of three books I have about how to get a first and, at the time of writing, the only one I have actually read, but also the thickest of them and, I believe, the only one written by a University academic.
I originally came over Dixon's How To Get A First in suggested further reading, which was actually listed in Letters to a Law Student, and although this is an old book which may be somewhat out of date, the majority of the content is still as relevant as ever and goes into the specifics on how you can get a first from an academics' first-hand experience marking student work and lecturing them. For instance, there is a whole chapter on Spelling, punctuation and grammar conventions, which some may see as incredibly fussy for an examiner to pick up on, but apparently, it bothers them. I, therefore, suppose it could be said that where Letters to a Law Student provides the overall basic building blocks for studying a law degree, this book pushes one further into first-class territory.
4. Nothing But The Truth by The Secret Barrister
Most of the books on this list are related to my law degree in some way, whether that be the academic side of it or just the subject itself; I promise that I did not notice that when I was originally picking the books out. The Secret Barrister is a great author, and I am currently in possession of all their books, so as you can imagine, it was difficult to choose which one to pick from. By the way, my choice at this stage of the list was either my A-Level Criminology textbooks or my A-Level pure mathematics practice books because although I no longer study maths in particular, I still love some maths problems. But I thought if there was a fire, my A-Level books wouldn't be the most useful to me anymore; I promise this relates to this book choice!
I chose Nothing But The Truth as I have recently re-read The Secret Barristers' first book, Stories of the Law and How it is Broken, as part of my compulsory reading for my law degree so I thought I should give the other two books a chance to survive, as although this book is good I suppose I am well aware of many of the issues it raises due to my education in law. Well, it was this book that was part of the cause of my inspiration to enter the legal universe! Moving on to Fake Law, I chose not to take this one as although this is the one which I haven't read in the longest time out of the three, and it is an incredibly good book, I am learning the law and know how to and where to research the law and so can easily figure out what laws are fake and which are not. The only disappointing thing about this logic is that I will miss The Secret Barrister's excellent commentary and humour, which I think we all love!
Therefore, I chose Nothing But The Truth as it seems to be the most relevant to where I am now. This is about The Secret Barrister's journey from being a law graduate to being called to the bar and becoming a fully qualified, practising Barrister. It talks about all the elements of applying and doing pupillage, the different parts of the pupillage, loads of stories from their experiences and potentially the most important part, the warning to all law students to rethink or even avoid becoming a Barrister at all costs! Yet, I still have the ambition to become a Barrister at the time of writing! I suppose this book gives me a taste of reality and reminds me of what I have to look forward to in my not-too-distant future.
5. Bleak House by Charles Dickins
Finally, we move on to my second fictional book, my second book on the list, which I haven't yet read and the fourth book on this list, which is very much related to the law! This is another book that I have been looking forward to reading for a long time because I love reading classic books, but I haven't read one in a while. I have also always wanted to read some Dickins, so this will be the first Dickins novel I will be reading and hopefully not the last. This particular Dickins book is also about the courts and laws of chancery, which is an element of the legal system that doesn't really exist in the current days, but this seems to be the perfect book, legal history and classic. Furthermore, the edition of the book which I have brought is the clothback version and so I think that makes it an especially special and visually pleasing book to save in a fire.
That is all for this week's post, which was a much longer post than usual and was not planned! I really hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I clearly enjoyed writing it. We have heard much from me this week, so I would love to hear from you! Please use the comment section below to either let me know which books you would save in a fire or just to say hello! Also, do feel free to explore my blog and have a look at my other Top 5 Wednesday blog posts, as well as some of my book reviews. I look forward to next week's post!
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