Conor Cronin is a third year law student who will soon be articling at a fancy Ottawa law firm. As someone who used to play on the same pub quiz team as Conor, take it from me, he knows stuff. Where’d he learn that stuff? Why, from books of course. Well, he also got some of it from TV, newspapers and avid Jeopardy watching, but a lot of it came from books. He comes from good literary stock: his grandfather, “one of the most distinguished figures in twentieth century Irish literature,” has a whole day weekend named for him in Omagh, Ireland.
What kind of a reader are you?
I used read like a poli sci student. Mostly topical non-fiction; if it seemed interesting and the author was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart then I would read it. I began to question my habits when one professor told me that he hadn’t read fiction in 30 years. I also became pretty disappointed with what I was reading. The worst was Benazir Bhutto. I thought her Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West would have been the perfect chance to explain to the West and the Arab world what each didn’t understand about the other, what each expected of the other, but it fell flat.
Now I read like a boy. I’ll pick up anything about a dog or a war. The best is the Flashman series. It’s historical fiction (with endnotes included) based on the grown up life of another author’s fictional creation: Harry Flashman is the villain in Thomas Hughes’ Tom Brown’s School Days. The series is written as if the memoirs of Flashman which were discovered after his death by his sister and edited by the author, George MacDonald Fraser. Flashman is an English army officer in the 19th Century and the worst human being in the world. He stumbles into great historical events, such as the Charge of the Light Brigade or the Battle at Little Big Horn, and, because of his cowardice, he survives while the real heroes are killed. I also love Patrick O’Brien’s Aubrey-Maturin series. It’s basically Tom Clancy of the Napoleonic Wars. The naval talk is dense, but I think I could tack three points into the wind on a ship of the line on my first try.
Law school sucks all the fun out of reading. Judges are not writers and when they think they are it’s annoying because it’s obvious they’re showing off. Plus it makes it harder to find the whole point of the decision. There is little time to read for pleasure. On nights when I have hundred pages to read by the morning, there’s little motivation to pick up another book. I’m looking forward to taking more time in third year to read. My articling position is all set-up so the school year should be a bit more relaxed.
Tell me about the first book that made you love reading.
Gordon Korman and Eric Wilson were my favorite authors growing up. I wasn’t allowed to watch TV on weekdays and could get through a book almost every evening. Some of Wilson’s mysteries were pretty scary, but they were all set in different parts of Canada. Korman’s MacDonald Hall Series was much lighter and hilarious. Korman’s best book, however, was I Want to Go Home.
How do you get your books?
I usually steal books from my parents’ house. They have a pretty large collection. My mom is a librarian and a few years ago she organized all the books in the house by genre and author. There’s a whole bookcase of just reference books, a few of history and non-fiction, and then a bunch for fiction. Book hoarding runs in the family. My uncle’s house is stacked wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling with books. Among my granddad Benedict Kiely‘s collection was a whole bookcase of first edition classics; my sister and I didn’t realize what we were looking at when we discovered them, but when we did we very gingerly replaced the books in their spots on the shelf.
Sometimes Renee [Conor's girlfriend] and I will buy more books than we need from Amazon just so we can get free shipping. I also once bought a book so I could have my parking validated.
Tell me about the last book you couldn’t put down.
Open, Andre Agassi’s autobiography, came out at a really busy time at school, but I read it anyways. I’m a huge tennis fan and the news coverage made it sound super controversial. I read Pete Sampras’ and John McEnroe’s autobiographies before Open. Agassi’s was by far the most honest. He described in great detail the abuse he suffered under his father, drug use, depression, and his relationships with Brooke Shields, Barbra Streisand, and Steffi Graf. Sampras and McEnroe skim over the really personal stuff.
What book would you recommend to would-be law students?
I would say The Paper Chase, but I’ve only seen the movie and after first year I’ll never watch it again. When I was accepted into law school, my brother bought me Lawyers Gone Bad by Philip Slayton. There are a few amusing anecdotes but it is hardly an accurate reflection of the profession. I saw the book in a few bathrooms during house parties in first year.
Anything on Legal Research and Writing would really be helpful. Everyone says it, but no ever believes it: Law school has little relation to the actual practice of law. The skills and tools you learn in Legal Writing and Research class were the only ones I used this summer. Everything is either in the textbook, the case law or legislation. If you have a grasp of the CED and Canadian Abridgment, you’re ahead of the game.
What book do you pretend to have read but never have?
Most of the classics and Shakespeare. I know more about the characters, plot, and authors from watching Jeopardy than actually reading the books.
Conor’s Must Reads
Call of the Wild by Jack London
Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
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