I don't know whether this just relates to my course or the Politics department, but the advice I got relating to reading lists was as follows:
"I could send you the Reading List (Module handbook) that we give students at the beginning of the year, but I'm usually inclined not to do this for a variety of reasons (it's far too long for what you need; it gives listings for every single topic within the module, it also includes all the details about the module in terms of assessment etc.). From experience, they are not the most straight forward documents to read if you don't have the right framework, which is what you get through the welcoming/introductory sessions of the first week of the term.
In the first week we hold a departmental bookshop where you'll be able to buy books at better prices (we buy and sell between students, between years; it's a non-profit bookshop)."
Hope this helps,
Cheers :-)