Books To Read For Politics Degree?

Be careful about mentioning any specific books by name - it can look a bit gauche, especially if you say something cringeworthy/naive/juvenile etc about a well known work, and you risk making it obvious you havnt understood it or are reading out of your depth.

Much safer is to say something like "I have become interested in Human Rights/Rousseau/the Inter-War period (or whatever), and have followed this up with some more in-depth reading, including Smith & Jones 'xxxx" etc. This tells the ADmissions Tutor your interest is bigger than what you are being fed as part of A levels and you are developing specific interests of your own within these subjects. But it doesnt risk making you look a prat.

Reading 'Introduction to ...' books is a great way to get your head around some of the differences between school level study and what the subject is about at Uni level. You dont need to mention these by name, just some of the ideas within them that you found intriguing/interesting. A good one for History is http://www.amazon.co.uk/Studying-History-Palgrave-Study-Skills/dp/1403987343 (not expensive and will be a useful reference book during a degree so worth buying), one for Politics could be http://www.amazon.co.uk/Politics-Introduction-Barrie-Axford/dp/0415226422/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381234379&sr=1-1&keywords=introduction+politics as a general introduction as it will introduce you to the main ideas in politics and stuff about political thought - both have suggestions for further reading etc. Btw, you could get these books on inter-library loan from your local public library - just ask.

so it would be ok to just read the introduction book, and talk about particular theories that I found interesting?

Yes, that would do fine. It doesnt need to be anything elaborate (you arent writing an essay), just a sentence or two on 'I'm interested in ....... because ......' would be enough.