Selecting books to read (Books, Literature & Reading) Language Learning Forum

Selecting books to read
Tags: Advanced Level \| Intermediate \| Reading \| Book \| French \| Spanish
Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading

13 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

watupboy101
Diglot
Groupie
United States
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65 posts - 81 votes

Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French

Message 9 of 13

10 May 2013 at 2:49am | IP Logged

Medulin wrote:

Herman Hesse's ''Sidhhartha'' is a great read in any language.

I second that! Easily my favorite book of all time! Everyone should read it it can open your eyes to a culture often
times understudied in the western world!
1 person has voted this message useful

Cavesa
Triglot
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Czech Republic
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Speaks: Czech*, French^C2, English^C1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

Message 10 of 13

10 May 2013 at 5:45am | IP Logged

A great start in French are the BDs, there is much more than "just" Asterix. I loved
for exemple Persepolis, Le troisieme testament, Hammerfall (that one is perhaps a
translation), Le Prince de la Nuit.

Another options are translations from other languages, especially those of easier
genres.
One of the easiest real reads for me was translation of the Sookie Stackhouse novels (I
have read two volumes so far, looking forward to the other ones). There is a lot of
useful language in there. A popular choice is Harry Potter. Or one wouldn't believe how
much useful language is in the Hobit.

Great are books for young readers. I liked Le livre des étoiles trilogy by Eric l'Homme
or books by Evelyne Brisou-Pellen (probably different spelling of the surname). These
authors write books which are not difficult but they are as well not stupid no matter
the young target audience.

Some easier classics are Le Petit Prince or l'Étranger.

Novels by Fred Vargas (usually detective stories) are awesome, fun and full of useful
language. But they are a bit more difficult than what I mentioned before. Or La Planete
des Singes by Pierre Boulle, probably the most well known sci-fi of French origin after
Jules Verne.

For Spanish, I have started (but haven't finished yet unfortunately) Zafon's El
Principe de la Niebla and it is not too hard.
4 persons have voted this message useful

Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6587 days ago
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4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, Finnish^C1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

Message 11 of 13

11 May 2013 at 2:58pm | IP Logged

fabriciocarraro wrote:

IMHO biographies are usually great! I read Ibrahimovic's in Italian and now I'm reading Raymond Domenech's in French, and both were/are very readable, good vocabulary and not so hard.

This! It's especially important when a language has verb forms that change for each person.

For learning the names of animals, the Narnia books must be a good option.
1 person has voted this message useful

montmorency
Diglot
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United Kingdom
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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

Message 12 of 13

11 May 2013 at 10:01pm | IP Logged

emk wrote:

[

Also, there's nothing wrong with what Krashen calls "
narrow reading." If you
want to focus on a single topic, genre or author for a while, go for it. Sure, your
vocabulary will be lopsided, but it will tend to even out with time. Sometimes it's
easier to reach (say) 98% comprehension in a few areas and then use those as
beachheads.

A nice way of putting it!

(As an aside, I was amused recently, watching a Youtube video of a presentation in
German, given by a German economics prof. who studied in Britain, and currently teaches
in Britain, but has also spent many years in Japan (where he apparently became fluent
in Japanese, so clearly an accomplished linguist; but has been out of Germany for a
fair time), having to stop and ask the correct German word to use for some economics-
specific concept... )

1 person has voted this message useful

Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6587 days ago
9753 posts - 15779 votes

Message 13 of 13

12 May 2013 at 4:52pm | IP Logged

Fantastic article! That's pretty much the main thing I do.

1 person has voted this message useful

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