I wonder what you are reading in your target language(s) or in your native language.
I recently finished “the little prince” in Spanish. Then I decided to read “Corazon” by De Amicis. I’ve read this book before, when I was a child. I wanted to be a friend of them, now it’s time to remember the good old days and learn Spanish at the same time.
I have seen the movie “Gettysburg”, loved it and decided to read the book (The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara) because the movie is based on the book. I like to read about the Civil War and the American history. This book is about the Gettysburg battle which is a very interesting battle in the modern history of war and the turning point of the Civil War. One day I want to visit the area.
I need advice for German by the way. I tried to read the classic novels, such as Kafka’s books or the translations from Russian but I failed. I find them too dificult. Is there any modern writer, you suggest?
Just the provided content, with the ideal level of intermediate 2. I reread the lessons several times. It raises my word count pretty well. I could do a few 10 minute lessons and have 50 new learned words.
I’m reading “Le Monde en partage: Itinéraires d’Albert Camus,” which really isn’t all that challenging. It’s basically a coffee table book full of photos and citations, but the cool thing is that if I hadn’t taught myself French, I wouldn’t have been able to read it at all. There is no English translation.
I’m also reading “SAS: Rendez-vous à San Francisco” which is part of a pulp-fiction spy series from France. These books are pretty dated and, at times, sexist and racist, but I can read them without having to look up too many words. They aren’t really my cup of tea, but a French friend sent me 167 of them and so I’m using them as tonnage.
— the cool thing is that if I hadn’t taught myself French, I wouldn’t have been able to read it at all. There is no English translation. —
This is the best feeling about language learning. When I was a child I tried to collect every single book of Jules Verne but only a few very famous books of him were translated to Turkish. I’d like to collect his books and read them if I learn French someday. BTW There is no Turkish translation of the Civil War books or American history books such as 1776 or John Adams etc. thus, none of my friends haven’t heard of the Civil War. They also don’t know their own history though.
Additionally the most popular books are translated into German, and usually the translations have high standards. I would recommend books for Young Adults (Jugendbücher or Jugend-Fantasy in my list) for intermediate learners.
I am reading thunderball in English and From Russia with love (FRWL) in German (trying at least), I made a pledge to myself that I would read all the remaining Bond books (ideally) by spring. At the start of the year I had reed about half of them. I have reed the from Russia with love in English before and seen the film numerous times. So far I have not got very far reading FRWL. I have played around with the idea of reading Kafka it seems to me that it divides peoples opinion (in suitableness for German learners) unfortunately I do not know any modern writers suitable for learners.
Kafka’s very difficult.
I tend to read moder thrillers, historical novels or short stories before tackling classical books.
I’ve read three of the series of the adventures of Fandorin, Russian historical novels by Boris Akunin. And now I’m reading a recent thriller “Krasnye tsepi” by Konstantin Obraztsov
Some suggestions for you in German, try Patrick Dürrenmatt, interesting, not very long novels (and short stories), with suspense and sense of humour. Well written but not as challenging as classical authors. For example “Die Autopanne” is a short novella. “Der Richter und sein Henker” is also nice to start with.
Another possibility is Stefan Zweig, he’s an older author, but he is still not very difficult to understand and he has some lovely works. The first whole book I ever read in German was his novella “Schachnovelle”
[Edit] I just noticed that you had already discussed Schachnovelle as a possibility, hehe, excuse the repetition
I am reading Conan by Howard, Robert E. I like it, because easy to find audio on Youtube.
I am reading Ernest Hemingway Short stories, they are really short.
I been started to read Joe Haldeman The Forever War, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and The Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison.
Also I want to read Star Wars - Thrawn Trilogy.
Yeah…
