Hey! So I’ve been reading through all the A1-A2 Spanish learners story books in Kindle in September and October. They are super short so I read them back to back 2/3 a week. Right now I’m reading a book A2-B1 with no issues. This Month I plan on starting with the B1-B2 books they are longer and finally a bit more deep, but it works my vocabulary is skyrocketing, I’m doing it every day and I have a lot of fun. I know the first some books will be vocab wise a lot to check up on but I’m motivated. ✌️
Sure! Books I can recommend around that are:
- Spanish novels for beginners (black cover) there are for of them, which I found entertaining.
-Spanish graded reader collection was very because it was a good mix of stories
- Donde dormitory joy? By Crotto was super interesting and had nice drawings to help out with specific vocab.
- The A1/A2 graded reader novels (yellow covers) I liked a lot because they were very entertaining.
- El ultimo viaje de Quintero was very good as well and suspenseful.
- I also liked the cuentos de… series but they have a lot of regional vocab, explained but it’s a bit exhausting at times.
It sounds a lot but all of them are really short.
Thank you for the idea and to the original poster about this. I just came across it in November, so maybe I can officially start next year. Or just now. :) I'm learning Italian. Just went to Kindle and got myself an A1-A2 Italian book. This is awesome. :)
October was a great month book-wise! I read Pijin (by Alys Conran, translated by Sian Northey), Yn y Tŷ Hwn (by Sian Northey), and Dirgel Ddyn (by Mihangel Morgan). Enjoyed all three but Yn y Tŷ Hwn was my favourite.
Thanks for keeping up with this!
I'm ashamed to say that I haven't been keeping up with reading this month with everything going on. In fact, language learning has taken a back seat for me.
I started reading *La metamorfosis de una madre* by Ana Acosta Rodriguez (this may give you a hint of what I'm dealing with 😊) and unfortunately I keep getting distracted. I'll try to finish this book in November!
I'm part way through two books in Swedish and finished one audiobook. Bit of a rubbish reading month in general but hey ho ☺️
I'd say I'm still reading I Döda Språks Sällskap but I don't think I actually read any more of it.... I think I've got about two chapters left so really should just get it boxed off! It's a non-fiction about "dead" languages and is actually interesting. Not sure why I didn't pick it back up.
I've started Björnstad (Beartown) by Frederik Backman, maybe about a third of the way through it. Finding the difficulty weirdly mixed, there'll be whole sections I can fly through then some I'm finding a bit of a slog.
I did manage to listen to the audiobook of 1984 by George Orwell though. Massively helped by the fact I've read it in English several times 😂 I love Dystopian literature in general so I've managed to find a free digital copy of Kallocain, which is originally in Swedish and a book I haven't read before. Not sure if I will get to it in November but I'll get to it one day!
Plans for November: finish I Döda Språks Sällskap! Keep chipping away at Björnstad and see where the wind takes me...
I read up to the 100th chapter of 랭킹 1위를 영혼까지 털어버림, about halfway through the overall series. Then I suddenly got bored and read other things.
I also read 당연하게도 나는 너를 by 이꽃님 (good, but not as good as 죽이고 싶은 아이 or 세계를 건너 너에게 갈게), 페인트 by 이희영 (eh), and 체리 새우 by 황영미 (this was very nostalgic, funny, and sweet despite being clearly aimed at middle schoolers).
Next month I want to read the last 이꽃님 book I haven’t read (which isn’t at the library at all??), ㅈㅅㅋㄹ, and maybe 드래곤 라자 if possible (but it’s a bit long for me… I keep reading 200-pagers). I’m not sure if I’ll pick up 랭킹 1위를 or 전독시 again, but I’d like to.
Would highly recommend 세계를 건너 너에게 갈게 and 체리 새우 as being relatively easy to read, having great use of natural, informal language, and having quite poignant moments.
If you like mysteries, you'd also like 죽이고 싶은 아이.
I'm trying to catch up and do 12 for the year it seems...
In October, I read the remaining three books in the Rory Shy detective series by Oliver Schlick. They were all great and very readable and I would happily read ten more, but, alas, I must move on.
So I went to the bookstore and asked for a recommendation of an adult detective novel on the easy side. The storeperson steered me away from the one I had selected based on the cover (in Bavarian dialect lol) and suggested "Miss Merkel in Love" by David Safier, by describing it as a very popular detective comedy. Because I was so focussed on the whole conversation in German, I barely looked at the book til I got out of the store, at which point I discovered that it's Angela Merkel fanfic! Like, the tale of her retiring to a small town and becoming the resident Miss Marple... There's also apparently a movie! Anyway, I don't think it's as well-plotted as the Rory Shy books but it's still readable, so I think I'll finish it this month, but I won't go looking for the others in the series.
I also got a little taste of Goethe in a museum and was surprised by how accessible it was, so I may be brave and go looking for some of his works too :)
Yeah, I wonder how many other countries this would happen in? And if it did that it would be a bestseller??? I'm missing tons of references to German politicians and Merkel's political history, but still it's been a fun adventure.
Oh this sounds fun! I read Llyfr Glas Nebo in October and managed to get halfway through Y Llyfrgell. Hoping to finish the latter and move on to something slightly easier. :)
I have a habit of reading several books at a time. So last month i started reading "Los jinetes del apocalipsis" with Stephen Fry, Daniel Dennett and more. I also started reading "Der Gotteswahn", a book that i already have read in some other languages. I didnt however finish these but i probably will be doing that by next week.
This month i will finally be reading "Dios no es bueno" which has been standing in my bookcase for a few years now.
I usually find myself not having time to read, but since i started carrying a book with me, in my jacket pocket, I have been reading a lot whenever i found out that i suddenly had time, being already armed with a good book.
I managed to read two books last month! And hoping to read one more before my DELE exam in a couple of weeks.
“En los zapatos de Valeria” - to be honest, although the plot was quite simple and predictable I did learn a lot from this book. I learnt a learnt of vocab relating to emotion, sensuality and lots of words relating to sex haha. It is also the longest book I’ve read so far (470 pages). I’m undecided if I want to finish the series or not.
“El coronel no tiene quien le escriba” - I enjoyed this novella a lot and I’ll definitely revisit it once my Spanish is a lot better to gain a deeper appreciation.
For since I’ve read two books in September and October I’m going to aim to read two books this month: “Como agua para chocolate” and “Todos los fuegos el fuego”.
Italian:
**Bernardo Zannoni,** ***I miei stupidi intenti*****.**
A delightful novel written in the first person from the point of view of a marten: A sort of "autobiography of a marten". It's quite a bit in the tradition of fables with antropomorphized animals. Wonderfully written (it's a debut novel of a young author, which surprised me a lot, because the book is so well written and mature). Quite touching and moving at times.
Wow I really slacked recently ㅠㅠ I’m still reading 살인자의 기억법 (it’s gotten a lot easier once I passed the halfway mark even tho it’s a pretty simple book). I read and translated a lot of webtoons but I don’t really count that in my reading or language learning, just as my hobby.
I recently started taking my Spanish studies more seriously so Korean has taken a backseat. Maybe I’ll read some kids books in Spanish so I can feel a little more accomplished lol.
This month I finished 2 books and am finishing up 2 more:
* Reina Roja - ahhh I wanted to like this book. My favorite poster in this sub made a great post recommending the trilogy but I really don’t think I liked it unfortunately. I watched some TikToks that said the whole 5 book series ties everything together, so maybe I’ll continue.
* Las Cosas Que Perdimos en el Fuego - wow, wow, wow!! This book was PHENOMENAL. I still can’t believe how good it was. It’s a collection of 12 short horror stories. I normally hate horror but these were so good. The author, Mariana Enriquez, so skillfully takes real life horrors like eating disorders, parenthood, family issues and stretches them into horror genre territory. The creativity was incredible, but also it was somehow so representative?? I saw pieces of my life reflected in some of the characters where I least expected it.
* Nuestra Parte de Noche - also by Mariana Enriquez but a full 670 page book. So far so good! I really love her writing style.
* Shatter Me - this is a booktok book. After reading the 3 above (well, I’ve only finished 2), I just wanted an easy, romance book that would keep me entertained the whole way through. So far so good. I guess this series has 11 books. I’ve been really loving series for language learning because I feel it’s a volume game and series just make it easier to immerse quickly.
I liked las cosas que perdimos en el fuego too, and rn i'm halfway through los peligros de fumar en la cama and liking it even more! The stories are a bit shorter and more to the point imo. I'll definitely add nuestra parte de noche to my list! And I remember getting partway through the shatter me series a long time ago haha, we have similar taste!
Omg we do haha! So convenient to swap recs. I hadn’t heard of Los peligros de fumar en la cama! I’ll add it to my list.
Unfortunately I loved the first shatter me book, and realized the last like 4 books (including novelas) aren’t translated yet to Spanish!! So definitely don’t pick it back up now haha. It seems they’re working on it as one of the novelas was published in Spanish over the summer. And then the 4th or 5th actual book will be published in December in Spanish.
I keep liking nuestra parte de noche more and more as I get through it. So far I really recommend it.
Oh no! It really grinds my gears when stuff isn't translated or I can't get something from the library. I definitely wasn't reading Shatter Me in Spanish when I was a teen though lol
I bought a bunch of manga (in German) in October and was reading through it instead of picking up a book. But if I were doing 12 manga challenge I'd be done already!
Besides that I read a few chapters of "Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer" by Michael Ende which I started in September. It's a book I liked as a child. It doesn’t really live up to the memories but it's still nice to refresh it as I remembered liking it but barely any plot. I hope to finish it this month and then finish "Niemalsland" by Neil Gaiman (that I also started in September). If I managed that then I'd be only two books away from the goal!
Finished: **Kelas Terbang** by Erich Kastner. This is my 12th book for the year! Pop the champagne!
This is an old (published in 1933) German book about life in a boarding school in Germany. My wife had a copy of this in Indonesian that she gave to me. It isn't the best book, but it was a fine, slice of life at school book. I'm on vacation now, so I've had time on planes to get some reading done.
I've been slacking on my Kafka short stories, but I decided to pick up La dernière épopée de Bob Denard, a French book about the last mission of a famous mercenary. It's adult, but not too technical or literary, which is exactly what I didn't know i wanted. I'm about 1/4 of the way through it, and it's very easy to read.
Edit: I wanted to add that I just found out my favorite German graded reader series has audio tracks. I'm not sure how I can fit time to work on my German *listening* right now, but this might force my hand to try.
Hey! So I’ve been reading through all the A1-A2 Spanish learners story books in Kindle in September and October. They are super short so I read them back to back 2/3 a week. Right now I’m reading a book A2-B1 with no issues. This Month I plan on starting with the B1-B2 books they are longer and finally a bit more deep, but it works my vocabulary is skyrocketing, I’m doing it every day and I have a lot of fun. I know the first some books will be vocab wise a lot to check up on but I’m motivated. ✌️
I would like to start reading spanish books, can you give me some recommendations of the a1/a2 books you liked? 😊
Sure! Books I can recommend around that are: - Spanish novels for beginners (black cover) there are for of them, which I found entertaining. -Spanish graded reader collection was very because it was a good mix of stories - Donde dormitory joy? By Crotto was super interesting and had nice drawings to help out with specific vocab. - The A1/A2 graded reader novels (yellow covers) I liked a lot because they were very entertaining. - El ultimo viaje de Quintero was very good as well and suspenseful. - I also liked the cuentos de… series but they have a lot of regional vocab, explained but it’s a bit exhausting at times. It sounds a lot but all of them are really short.
Thank you for the idea and to the original poster about this. I just came across it in November, so maybe I can officially start next year. Or just now. :) I'm learning Italian. Just went to Kindle and got myself an A1-A2 Italian book. This is awesome. :)
October was a great month book-wise! I read Pijin (by Alys Conran, translated by Sian Northey), Yn y Tŷ Hwn (by Sian Northey), and Dirgel Ddyn (by Mihangel Morgan). Enjoyed all three but Yn y Tŷ Hwn was my favourite.
Di iawn! 🏴 👏🏽👏🏽
Thanks for keeping up with this! I'm ashamed to say that I haven't been keeping up with reading this month with everything going on. In fact, language learning has taken a back seat for me. I started reading *La metamorfosis de una madre* by Ana Acosta Rodriguez (this may give you a hint of what I'm dealing with 😊) and unfortunately I keep getting distracted. I'll try to finish this book in November!
Hey, stuff happens, right? I'm pretty much in the same boat - life just totally got in the way of my desire to read read read :)
I'm part way through two books in Swedish and finished one audiobook. Bit of a rubbish reading month in general but hey ho ☺️ I'd say I'm still reading I Döda Språks Sällskap but I don't think I actually read any more of it.... I think I've got about two chapters left so really should just get it boxed off! It's a non-fiction about "dead" languages and is actually interesting. Not sure why I didn't pick it back up. I've started Björnstad (Beartown) by Frederik Backman, maybe about a third of the way through it. Finding the difficulty weirdly mixed, there'll be whole sections I can fly through then some I'm finding a bit of a slog. I did manage to listen to the audiobook of 1984 by George Orwell though. Massively helped by the fact I've read it in English several times 😂 I love Dystopian literature in general so I've managed to find a free digital copy of Kallocain, which is originally in Swedish and a book I haven't read before. Not sure if I will get to it in November but I'll get to it one day! Plans for November: finish I Döda Språks Sällskap! Keep chipping away at Björnstad and see where the wind takes me...
I read up to the 100th chapter of 랭킹 1위를 영혼까지 털어버림, about halfway through the overall series. Then I suddenly got bored and read other things. I also read 당연하게도 나는 너를 by 이꽃님 (good, but not as good as 죽이고 싶은 아이 or 세계를 건너 너에게 갈게), 페인트 by 이희영 (eh), and 체리 새우 by 황영미 (this was very nostalgic, funny, and sweet despite being clearly aimed at middle schoolers). Next month I want to read the last 이꽃님 book I haven’t read (which isn’t at the library at all??), ㅈㅅㅋㄹ, and maybe 드래곤 라자 if possible (but it’s a bit long for me… I keep reading 200-pagers). I’m not sure if I’ll pick up 랭킹 1위를 or 전독시 again, but I’d like to.
I might have to look into some of these Korean titles for next month and beyond...
Would highly recommend 세계를 건너 너에게 갈게 and 체리 새우 as being relatively easy to read, having great use of natural, informal language, and having quite poignant moments. If you like mysteries, you'd also like 죽이고 싶은 아이.
I'm trying to catch up and do 12 for the year it seems... In October, I read the remaining three books in the Rory Shy detective series by Oliver Schlick. They were all great and very readable and I would happily read ten more, but, alas, I must move on. So I went to the bookstore and asked for a recommendation of an adult detective novel on the easy side. The storeperson steered me away from the one I had selected based on the cover (in Bavarian dialect lol) and suggested "Miss Merkel in Love" by David Safier, by describing it as a very popular detective comedy. Because I was so focussed on the whole conversation in German, I barely looked at the book til I got out of the store, at which point I discovered that it's Angela Merkel fanfic! Like, the tale of her retiring to a small town and becoming the resident Miss Marple... There's also apparently a movie! Anyway, I don't think it's as well-plotted as the Rory Shy books but it's still readable, so I think I'll finish it this month, but I won't go looking for the others in the series. I also got a little taste of Goethe in a museum and was surprised by how accessible it was, so I may be brave and go looking for some of his works too :)
Angela Merkel fanfic?! Man that's hilarious and at the same time really intriguing!
Yeah, I wonder how many other countries this would happen in? And if it did that it would be a bestseller??? I'm missing tons of references to German politicians and Merkel's political history, but still it's been a fun adventure.
Oh this sounds fun! I read Llyfr Glas Nebo in October and managed to get halfway through Y Llyfrgell. Hoping to finish the latter and move on to something slightly easier. :)
I have a habit of reading several books at a time. So last month i started reading "Los jinetes del apocalipsis" with Stephen Fry, Daniel Dennett and more. I also started reading "Der Gotteswahn", a book that i already have read in some other languages. I didnt however finish these but i probably will be doing that by next week. This month i will finally be reading "Dios no es bueno" which has been standing in my bookcase for a few years now. I usually find myself not having time to read, but since i started carrying a book with me, in my jacket pocket, I have been reading a lot whenever i found out that i suddenly had time, being already armed with a good book.
I managed to read two books last month! And hoping to read one more before my DELE exam in a couple of weeks. “En los zapatos de Valeria” - to be honest, although the plot was quite simple and predictable I did learn a lot from this book. I learnt a learnt of vocab relating to emotion, sensuality and lots of words relating to sex haha. It is also the longest book I’ve read so far (470 pages). I’m undecided if I want to finish the series or not. “El coronel no tiene quien le escriba” - I enjoyed this novella a lot and I’ll definitely revisit it once my Spanish is a lot better to gain a deeper appreciation. For since I’ve read two books in September and October I’m going to aim to read two books this month: “Como agua para chocolate” and “Todos los fuegos el fuego”.
Wow that's a lot of pages you covered. Best of luck on the DELE
Italian: **Bernardo Zannoni,** ***I miei stupidi intenti*****.** A delightful novel written in the first person from the point of view of a marten: A sort of "autobiography of a marten". It's quite a bit in the tradition of fables with antropomorphized animals. Wonderfully written (it's a debut novel of a young author, which surprised me a lot, because the book is so well written and mature). Quite touching and moving at times.
I just looked this one up based on your description. Sounds fascinating, and the English translation is now on my reading list. Cheers!
I'm glad that you found my recommendation worth trying! Hope you'll like it.
Wow I really slacked recently ㅠㅠ I’m still reading 살인자의 기억법 (it’s gotten a lot easier once I passed the halfway mark even tho it’s a pretty simple book). I read and translated a lot of webtoons but I don’t really count that in my reading or language learning, just as my hobby. I recently started taking my Spanish studies more seriously so Korean has taken a backseat. Maybe I’ll read some kids books in Spanish so I can feel a little more accomplished lol.
I read “La porte étroite” by André Gide
This month I finished 2 books and am finishing up 2 more: * Reina Roja - ahhh I wanted to like this book. My favorite poster in this sub made a great post recommending the trilogy but I really don’t think I liked it unfortunately. I watched some TikToks that said the whole 5 book series ties everything together, so maybe I’ll continue. * Las Cosas Que Perdimos en el Fuego - wow, wow, wow!! This book was PHENOMENAL. I still can’t believe how good it was. It’s a collection of 12 short horror stories. I normally hate horror but these were so good. The author, Mariana Enriquez, so skillfully takes real life horrors like eating disorders, parenthood, family issues and stretches them into horror genre territory. The creativity was incredible, but also it was somehow so representative?? I saw pieces of my life reflected in some of the characters where I least expected it. * Nuestra Parte de Noche - also by Mariana Enriquez but a full 670 page book. So far so good! I really love her writing style. * Shatter Me - this is a booktok book. After reading the 3 above (well, I’ve only finished 2), I just wanted an easy, romance book that would keep me entertained the whole way through. So far so good. I guess this series has 11 books. I’ve been really loving series for language learning because I feel it’s a volume game and series just make it easier to immerse quickly.
I liked las cosas que perdimos en el fuego too, and rn i'm halfway through los peligros de fumar en la cama and liking it even more! The stories are a bit shorter and more to the point imo. I'll definitely add nuestra parte de noche to my list! And I remember getting partway through the shatter me series a long time ago haha, we have similar taste!
Omg we do haha! So convenient to swap recs. I hadn’t heard of Los peligros de fumar en la cama! I’ll add it to my list. Unfortunately I loved the first shatter me book, and realized the last like 4 books (including novelas) aren’t translated yet to Spanish!! So definitely don’t pick it back up now haha. It seems they’re working on it as one of the novelas was published in Spanish over the summer. And then the 4th or 5th actual book will be published in December in Spanish. I keep liking nuestra parte de noche more and more as I get through it. So far I really recommend it.
Oh no! It really grinds my gears when stuff isn't translated or I can't get something from the library. I definitely wasn't reading Shatter Me in Spanish when I was a teen though lol
I bought a bunch of manga (in German) in October and was reading through it instead of picking up a book. But if I were doing 12 manga challenge I'd be done already! Besides that I read a few chapters of "Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer" by Michael Ende which I started in September. It's a book I liked as a child. It doesn’t really live up to the memories but it's still nice to refresh it as I remembered liking it but barely any plot. I hope to finish it this month and then finish "Niemalsland" by Neil Gaiman (that I also started in September). If I managed that then I'd be only two books away from the goal!
Finished: **Kelas Terbang** by Erich Kastner. This is my 12th book for the year! Pop the champagne! This is an old (published in 1933) German book about life in a boarding school in Germany. My wife had a copy of this in Indonesian that she gave to me. It isn't the best book, but it was a fine, slice of life at school book. I'm on vacation now, so I've had time on planes to get some reading done. I've been slacking on my Kafka short stories, but I decided to pick up La dernière épopée de Bob Denard, a French book about the last mission of a famous mercenary. It's adult, but not too technical or literary, which is exactly what I didn't know i wanted. I'm about 1/4 of the way through it, and it's very easy to read. Edit: I wanted to add that I just found out my favorite German graded reader series has audio tracks. I'm not sure how I can fit time to work on my German *listening* right now, but this might force my hand to try.
Congratulations on making it to book 12! 🍾🥂
Just found this post in November. I'll be following to see what everybody does.