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I am a lower intermediate French learner trying to introduce reading into my program to accelerate my french learning. The problem that I am facing however is that fact that most French books seem to be written in Le Passe Simple which is a tense that is redundant to spoken French. While I appreciate the need to understand this tense eventually to be able to appreciate French in its fullest I am still struggling to fully grasp the spoken tenses and not ready to add an additional (“unnecessary“) tense to my load as well as, more importantly, deprive myself the opportunity to learn the tenses that I really need to learn. So I come here seeking advice on where I can find a selection of books written in “spoken French”. I imagine that I am not alone in this scenario and most beginner or intermediate learners want to focus on the spoken tenses when choosing their reading material. Any advice is appreciated. Merci!

I love reading books in English, especially the classics. One of my favorite authors, I have to say, is Jane Austen, and Vladimir Nabokov (though he is Russian). I was wondering what yours were

I know that sometimes the books we get assigned to read in school can be boring. However, I've found some interesting reads, and I'm interested in knowing what everyone's favorite (or least hated) book from school is. Mine was "The Outsiders".

Bonjour à tous! I am finally pursuing my long-held goal of learning French - I can't afford to take classes though so am looking for materials I can use to teach myself. Are there any books/multimedia learning packs that other people have used that they can recommend? I will most likely use this in combination with an app like Duolingo, but I have a background in language learning (a bachelors degree in German and Russian) and know from this that I value resources that also teach grammar rules. An audio element so that I can check my pronunciation is also important. Any tips anyone can offer would be much appreciated! (PS - I live in the UK, so I guess I'm on the lookout for books that will be available to me here!)

Glassbow makes bilingual editions of the classics (Pride and Prejudice, Peter Pan, The Prince, etc.), the collection of all 36 books is on sale for $9 this week, usually $29. There's new releases every other month which are included for all "collection" purchases. Of course you can get the books for free in English, but these come with a translated edition built in paragraph-by-paragraph. Not a bad deal for $9. www.glassbow.com/collection Sorry if this is wrong forum, I'm new. Please move if so!

Greetings, I am new to the forum so I hope this post is appropriate. I work at a local independently owned book shop that specializes in antique, out of print, rare and vintage books. My boss came across a 15 volume set of book which appear to be in Korean. The spines of the books read "THE FOURTH DIMENSIONAL WORLD" while the slipcases read "UFO ENCOUNTERS: A PROBING EXHIBIT OF UFO PHENOMENA". Typically in North American and European publications, the publication info is printed on the title page with additional copyright info on the obverse side. However for this series, the publication is included on a tipped-in sheet affixed to the interior of the front board. The text is in Korean with the exception of a few English letters such as NHK which I recognized as the Japanese television network. I thought that maybe the NHK was involved in the publication as they've been behind a number of publications. I also referenced a chronology of their programs to see if maybe the series was an adaptation. Unfortunately, nothing. So I'm requesting a bit of help translating the title and publication info. I can post images of the books to aid the effort. Any help would be deeply appreciated. Thank you.

Hello everyone! First off, I'm new to the forum! In my 7 or 8 years of studying languages, I never knew there was a forum like this. But I mean, nowadays you can find a forum for anything on the internet, so I can't say I'm surprised. So my question is about a particular study method. Now I know everyone has their own style, and I'm a fan of the "whatever works for you" idea. For me, I'm native in english, and I have a high C1 in Spanish. I've used a number of different methods to help get me this far, but one tool to supplement has always been learning from reading, then pulling vocabulary and doing flashcards. I am a big fan of Lingq. It has never been my main tool of study, but it has always helped me improved my reading comprehension. That said, I've run into a little issue that annoys me a little, and I wanted to see if any of you have run into this issue with other languages, and what you've done to help out.... I am currently reading a book in Spanish called "La Sombra del Viento". It's a really popular book in quite a few languages. The truth is it's a pretty easy read for me, but there are some words I've come across so far that I didn't know. Luckily I'm reading it in iBooks, and when I run into those words, I can define them right in the app. However, while I look them up, I can never remember them. I like using flashcards for this purpose, but I can't figure out how to get these words to flash cards without doing them manually one by one. From this, I have two questions: 1st, has anyone else had this issue? And if so, what have you done to go around it? 2nd, does anyone else have any other methods for going about learning vocabulary in text? Thanks everyone for your help!

Are there books that you wish were translated into your native language? I have a lot of those. There are some excellent fiction and nonfiction books that I've read in English that I really enjoyed and I'm pretty sure my Polish and Russian friend would love too. Unfortunately, not all of them speak English, and the books have never been (and probably will never be) translated into Russian/Polish. Each time I keep thinking - why does it happen? Why so many really rubbish stuff gets to have a professional translation, but so many wonderful books never get the chance? Do you also have the same problem or is it easy to find the books you read in your native language's version?

Not necessarily self-help or philosophy. Do you have a book or books that have made such a deep impression on you that you became a different person? Something that made you look at your life in another way? Something that changed your habits, your way of thinking or maybe influenced you to make some big decision? There were many books like that for me, and I'm so incredibly grateful to their authors for writing them and sharing them with the world. Some were more of an "eye-opener" and others just induced small changes that led to great benefits. I'll share some of my favourites here and I hope to hear about yours too! Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl - some amazing thoughts about what it means to be a human and how important it is to have a meaning in your lifeLife Lessons by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross - diminishes death fear and makes you appreciate life moreMy Life Tree by Claus Moller - introduced me to the concept of planning things which has stuck with me ever sinceThe Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine N. Aron - finally explained a lot of things about myself and several people I know about why we are too sensitive to so many things and how to live with thatSuperfoods Rx by Steven Pratt - opened up a world of healthy food for me, something I'd never thought about beforehandSlow Death by Rubber Duck by Rick Smith - this one made me realize that pollution is more than just a buzz word on the TVWhat are the books that were "it" for you and made you see the world under a different angle?

I was thinking about this not such a long time ago. I remember that several times, both in real life and on the Internet, I heard people say something like "I used to really like the books of X, but now that I've read his biography I no longer like that author". I've had the same happen to me a couple of times: really enjoyed the book but when I discovered some ugly facts about the author, I just couldn't look at the book with the same eyes. Is it important for you? Do you care what kind of person wrote the book you were reading, in any language? Have you ever felt disappointed when you learnt unsavoury details about the author's life or his/her views?

While some people are more into watching films or TV, I am more into reading. When I was starting to learn German, I was hesitant to read any German books. Because, first of all, I was a little bit furious that I would lose the fun, the interest that I usually have when I am reading (you know what I mean, (When you do not know the language, you do not understand, you do not have fun!). Some told me to start with kid’s books, since they are of course basic and easy for newbie learners like me. I did not try though, because, honestly I was not so excited to read kid’s cute books and since that time I was into philosophy readings or something, I grabbed this book called “Walden or Life in the Woods” by Henry David Thoreau in German, first published in 1854. Which means, it was written with old scripts, languages etc., so with its German version. When my teacher in “Volkshochschule” (School in Germany, where I continued to learn German) saw the book, she was like, “Oh, I would not recommend you to read that book for now, this has old language, do not start with that book”. But I did not listen, I still read it. It was really hard of course to understand. It took me long to finish the book. But I must say, it was great! But okay, I would not recommend it to newbie though J So that was my first book that I read in German, then after that one, my readings were almost in German, whether it is fictional, factual etc. Although most of them are written by American authors, I always looked up for its German version. I must say, reading had help me deepen my vocabulary. Great way to learn the language in the process. Have you read any books in German already? What was your first book? How was your experience? PS. German version of American books are thicker. Really thicker.