Non-native English Speakers, Which Authors and Books Helped You Learn English?

[LauraM]

We have had some fascinating discussions here on favorite English language authors and books. 

I'm curious to hear from non-native English speakers this time.  Please share with us your favorite books and/or authors that have helped you in your study of English. 

[Daedalus]

I think it depends on what topics you're interested and the writing style. For example, I really like E. Nesbit's "The Railway Children"; it has humour and is easily read, and I like the story and the theme. But on the other hand, I'm struggling with "Great Expectations", because the writing style and use of language is too unfamiliar.

And for high school we had to read a certain amount of English books, everybody chose "The Hobbit", but I just can't read that. The story is too vague for me to get in to and I don't like the subject. Even though I'm fine with other fantasy, I enjoyed reading the 1st book of "The Wheel of Time".

[linguaholic]

I must admit that I did not read that many English Books yet. However, at university, I have to read tons of text material that it solely available in English. I did read the Harry Potter books in English though, as well as in German and some parts also in Chinese :=)) Moreover, I have been reading some stuff in English that originally was written in Japanese. For example, some books from Haruki Murakami: Kafka on the shore and 19Q4. My japanese is just not good enough to be able to read it in Japanese:=).

All those book and texts that I mentioned above helped me in one way or another to improve "my command of English"

[SpiralArchitect]

I think the first English book I had ever read apart from my textbooks was something out of Enid Blyton's Secret Seven series. I loved them as a kid and read all 15 of them in a few months. Hungry for more and intrigued by English literature in general I started buying Hindi translations of English classics like Ivanhoe, Gulliver's Travels, Alice in Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes etc. Harry Potter was a new and exciting series at the time, so I went read the first three books which were out by that time. The original English versions of aforementioned classics followed.

By the time is 13-14, I was already reading books by relatively mature authors like Stephen King. The book that affected by outlook towards the English language as well as helped insolidifying my tastes in literature was JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. I followed that up by reading a lot of fantasy and speculative fiction which even included the likes of Mervyn Peake and Franz Kafka.

Basically, 90% of my control of the English language comes from reading habits and a mere 10% from TV, movies, music and what I learned in school.

[kitkat0124]

When I was in my primary years, I love reading fairy tales book. The words used were very simple. The story is very short. As a young girl, I assumed many of us love that kind of story. Then during my high school days my english teacher encouraged us to read books, every friday I will rent a book in our school library so I can read it during weekend. I remember reading The Hardy boys books and Nancy Drew books. At present I love reading John Grisham Books like, A time to kill, The firm, The client and many others.

[DiesIrae]

All books, rawr! There's lots of books in English in the Philippines. Many of our own writings are in English too. As for a favourite author, I like Stephen King but I can also pick up classic writings like Shakespeare, Charlotte Bronte, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (in English, of course!) and Edgar Allan Poe. I love how verbose those can be and it helps me build up my vocabulary.

[Czarownica]

Definitely Harry Potter. When I was a child, waiting for a new Harry Potter book to be released and then translated was unbearable, so when I was 10 or 11 my mum got us a copy of Order of Phoenix in English.

I understood very, very little of it. But a few years later we got Half Blood Prince and I was way better, so I was able to read it and understand it, more or less. When Deathly Hallows was released, I was already (nearly?) fluent in English and had no problems  :angel:

Harry Potter books are great for learning English, because their language is not too difficult. Reading classics, like Sherlock Holmes, or, God forbid, Shakespeare is very hard for somebody whose English is not advanced yet.

[asiong123]

I recommend the Harry Potter books. They're simple enough to teach you a couple of things about grammar and vocabulary, and they're also very engaging to keep you reading for weeks. I recommend it to all my friends who are struggling with the language and has so far produced great results.

[drpiggledy]

The first book I ever tread in English was one of Ronald Dahl's works. I cannot remember which one now. I always had my nose in a book as a child and eventually I ran out of things to read in our small local library. They had some children's books in English as well. I had already read the book in translation, and had been learning English in school for a few months. I figured I might as well give it a shot and struggled my way through.

I've learned most about English from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. I read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings in English as a teenager. Then I met my husband, who is obsessed with Tolkien. He is a native English speaker who takes great interest in language as well. Tolkien of course, was a linguist, and his words ( even, or especially, the made up ones) are always very carefully chosen. Tolkien also knew a lot about other languages, and that clearly shows in his works. We have regular debates in this house, sparked by something from Tolkien, that lead to an in depth discussion of English grammar or vocabulary. Of course, this happens anyway, and can begin with anything from a silly mistake one of us spots somewhere to me being uncertain about something in English. Tolkien is the starting point for more debates than anything else though, and I therefore nominate him as the author who has most influenced my learning of the English language.

[Monox D. I-Fly]

On 9/21/2013 at 9:45 PM, Czarownica said:

Harry Potter books are great for learning English, because their language is not too difficult. Reading classics, like Sherlock Holmes, or, God forbid, Shakespeare is very hard for somebody whose English is not advanced yet.

Right. Back then I tried to read all Harry Potter books in English and my vocabularies were vastly improved. After 1 or 2 books, I tried to read Sherlock Holmes and couldn't comprehend what's happening half of the time.