German student looking for a suited book

[Stephan]

Hello everyone, I'm a 16 years old german high-school student, who wants to improve his English. To do this I would like to read a good, entertaining book. Because here are so many friends of literature I thought I could ask you to help me to find a suited book. The book should be:
- not too difficult to read (not so complicated words and grammar)
- it should have an exiting story
- the genres I like are Sience-Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller, Biographies - but I'm open minded ;)

If you have any recomandations, please tell me.

Thank you

[Bandini]

Looking at your criteria, I think you can't go far wrong with a Steinbeck. Of Mice and Men, Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row, are all well written, but not too complex.

[Virgil]

Staying with the Steinbeck theme, how about The Pearl. I'm currently reading a detective story, The Maltese Falcon. Light reading, but very well written by Dashiel Hammett.

[PeterL]

Hello everyone, I'm a 16 years old german high-school student, who wants to improve his English. To do this I would like to read a good, entertaining book. Because here are so many friends of literature I thought I could ask you to help me to find a suited book. The book should be:
- not too difficult to read (not so complicated words and grammar)
- it should have an exiting story
- the genres I like are Sience-Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller, Biographies - but I'm open minded ;)

If you have any recomandations, please tell me.

Thank you

Reading books that you would enjoy is an excellent way to improve your command of English.
For good, well written, Science Fiction read Poul Anderson, Robert Silverberg, Roger Zelazny, and others.
Well-written fantasy would include Tolkein, Lord Dunsany, de Camp, Fritz Leiber, and others.

[Themis]

- not too difficult to read (not so complicated words and grammar)
- it should have an exiting story
- the genres I like are Sience-Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller, Biographies - but I'm open minded ;)

If you have any recomandations, please tell me.


As for Fantasy you could try Terry Pratchett's Discworld-series. That's fairly easy to understand. Not exactly literature but entertaining.


And I second the suggestions written above.

[mir]

terry pratchett is spectacular - tamora pierce is good for easy, fast-paced stories, if with not much depth - a few Robin McKinley fantasies - and Gone With the Wind, which is just wonderful.

[mono]

Hello, Stephan, welcome to the forum. :)
From what it sounds like, without having to read a painstakingly long book, I would recommend some short stories, perhaps by authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Kurt Vonnegut (for your fantasy, science-fiction taste in literature), or O. Henry.
As others have mentioned, one can never go wrong with reading anything by John Steinbeck; along the same lines, I may promote The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger and Lord Of The Flies by William Golding.
Good luck! ;)

[Scheherazade]

Welcome to the Forum, Stephan! :)

There have been similar topics before and you might find this thread (http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12921&page=2&pp=20) helpful.

[Pensive]

Stephen, Try Harry Potter series. It's genre is fantasy and English is very easy. The other one I suggest is Heidi, a very exciting and interesting book with easy English.

And welcome to the forum. I hope that you will enjoy your stay here.

[SleepyWitch]

Hi Stephan,
i'd recommend Terry Pratchett, too, because his books are really hilarious... BUT: lots of his humour is based on jokes about English accents/ dialects or on things about English culture. So, you need to know a whole lot of Landeskunde to understand the jokes!

i seem to remember that Isaac Asimov's and Arthur C. Clarke's style is pretty straightforward.. not sure about their grammar and vocabulary though... it's been a while since i read them, plus I was older than you when I read them.
i can recommend the "Foundation and Empire" series by Asimov (it's a series but some of the books are pretty short) and "The Songs of Distant Earth" by Arthur C. Clarke. Both of them write 'hard' science fiction with lots of science and not so much kitsch, so they might be interesting for guys :)
where in Germany are you? I'm from Nuremberg, living in Erlangen now.
--- SleepyWitch

[Pensive]

I am in the middle of the" Mind Of My Mind" by Octavia Butler. I will also suggest you to read it as it is very suspenseful and interesting. It is one of the very few sci-fictions I have come across because they are hardly available where I live.

Read it, it is a good read!

[Theshizznigg]

I'd recommend the Jeeves books by PG Wodehouse, also blandings castle series is very good. Not only are they uproatiously funny, but the language and slang in them is simply divine for post great war England.
Wodehouse also had some more serious novels, which make for good light hearted reading, and extremely good for advancing knowledge of the English langauge, such as perroration, and kosh.
I also like how he nicknames his characters.

[Chava]

Get your hands on Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, have a quick laugh at the quirks of english translation.. it's hilarious.

[Stephan]

Hi all,
I'm terrible sorry for answering so late, but my router broke down and it took a lot of time to get a new one.
I feel happy about your answers.

@Chava

Get your hands on Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, have a quick laugh at the quirks of english translation.. it's hilarious.

I like books which are very funny, so Jonathan Safran Foer could be the right author for me. but I've never heard something about him. Maybe you can advise me a book of him. So I can look for a short summery and find out if his books are good for me.


@ Theshizznigg

I'd recommend the Jeeves books by PG Wodehouse
I've heard of the books of Bertie Wooster and his butler Jeeves befor. They shall be very funny, but I've never read a book of them. Maybe you can recommend me some books of the two.

@ Pensive

Stephen, Try Harry Potter series. It's genre is fantasy and English is very easy.
It's a good recommendation, but I've read all books of him in German.


I am in the middle of the" Mind Of My Mind" by Octavia Butler. I will also suggest you to read it
I've never heard of this book before, but perhaps you can tell me where I could find out somethig about the book.


@ SleepyWitch

where in Germany are you? I'm from Nuremberg, living in Erlangen now.
I'm living in Braunschweig.


i can recommend the "Foundation and Empire" series by Asimov (it's a series but some of the books are pretty short)
That are short books, but I have no preference. I thing for the beginning it's even good. I found out that the books shall be verry exiting. Maybe you can tell me where I can find out more about the books.

@ Scheherazade

There have been similar topics before and you might find this thread helpful.
Thank you for that information.

@ mono

From what it sounds like, without having to read a painstakingly long book, I would recommend some short stories, perhaps by authors like Edgar Allan Poe...

We yet have a book of Edgar Allen Poe and I accept your recommendation to read this book.

@ mir

tamora pierce is good for easy, fast-paced stories, if with not much depth
First I would prefer some easy stories so books of Tamora Pierce could be right for me. Can you recommend me one book of her.

@ Themis

As for Fantasy you could try Terry Pratchett's Discworld-series. That's fairly easy to understand. Not exactly literature but entertaining.
It's good if the books are easy to unterstand. maybe you can suggest me some titles of the Discworld-series, because I find out that this are a lot of books.

@ PeterL

Well-written fantasy would include Tolkein
I've read the Lord of the Rings in German and I liked them. I consider to read the Hobbit in English, maybe you have some information about this book.


@ Virgil

Staying with the Steinbeck theme, how about The Pearl. I'm currently reading a detective story, The Maltese Falcon. Light reading, but very well written by Dashiel Hammett.
I like detective stories and I heard from some other people that The Maltese Falcon is a good book. Do you know if the book is easy to read?


@ Bandini

Looking at your criteria, I think you can't go far wrong with a Steinbeck. Of Mice and Men, Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row, are all well written, but not too complex.
Steinbeck is a good recommendation, Mice and Men become advised me of an other person and if the book is really easy to read it would be good for me.

[mir]

tamora pierce mostly writes quartets . . . i don't know; the Immortals series is pretty good - Wild Magic is the first one.

and Terry Pratchett's books are all good (sorry for stealing, Themis!); i like Small Gods - great religious satire; and my personal favorite is all the books of both art and writing - by Paul Kidby and Terry Pratchett. spectacular and hilarious. there's the Last Hero and a few others of those.

happy reading!

[Woland]

I would try Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy

[PeterL]

@ PeterL

I've read the Lord of the Rings in German and I liked them. I consider to read the Hobbit in English, maybe you have some information about this book.



The Hobbit is a better story than LotR. It is much shorter, but the writing style is more direct, and there aren't as many subplots to follow. Bilbo acquired the ring in The Hobbit.
Other fantasy authors that I can recommend, especially for someone who is trying to develop a better understanding of English, are Lord Dunsany, Fritz Leiber, and H. P. Lovecraft. Those three have very different writing styles and themes.

[Idril]

The Hobbit is a better story than LotR. It is much shorter, but the writing style is more direct, and there aren't as many subplots to follow.

I found The Hobbit somewhat disappointing. Maybe because I read LOTR and The Silmarillion first and was expecting it to be similar but I thought it was too simple and the lack of complexity, of subplots made it hard for me to really get excited about anything but I know my brother loves it, he loves the fact that it's just a simple, delightful adventure story but I'm afraid I need something a little darker. ;)


Originally Posted by Cheva
Get your hands on Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, have a quick laugh at the quirks of english translation.. it's hilarious.

I agree there! I especially liked the fact that he kept referring to his grandfather as 'retarded' instead of 'retired' :lol: , I noticed they didn't add that bit in the movie. The book can be confusing at times but still a very good book.

[PeterL]

I found The Hobbit somewhat disappointing. Maybe because I read LOTR and The Silmarillion first and was expecting it to be similar but I thought it was too simple and the lack of complexity, of subplots made it hard for me to really get excited about anything but I know my brother loves it, he loves the fact that it's just a simple, delightful adventure story but I'm afraid I need something a little darker. ;)


I can understand someone being disappointed with The Hobbit. It isn't LotR, but it is a good story. The plot is comprehensible, etc.

[Themis]

@ Themis

It's good if the books are easy to unterstand. maybe you can suggest me some titles of the Discworld-series, because I find out that this are a lot of books.


The first books in the series are "The Colour of Magic" and its direct sequel "The Light Fantastic". It's never wrong to start at the beginning. Regardless, my personal favorites include "Guards! Guards!" and "Mort". You could start with the latter, it's, imho, one of the funniest books of the series. Along with the book "Sourcery".

For more insight on the series try this link:
(But be careful not to read the summary or the fun of reading that particular book will be spoiled, I'm afraid.)
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Farben_der_Magie