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hi everybody welcome back to english
topics my name is Alisha and today I am
joined again by I'm Davey
welcome back Davey thank you so in this
episode we're going to be giving some
reading recommendations so these are a
few ideas that you can use in your
English reading so the idea here is just
kind of to remind people that although
we focus a lot on speaking and listening
on this channel reading is also an
important and essential part of learning
a language so these are a couple of
ideas if you're struggling to find
something to read or if you just want
something new to read maybe you can try
one of the things that will suggest
today I hope all right
I have I guess I'll start because I
chose one of my items is actually quite
general and this was something that I
recommended in a different video
recently too but just to start things
off quite broadly I've written magazines
specific to your hobbies this could be
books as well or maybe like online
magazines too but this I chose because
actually this is something that I did
that helped me when I was studying when
I I am studying now but this actually
helped me too because this was something
in my case it was about music I chose a
magazine related to my hobby because I
wanted to study the vocabulary words
that were used for my hobby and I was
also interested in the subject to start
with 3 when I read the magazine I would
also find out about other things related
to my hobbies that I might also want to
know about but it was in the language I
was studying so like a really a real
example I had a band that I really
really liked when I was in high school I
looked online cuz I could not buy the
magazine it was a magazine in Japanese I
looked online bought the magazine online
and got it sent to my house and then I
would sit with a dictionary and try to
read the interview of like my favorite
artists to understand what they were
saying
then I'd look through the magazine at
some of the other things in the magazine
and it helped me actually get an idea of
like the other similar things in that
subculture that I might be interested in
in the language I was studying right so
this was very helpful for me in terms of
vocabulary in terms of learning about
something I was interested in so this is
something I would recommend and this is
also something I think that's easy to do
quickly especially if there's like a
blog or something you feel oh that's a
good tip - I think because you'll be
motivated to read if that's your hobby
that's something you're interested in
you will be motivated to read that you
won't give up if it's difficult you'll
press on you'll finish reading it and
also if that's your hobby you'll be
picking up vocabulary that you will use
if you want to go talk with people about
your hobby in English you'll be picking
up vocabulary related to your hobby when
you're reading and then you can use that
mm-hmm exactly and I think you can do
that I've used hobbies for this tip but
I think you could also do that for your
profession yes absolutely yeah I agree
mm-hmm yeah so that's just kind of a
broad open tip but I think you have some
more specific ones I do I took a little
bit different approach from you but my
first one here is Harry Potter the Harry
Potter books because they when the first
Harry Potter book was written it was
written for children of a certain age
and when the next Harry Potter book was
written it was written for the same kids
a year or two when they were a year or
two older and so the Harry Potter books
get longer and more complex and more
difficult to read as you go through them
so it's nice to start with a nice simple
book that was written for you know a
certain age so will be easier for you to
read if you are a language learner if
you're an english learner and as you get
better you can move through the books
and also this is a nice package of
extended reading you know having how
many Harry Potter books are there seven
seven I've actually I've never read
Harry Potter actually by seven there's
seven or seven books seven stories
that's all together that's a lot of
reading and so you will improve your
reading skills a lot by just reading
a lot even if you don't understand
everything you're eating that's alright
just press on and you maybe you've
already read Harry Potter in your first
language or in another language maybe
you've seen the Harry Potter movies
being familiar with the story and the
characters and what's going on will help
you fill in some of the gaps if you
don't understand something when you're
reading the books and that way you don't
have to focus on understanding every
single word or every single sentence you
can just focus on enjoying what you're
reading and your reading skills will
develop you might not notice and notice
them developing but they will develop as
you as you press on and as you continue
reading yeah I think your point about it
being a known story I think so many
people around the world have read Harry
Potter in their native language that
they know what to expect right I will
say however because I tried the exact
opposite I ordered Harry Potter in
Japanese really try to read it and so I
would give just one word of precaution
for fantasy stories that is that there
are a lot of nonsense words in fantasy
stories and fantasy books so like Harry
Potter is fairly light right it's like
but I mean it is make-believe and there
are some words that just like muggle for
example is a word that we cannot use in
everyday English so I think if you can
keep that in mind
fantasy books are a great thing to read
there's so much fun I love them but they
can be challenging I think to apply all
of those words to your everyday life
that yeah I think Harry Potter is so
well known and so well loved and you can
talk to people about it sure you know
you can watch the movies then in English
as well like there's a lot of good stuff
to do there that's true and read with
subtitles actually that's a nice tip for
improving reading skills generally we're
talking about reading recommendations
but a nice tip is reading watching a
movie with the subtitles on and trying
to trying to speed read the subtitles is
a nice little boost as well
yeah to do that well after you read the
book yeah so that's a great tool like
like you said it's like this is the
whole package you have all that material
on yes yeah for sure
okay sounds good I will go on to my next
one which is slightly less vague but I I
thought this might be useful for
of all ages there's this are you
familiar with Pearson English readers
yes yeah so there are a lot of books for
kids here but there are also some
materials as well as audio materials for
adults so what is an English reader a
Pearson English reader Pearson's the
company that makes these but they are
graded stories they are simplified
stories or stories that are made to suit
learners of different levels so if you
know your level or you have an idea of
your level actually I think their
website you can do a short like kind of
level check sort of thing to sort of get
an idea of the best level book for you
but based on your level you can find
books you can find stories some of them
are based I think on like movies as well
famous movies but you can get these so
that they're suited to your level and
then maybe you can also challenge
yourself by getting books that are like
the level above you when you're starting
to feel confident so these might be a
good resource they have kids books I
know so like you know kids 3 to 5 can
read storybooks in English really simple
ones and then as kids get older they
have more for like like 9 to 11 year old
kids and so on but based on your level
you can choose the book and the story
that you feel would be best for you so
that might be a good resource to check
out so specifically created material
right mmm for different levels
absolutely mhm yeah that's an idea so
just for some examples like I checked
their website before we before we
started talking about this and for kids
stories they had you know some common
the english-language children's stories
like Little Red Riding Hood or the three
bears or maybe children's adventure
stories when children start to get a
little older a couple of the things I
saw for adults for example the movie
Love Actually apparently there's like a
reader plus some kind of audio as well
to go along with that story so there are
some apparently famous like movies that
have also been turned into reading
material and listening
four people so that's a resource that
you can use as an educator one but also
as a person learning learning English so
you can check out their website I think
idea might be something to check in to
know anyway what's your next
recommendation so my next one is for
more advanced readers higher-level
English readers and that is to read
something by Ernest Hemingway very
famous Nobel prize-winning I think he
wasn't no book yes he won the Nobel
Prize in Literature Nobel prize-winning
writer Ernest Hemingway who was writing
in the middle of the 20th century he
died in 1962 or something like that and
I recommend Hemingway because he
famously has a very simple writing style
even though he's a very well-regarded
well respected American writer he wrote
in a very simple way he used very very
simple syntax so it's easy to understand
his writing vocabulary might be
difficult but it's easy to to read us
our short story of his or a shorter
novel of his and get the idea get the
gist of the story mm-hmm
and he wrote a lot of he's famous for
certain novels like the old man in the
sea for Whom the Bell Tolls but he also
wrote a lot of short stories and so
that's a good place to start you could
buy a collection of his short stories or
find some online I'm sure you can find
some of his like the Nick Adam stories
or other stories online to try reading
for free and that's a good place to
start and if you like what you read then
you can read more so like I said he he
wrote novels and he also wrote a lot of
short stories and I don't know if I have
one specific favorite short story but he
has a series of our collection of his
stories that are called the Nick Adams
stories because they all feature one
character named Nick Adams and the first
Nick Adam story is when Nick Adams is a
young boy and he's you know five or six
or seven or eight years old and we see
Nick Adams kind of grow up through these
stories and a lot of these stories are
also about fishing Nick Adams growing up
in Illinois I think which is all which
is also where Hemingway
from and stories about nickadams kind of
just going fishing and I grew up in a
fishing family and so I really liked
those stories and they're they're simple
they're easy to understand they're just
stories about a young guy going fishing
it might sound really boring but they're
very beautifully written
they're very nice stories they're easy
to understand read much Hemingway I read
some here and there in high school sure
but I think in my case I was always more
drawn towards like the fantasy and
science fiction genre sure and so that
always held more appeal but there were
some authors and I think from around the
same time period as well the gained
notoriety for that style that you're
describing that it was like simple
situations and simple phrasing but like
an ability to like create these just
kind of picturesque images hmm like who
wrote Walden Walden was thorough
thorough I remember that it like that's
the one about the guy who just lives in
the forest look it's a journal by
himself yeah like but that's one that
really stood out to me to like you there
was nothing necessarily complex about
that story like on the surface but that
was one that was like hmm it made you
think about just like the pace of
everyday life and it wasn't so difficult
to read like we were reading it in high
school so you know there are a lot of
writers I think yeah that have something
similar I was also thinking when you
were talking about Kerouac as well Jack
Kerouac did travel stories but there's
stream-of-consciousness a lot of them
like on the road is very stream of
consciousness
sentences that go on for a page I see I
see I was thinking in terms of material
in terms of topic sure and in terms of
like vocabulary use since and so on so
but that doesn't make sense because they
are on a ramble II yes here what might
be hard so in general that's perhaps
like a high school reading list yeah
absolutely well I shouldn't say that
actually that's not true
depends what everything that's like
Homer as well like Iliad stay away from
Faulkner hmm what else is that you know
did you think things are gonna be hard I
like walking every but he's not Annie
that is not an easy author to read I'm
trying to learn kind of like in in that
same vein then sort of those kind of
adventure ish stories yeah William
Golding's Lord of the Flies that one was
kind of like it's an exciting adventure
story for sure it gets dark as well too
and there's a movie mm-hmm Oh is there
there is yeah okay all right well anyway
those are those are some things that
stood out to me from my high school list
look I don't know what people are
reading in high school these days I'm
kind of curious a lot of the same
there's a lot of things in the Canon a
lot of historical stuff too I remember
reading the plague that's not cheery not
chuimu that's right French you're good
at that you're good at remembering
authors I am NOT I was a lit major but
oh yeah that's a dark story about the
the plague the Black Plague existed a
happy times and murder my man died today
maybe it was yesterday oh man that's the
first line ah I don't remember I don't
remember these things anyway I'll go to
something that came to me because I was
thinking about adolescent level books
actually sure because I feel as a
learner a second language learner
adolescent level books are nice because
it's like they're not too hard and
they're not too easy and the subject
matter often has a little bit of like
drama to it so anyway I chose two things
here actually Nancy Drew
and thirty boys no I never read
baby-sitters club actually I was never
he's just never into that sort of thing
but I did read Nancy Drew so I included
both of these here basically both of
these Nancy Nancy Drew is the story of a
young girl she's eight like she's a
detective that's the story here the
Hardy Boys they are two boys their last
name is Hardy I think they're brothers
yeah of course the brothers are evil
they they are detectives also so these
two it was like a detective series led
by a girl and a detective series led by
boys and I thought these could be nice
because these are books these are huge
huge like so many books a lot of books
in both of these series and when I was
thinking about the genre of a mystery
story I was thinking about the different
types of grammar that get used in these
stories like stuff that you might not
use so much in everyday conversations
like he would have been able to or he
might have been able to or then we could
maybe
like sort of these weird future
possibility or past possibility sorts of
things that can get discussed in these
mystery stories but they're made for
like teenagers essentially but that
doesn't mean that the stories aren't
interesting I remember really enjoying
like Nancy Drew when I was a teenager
did you ever read these I think I tried
reading one or two Hardy Boys books when
I was a kid and I didn't really get into
them I see but I did similar to those
kinds of books I really liked an author
called John Bel Air's who wrote similar
kind of like kind of mystery books for
young readers at the mansion in the mist
and these sort of weird kind of spooky
baroque kind of mystery books for
children okay
that were really good so John Bel Air's
I recommend he's a nice get out there
too
did you read those choose your own
adventures yeah oh that's a great one
these are really fun but the one thing
that I would caution about with those
books is those books are often written
in second person meaning the subject you
you those are kind of a rare style of
book in that respect that's true when
it's a what's called what we're talking
about is a choose-your-own-adventure
I had the Goosebumps series when I was
little it's like scary stories but when
the book is a choose your own adventure
book it means you the reader are the
focus of the story and so as you read
you have to make decisions in the story
if you choose a you turn to this page if
you choose B you turn to a different
page and you read what happens to you
next so you are choosing your story as
the character in the story so the way
the story is written is different from
typical stories so the focus in the
stories you go to the haunted house
right you see a ghost what do you do
next and that's not very typical not the
way most stories are they're very
interactive and very fun and also very
simple because you're reading just a few
sentences per page and then making a
decision so they're easy to read they
are so as long as you can keep that in
mind it's called second person the way
those stories are written but those are
fun for sure absolutely
I always got scared I would I would hold
like the different pages and like yes I
died in the story of course I didn't
like to lose but there's actually that's
a good another nice thing about those
books is there they you you will read
them again and again because you want to
discover the different possibilities and
so rereading something it gets easier to
read and it's good practice for you yeah
yeah so choose your own adventure books
yeah what was the series that you read
up I don't remember I they were it was I
remember it was like an adventure series
sort of like Indiana it wasn't Indiana
Jones but it was that style of
adventures like you're a treasure hunter
in the jungle stuff like that
I remember reading ones like that I see
hey I'm not sure what other ones there
are only answers I'm sure there's a lot
yeah there those are very good nice
video okay alright what's your next one
my last one is also maybe more for
advanced or intermediate learners and
it's the New York Times and I'll bear
with me I know you might be thinking oh
that's the
very difficult but I recommend the New
York Times for a few reasons one it's
always nice to stay up on current events
and reading about the news and current
events in English things that are
happening now in English you'll be able
to then go talk about them in English
the second reason that I've recommended
the New York Times is similar to your
first recommendation you can find
something to read in the New York Times
if you don't want to read the news read
the Travel section read the the food
section you know there's different
sections of the New York Times that you
can read based on your interest and the
third reason I've chosen the New York
Times is because the New York Times
online has a very cool feature you can
double click on any word that you don't
understand and it will give you the
definition so for learners it's very
useful so if you're worried about you
know understanding all the vocabulary in
an article or improving your vocabulary
this is a very very easy way to do it
you don't need to sit there with the
dictionary open while you read you just
need to double click on the word a
little pop-up window will tell you the
definition you can close the window and
keep reading so it's very very useful
for vocabulary building that's cool
that's way cool and as an extra bonus
for extra advanced learners you can try
the New York Times crossword puzzle Oh
as you can crossword puzzles are great
vocabulary practice like games I guess
it is essentially a game yeah New York
Times the like it's infamously difficult
to get harder through the week
it's Sunday crossword is the most the
most difficult yeah I went through a
phase a couple years doing the New York
Times crossword puzzle every day I want
to I wanted to get good at it and I
could complete through Wednesday pretty
easily Thursday maybe I never really
made it past Thursday Friday I couldn't
really do weekends were like forget it
so for reference a crossword puzzle is a
word game so a crossword puzzle it's
like a grid of lines and columns and
there are empty boxes and each
line or each column there's a word hint
there's a clue about which word fits in
the boxes so you have to choose and
spell correctly the word so you might
need to erase the word or you might need
to try a few different words but it's a
test of your spelling for one it's a
test of your vocabulary too and for more
difficult crossword puzzles it can be a
test of your knowledge of other subjects
so it's not just words it's also history
and science and literature like there
are so many different things that go
into the clues for crossword puzzles so
those are really really good ways to
test your knowledge they're difficult
even for native speaker absolutely yeah
totally difficult so if you want to try
definitely Google for some English
crossword puzzles you can search for
easy ones also yes and they make
crossword puzzles for English learners
and a lot of those are graded to a
specific level or they're on a specific
topic you know you could do a crossword
puzzle on the ocean and learn vocabulary
related to the ocean for example so
there's a lot of different crosswords
that you could find you know at for your
level mm-hmm yeah so that could be a fun
way to practice reading and to practice
spelling as well it's so fun stuff all
right so those are a couple of different
reading recommendations there's quite
quite a lot to choose from but I think
as long as you're interested in what
you're reading like that's maybe the
hardest part at least for me yeah
absolutely
you know just find a thing you like find
something that's interesting and you
will stay motivated to read it mhm
agreed agreed are you reading anything
now I am reading something now I am
reading a book by David Mitchell who is
a very wonderful author who is maybe
most famous for Cloud Atlas huh they
made it which they made into movies I
saw and I'm reading on numbered no what
am i reading not number nine dream I
bought two books of his recently I
brought in them number nine dream and
[Music]
with something's black swan' green
that's what it's called
black swuan Green is the book I'm
reading now by David Mitchell I see it
is a good book cool
I'm reading uh I've gone back into
history I told you about this the other
day I'm reading letters from a stoic at
the moment by Seneca the old stoic
philosopher for kind of just interesting
essays showing off advice life advice so
I'm not showing off the common book yeah
I've got I've got Seneca on my
nightstand as well I don't read the
things that you read so it's to show you
know everybody has something behind
something you like
yeah and read it absolutely absolutely
that's the point here all right so those
are quite a few recommendations some
ideas but if you like the video which we
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come and check us out at English class
101.com you can find some other reading
resources on the website there so don't
forget to stop by thanks very much for
watching this episode of English topics
and we will see you again next time bye
bye
[Music]