Hey, everyone.
I'm Alex.
Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on: "5 Books to Improve Your English".
So, one of the most common questions I get from students is: "Which books should I read
to improve my English?"
This video is for you.
So, today, I'm going to look at five books that I have chosen to help you build your
vocabulary, increase your comprehension, and develop your speaking and reading confidence.
Now, if you are interested in any of the five books that I mention in the video, we have
a link to Amazon where you can get the e-book version or the print version of the book;
or if you want the audiobook version, you can click the link below to Audible, and there,
you can sign up for a 30-day trial and get your first book for free.
Now, this video is specifically for intermediate and advanced level students.
If you are a beginner student, I probably wouldn't recommend jumping into, you know,
this level of literature right now.
So, this is specifically for intermediate and advanced level students.
Let's not waste any more time, and let's look at the first book.
Charlotte's Web by E.B.
White.
So, this is a childhood classic.
It is a young adult fiction book; it is only 184 pages; and it's basically a farm story
about a girl, a pig, and a spider.
There's also a movie out, you know, about the book, so you can check out the book, watch
the movie, and you can understand more.
So, what's cool about this book: It is written in the simple past, so you get a lot of past
tense practice, and the vocabulary is not that difficult.
So let me read the opening paragraph of chapter two.
So, before I start: Fern is the name of the girl, and Wilbur is the name of her pig.
Chapter 2: Wilbur.
Fern loved Wilbur more than anything.
She loved to stroke him, to feed him, to put him to bed.
Every morning as soon as she got up, she warmed his milk, tied his bib on, and held the bottle
for him.
Every afternoon when the school bus stopped in front of her house, she jumped out and
ran to the kitchen to fix another bottle for him.
She fed him again at suppertime, and again just before going to bed.
Mrs. Arable gave him a feeding around noontime each day when Fern was away in school.
Wilbur loved his milk, and he was never happier than when Fern was warming up a bottle for
him.
He would stand and gaze up at her with adoring eyes.
So, as you can see, it's a cute, sweet story with a very tragic part that I will not spoil
here in this video, if you have never read the book.
This is a book that makes children cry.
Maybe it can make you cry.
So, let's go on to the second book.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, a classic children's book that was also made
into a classic children's movie.
So, this book is around 250 pages; it depends on which version you get.
I have this beautiful edition that was given to me as a birthday gift a couple of years
ago, and it has, like, nice pictures and everything.
It's kind of pretty.
And, yeah, it looks really nice.
So, depending on the version you get, you can get...
It can be shorter or it can be longer.
So, this is basically, if you don't know The Wizard of Oz, it's about a girl who goes on
an adventure in a fantasy land where she meets, you know, a lion, a tinman, a scarecrow, and
she goes with her dog, Toto; and there's an evil witch.
And it's a really cool adventure story.
I actually read it for the first time when I was in my late 20s, and I read it super-fast
because it's written in such a fun way; there's always something happening, and you're going
from one adventure to the next adventure to the next; it doesn't let you breathe.
So it's a really fun adventure story.
Let me read a little bit of it for you, here.
Let's just choose a random chapter.
Okay, so here's Chapter 10: The Guardian of the Gate.
It was sometime before the cowardly lion awakened, for he had lain among the poppies a long while,
breathing in their deadly fragrance.
But when he did open his eyes and roll off the truck, he was very glad to find himself
still alive.
"I ran as fast as I could", he said, sitting down and yawning.
"But the flowers were too strong for me.
How did you get me out?"
So it has a lot of these kind of escape - run, escape - run sections and adventures; one
by one by one.
It's really a ton of fun; I really recommend it.
Check out The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, either the print version or the audiobook version;
they're both really good.
Let's look at the next book.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.
It's a long title, but it's a very interesting adult fiction book.
Now, it's only 221 pages; nice and thin.
You can probably finish it in a couple of days.
And it's a murder mystery and family drama that's told in the first-person perspective.
Now, what's really fascinating about this book is that first-person perspective is told
by an autistic boy; a boy with autism.
So, you see the world through this boy's eyes in a very interesting, fascinating way.
What makes this book excellent for English speakers/English learners is that a lot of
the sentences are very short, and the boy's mind is very logical.
So he doesn't jump around a lot; he says: "I like this because this", and then: "This
is because this", so it's very logical and well-paced.
So, let me read a little bit of this.
So, again, it's told from the perspective of a boy with autism.
He says: This is a murder mystery novel.
Siobhan said that I should write something I would want to read myself.
Mostly, I read books about science and maths.
I do not like proper novels.
In proper novels, people say things like: "I am veined with iron, with silver, and with
streaks of common mud.
I cannot contract into the firm fist which those clench who do not depend on stimulus."
What does this mean?
I do not know; nor does Father, nor does Siobhan, or Mr. Jeavons.
I have asked them.
Siobhan has long, blonde hair and wears glasses which are made of green plastic; and Mr. Jeavons
smells of soap and wears brown shoes that have approximately 60 tiny, circular holes
in each of them.
So, he is very detailed and...
Don't worry, if you didn't understand the part where the boy says: "I don't know what
this means", I don't know what it means, so he's making a point-right?-that some old novels,
old fiction is super difficult to understand.
And, as you can see, his voice, though, is very clear.
Now, this is the only book of the five where I will specifically recommend that you get
the physical version, because the boy...
He draws a lot of diagrams in the book and pictures that really, you know...
Like, here he talks about the constellation Orion, and he's like: "Well, that could be
anything; it could be a dinosaur if you put it, you know, in any way you want."
So, I really recommend for this one that you get the physical copy because you really get
into the boy's mind and you see how he thinks, and the types of puzzles that he works out
in his head.
So, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - highly recommended.
Let's go to the next book.
Fallen by David Maine.
This is the most difficult of the five books I'm recommending to you today.
This is definitely adult fiction.
It's 244 pages, and it is a retelling of the story of Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel in
the Bible.
So, if you like different versions of Bible stories; if you want to, you know, read someone's
interpretation of Cain's personality and Abel's personality, God's personality, and Adam and
Eve's personality - this is a really fascinating book.
What's really cool about it is that it goes backwards in time.
When it starts, Able has been dead for 50 years and Cain is a very broken, old man.
And then the book goes back in time, back in time, back in time, step by step until
the last chapter where we have Adam and Eve getting kicked out of Paradise; out of Eden
for the first time.
So, it gives a lot of cool, you know, texture and context to this classic Bible story.
Let me read you just a brief section from the second chapter, which is actually chapter
39.
So you start with chapter 40, and you go: 40, 39, 38, until you get back to 1.
So, Chapter 39: The Brother.
Lately something strange has been happening to Cain.
He has been having conversations with his dead brother.
In the early morning during the rift between sleep and consciousness, Able appears in the
hut, squatting at the foot of Cain's sleeping mat, cracking his knuckles or picking his
teeth.
"And how is it with you lately?" he likes to ask.
His voice is colourless, like the air.
Able has been gone 50 years now and Cain is a jumpy, scared, old man.
So the language is a little more poetic in this book, so I really recommend this for
you if you are a more advanced student.
And the experiment I would recommend for this is getting the physical book and the audiobook,
so you can hear the beautiful spoken poetry of some of the language in this book, and
read it and take your time to underline any vocabulary that might be new for you.
All right, let's look at one more book.
Wonder by R.J.
Palacio.
Now, I only have listened to the audiobook version of this book, so I don't have the
physical copy.
However, I have learned, through the magic of the internet, that it is 311 pages, and
the audiobook version that I have on my phone is about eight hours.
I love this book.
It's one of the few books where I was finishing it at about 11:30 at night, listening to it
on the couch in the living room, and a single tear...
A single tear came down my face as I was listening to the end of this book.
I was just, like: "You go, kid.
You're...
You did it."
Okay?
So...
No spoilers, though.
So, what this book is about and what is so interesting about it: It's about a boy named
August who goes to middle school.
Now, what is special about August is that he was born with a very rare condition, and
he had to have a lot of surgeries on his face.
So most of his life he has received schooling at home, from his parents, and this is the
first time - in grade 5, where his parents say: "You know, Auggie"-that's what they call
him; Auggie or August-"maybe it's time for you to go to a school where you can interact
with other kids".
Now, of course, because August's face looks different than other kids, he is anxious,
he is nervous, but he is also, you know, really cool.
He has a sense of humour, and I really like his perspective on life.
What is interesting about the book is that it goes into many different points of view.
So, you start with August's point of view, but then you get a chapter where it's his
sister's point of view; it's one of his friend's from school point of view.
And this is why I loved the audiobook version because you get a different voice with every
single point of view in the audiobook, so you're never confused about who is talking.
So, August takes up many chapters, and then suddenly it switches to somebody else, and
you're like: "This is a different voice.
Oh, okay, it's this person talking now."
It's a beautiful book.
Like, I really, really would love for you guys to listen to it or read it, and let me
know if you loved it as much as I did, because it's wonderful.
So, that's it guys.
So, to review, the five books that I recommended in this video were: Charlotte's Web, The Wonderful
Wizard of Oz, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Fallen, and Wonder.
Now, if you want to check out these books, you can check out the links that are attached
to this video; if you want to get the e-book version or the print version of any of these
books.
And, again, for the print version, I strongly recommend The Curious Incident of the Dog
in the Night-Time; or if you want the audiobook version, pretty much the other four are really
strong audiobooks.
Wonder, in particular, is a great audiobook.
You can check out the link attached to this video for Audible, and there, you can sign
up for a 30-day trial where you get your first audiobook for free.
And I can say that I've been with Audible for three years now, and I love them, so check
them out.
And maybe we can talk about the audiobooks that you're listening to.
All right, guys, that's it for this lesson.
There is no quiz for this one; it's more of a book recommendation lesson.
The only thing I'll say is: Check out the books; tell me what you think of them; let
me know if you have any vocabulary questions.
Until next time, thanks for clicking.