hi yeah what's going on i'm ethan your
real-life english fluency coach
and in today's lesson we're going to
look at one of the best ways
to improve your english vocabulary and
that of course is through reading
alright
so we're going to look at a bunch of
different books that go from
intermediate to advanced level
and cover all sorts of genres so pretty
much anyone who's watching this
will be able to find something that
you're really going to love
now we won't be looking at any
children's books because i don't tend to
recommend these to english learners
as they'll have kind of strange obscure
vocabulary which isn't so practical for
your actual
english use so we'll get right into the
list
but quickly before we do i will let you
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alright so the first one that we're
going to look at is an american classic
i actually had to read it when i was in
high school and i have to tell you
it was one of my favorite reading
assignments during that time
now this one is more advanced it's
actually satirical like
many of vonnegut's books and that
basically means that it uses
humor in order to criticize now it's
about some of the atrocities during
world war ii
and it takes into account some of
vonnegut's own personal experience
in that war and it also ties in some
aspects of science fiction like aliens
and
time travel and because of the satirical
nature of this book i actually found
myself laughing out loud during certain
moments
which is kind of a way that he breaks
some of the deeper parts of this book
now it has some more controversial
language in it which actually got it
banned in some schools and libraries
when it first came out
but now it's considered an american
classic that many people like me
will actually read while they're in high
school so i highly recommend that you
either check out slaughterhouse5
or any other book by this legendary
american author
so the first one we looked at was an
american classic and this one that
you've probably heard of
is a british classic now this is really
great for intermediate learners because
it includes novels and short stories
and short stories because they're
shorter if you're actually trying to
kind of like study it
and learn from it then you'll find this
much more accessible than something
that's really long
and what's great about a mystery like
this one is that it'll keep you curious
to find out what is the solution
to the mystery that they're trying to
solve so you'll be wanting to keep
reading
even late into the night now a really
great way that you could learn with this
would even be combining it
by watching the incredible series from
the bbc
starring benedict cumberbatch and you
can watch that at the same time or maybe
after you finish the books
so i highly recommend that you check
this out sorry which was it afghanistan
or a rock
all right so our next one is another
more advanced book
now this one is a fictional story that
takes place in afghanistan
and when i read it the usa was actually
at war in afghanistan
and i found it really interesting to
learn some aspects of that culture
especially because it was in contrast to
what was being said in the media a lot
now this is a book about friendship
betrayal
and redemption and it includes some
really graphic and powerful scenes
so it's definitely not for the faint of
heart but if you're looking for a book
that will have a big impact on you
then i highly recommend that you give
this one a read
all right if you're like me maybe you
don't have a lot of time
to sit down and read so a really great
solution for this is actually listening
to audiobooks
i love doing this every morning while
i'm making my breakfast
and kind of getting ready for the day
and it's a really convenient way to kill
two birds with one stone
especially for you as an english learner
you can actually
listen to the audiobook and read at the
same time and this would be a way that
you can not only improve your vocabulary
in your reading
but also improve your listening and your
pronunciation
and another exercise i highly recommend
to my students is
actually recording yourself reading and
then listening back to it and comparing
it to the original
it's gonna be a really great way to get
some speaking practice in as well
so you can try any of these books on
today's list as audiobooks
absolutely free with audible by clicking
the link
down in the description below you'll
actually be able to get
a free 30-day trial and two audiobooks
for free
so i highly recommend that you try that
out because this could be a super
convenient way to improve your english
listening and your reading
all right so our next one is definitely
advanced and i was split
whether or not to actually include
something from this author but the
reason that i did
is because shakespeare had such a huge
impact on english as it's spoken today
in fact he invented over 1700 words
that are still used in modern english
now as i said this is very difficult to
read
even for natives but it's really for any
of you who
love literature and you really want to
see english at its highest expression of
use now of course this won't be so
practical vocabulary
for your everyday english speaking but
of course a lot of the other books in
this list will be more along those lines
now the reason that i chose romeo and
juliet for this list
is because you probably already know the
story and that's going to help you a lot
in your understanding of it
now a hack that you could do sort of a
little trick that even natives will do
when they're studying this in school
is to buy the no fear version now
basically what this
is it's the original play but on one
page it'll have the original text
and then on the next page it will have
kind of a translation
to more modern english so this can be a
really great way that you can kind of
see this beautiful
use of the language and then directly
understand it through a more clear
explanation
in modern english that you're learning
or another thing that you could do
if you really want to just challenge
yourself with that original text is just
by the cliff notes
which kind of give you the academic
explanations of what different things
mean
so that you can read and then you can
kind of take those to really see if
you're
understanding everything that you read
finally after you finished reading you
could go ahead and
watch the famous film starring leonardo
dicaprio
all right let's take a look at another
advanced one that's going to give you
another view
of english used in a really beautiful
way you know probably the highest
expression
of any language can really be through
poetry
and a really great thing about it is
that poems can be really short
they can be even just a few phrases but
you can spend hours reflecting on them
so one thing i might recommend to you if
you like poetry is just try reading
one poem in english per day now the
reason i chose this one is because maya
angelou is revered as one of the
best american poets actually her poem
i know why the caged bird sings made a
huge impact on me when i had to study it
in high school
a free bird leaps on the back of the
wind and floats downstream till the
currents
end and dips his wings in the orange sun
rays
and dare to claim the sky
but a bird that stalks down his narrow
cage
can seldom see through his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and his feet are
tied so he opens his throat to sing
the free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the
sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on the dawn
bright lawn
and he names the sky his own but a caged
bird stands
on the grave of dreams and his shadow
shouts
on a nightmare scream his wings are
clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sin
the caged bird sings with a fearful
trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant
hill for the caged bird
things of freedom now the history of
african americans in the country is
really truly fascinating
but it's something that not many
learners are actually in touch with or
even aware of
kind of a darker part of american
history so maya angelou's writing is a
really great way
to kind of get some insight into this
all right so let's move over to
something a little bit lighter
now this intermediate book i actually
just read this
year and it's absolutely hilarious so it
mixes aspects of
humor and self-development in a
fictional story
so it's a story about a poor young boy
who grows up to become a rich and
successful businessman
in rising asia which basically just
means that it's some city in
asia within an economy that is quickly
developing
now i actually was laughing out loud at
times reading this one guys
so i really think that you'll enjoy it
it's a quick read
and it's really great if you enjoy
reading books about self-development but
want something that's a bit lighter that
you could even read before bed
and if you do enjoy self-development
books then i highly recommend that you
check out this lesson i recently made
giving you six books that will change
your english and your life
so you can find that by clicking up here
or down the description below
alright so next on our list we have
another intermediate read i actually
listened to the audiobook of this
which is really wonderfully narrated on
a trip to brazil and it made it
fly by now this is a
young adult book technically but i
highly recommended it to all of my
students because
neil gaiman is just such a beautiful
writer
so i think that any adult really could
enjoy this captivating story
now it's about a boy whose family is
murdered and he somehow ends up in a
graveyard where the ghosts who live
there raise him so we kind of see his
adventures growing up in this graveyard
so it's light it's enjoyable and you'll
learn some really great vocabulary
so if you love books about adventure and
i highly recommend that you give this
one a read or listen
and another way that you can really take
your english vocabulary to the next
level
which is obviously going to also help
you to read some of your favorite books
is with our free three-part masterclass
so i highly recommend that you check
that out you're going to have a ton of
fun
you can learn more and sign up by
clicking up here or down in the
description below
all right so this is another advanced
one and it's actually the only book on
this that is not actually a native
english book
but it has a really great translation
now it's from brazilian author paulo
coelho
and it's on this list because it could
really make a huge impact on you
and also i recommend it because it was
the first ever book that i read in
portuguese
now it's about a man who goes on a
journey searching for a treasure
but really the real treasure are the
lessons that he learns along the way
now another book that i almost added to
this list but i didn't include because
it's quite similar to this
is called siddhartha so it's another
really great read
because it includes a lot of great
lessons for your life so i highly
recommend that you pick up and read
either of these
if you want something that you're not
only going to highly enjoy reading
but they can also help you to change
your life
alright we are down to the last two
which may or may not surprise you
so the second to last one is harry
potter
now many of you i know will have already
read this but it could be really great
for you to reread it again
in english now depending on which book
you pick up these could be
from intermediate to advanced and as i
said they're really great for language
learners
this was actually the first book that i
read in spanish and german
uh i've heard that you learned uh
basically how to speak english from
harry potter is that correct or yes
uh my uncle taught me to read and to
speak at the same time with the harry
potter books
so is that mean that maybe some of your
first
english that you could speak was
spell-based
yes i was such an annoying child i
like god bless my parents it means that
i was either
casting spells continuously or using
very
annoying words like i was such a
precocious annoying little kid it's like
mummy i clean the dishes meticulously
now young adult book series like this
are really fantastic because the author
tends to develop them
as the audience does which means that
kind of as you go on
reading the first couple books you might
find really easy but then as you go on
they become
more and more difficult so if you're
right now at an intermediate level and
you start with the first book
kind of as you're going by reading more
and more books your english will be
progressing as you get further in the
story
and they become more difficult and
something really great you could do is
actually combine reading the books with
watching the movies
so a great place for you to start is
actually with this recent lesson that
andrea made
where she teaches you with the first
book which is called harry potter and
the sorcerer's stone if you read it in
the usa or harry potter and the
philosopher's stone if you read it in
the uk
so you can check that out by clicking up
here or down the description below
but if you've already read harry potter
and you want to read something similar
but new instead then i highly recommend
the series called
the tales of the attore now i absolutely
love
japanese culture i grew up watching
anime and
playing nintendo games and this one
takes place
in feudal japan but it's a fictional
story
so i highly recommend that you check
that one out as well
if you want another really great series
that might remind you a little bit of
harry potter because it's also coming of
age but that is not the last book series
on this list
the last one is actually
hunger games so this one is number one
and it's an intermediate read the reason
that i placed it before harry potter
is actually because i find it a bit more
accessible it's only three books
instead of seven and i think that it's a
really easy and fast read
now as always when learning english the
most important thing is to keep it fun
and this is definitely true of the
hunger games
it's actually the only book that i
personally have ever read in less than
24 hours
i remember i was reading it at night and
i looked over the clock and it was
already 3 am and i was almost finished
with it
and i just kept on going so as i
mentioned this one is a quick read
you can learn so much from it and we
also have a lesson with the movies if
you want to learn with that as well
alright i hope you really enjoyed
today's list now quickly before you go i
want to just give you a couple of tips
that will help you with your reading
so first off i recommend that you always
choose books that are aligned with what
you already love reading in your native
language
in fact you could choose a book that
you've already read in your native
language and read the translation of it
in
english now this is really great because
it's easier to understand when you
already know this story
now if you want some more tips on how to
improve your reading
then all you have to do is give this
video a like to let me know and i will
create that video for you
and if there's any books that you think
that i missed or that you absolutely
loved reading english
then comment that down below so you can
help other learners from around the
world
who love reading just as much as you do
to discover their next
great book now it's time to go beyond
the classroom and live your english
ah yeah all right so
the first book that we looked at was the
seven habits of highly effective people
now how do you actually even build a
good habit or
break a bad one well journalist charles
duhigg got really curious about all
these questions
and dug into all the science of it
bringing us a book that brings us some
down to our stories
that help us learn all about how we can
replace our bad habits
with really good ones