hi i'm vanessa from speak english with
vanessa calm today we're going to talk
about six books that you can read to
improve your english skills let's get
started
personally i'm a big fan of reading and
when it comes to learning languages i
think reading is an excellent key to
help you improve your vocabulary to
remember natural grammar structures and
just to improve your overall knowledge
of english so today i want to share with
you six books that are different levels
to help you improve your english but
there are so many other books that i
recommend because i love reading and i
want to share all great books with you
so what i'm going to do is in the blog
post for this video lesson i'm going to
write a lot of other book
recommendations so in the description
below this video
you can click on the link to see a lot
of other recommendations and also at the
end of this video i'll add a little
button so that you can see as many books
as possible and see which one would be a
good fit for you the first book that i
want to talk about is a famous
children's author don't be afraid to
read children's books they can also be
full of rich characters interesting
stories and great vocabulary that will
help you improve this book is fantastic
mr fox it's written by the same guy
Roald Dahl who also wrote Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory James and the
Giant Peach he wrote a lot of famous
kids books and I got this book at the
library just to show you a sample of his
writing style I'd like to read the first
couple couple sentences to you so that
you can see the level and see if it
would be a good fit for you let's start
with chapter 1 the three farmers down in
the valley there were three farms the
owner of these farms had done well they
were rich men
they were also nasty men all three of
them were about as nasty and mean as any
men you could meet their names were
farmer bogus farmer bunts and farmer
being and then in this chapter they go
on to talk about these mean farmers and
then you get to meet the main character
who is a fox and this story is just fun
and entertaining and there are some
great vocabulary words that will help
you to step-by-step improve this is the
easiest book that I want to recommend
today and what I recommend in general if
you think that this book could be
interesting go to amazon.com search for
this book and Amazon does a great job of
giving recommendations so you'll see
people who like this book also like and
you can see some other books that are a
similar level maybe similar story and
that way you can expand from just this
one book let's take a look at the next
one that's a little bit harder the next
book that I want to recommend is one
that actually some of my students some
of my English students are currently
reading it is the Curious Incident of
the dog in the night-time this book is
really clever it's not too challenging
but it's a good level up as you can see
it's a little bit thicker I'm going to
read the first couple sentences and I'll
let you it'll let you see the style of
writing the finished structure maybe is
a little more complex and let's get
started it was seven minutes after
midnight the dog was lying on the grass
in the middle of the lawn in front of
mrs. shears house its eyes were closed
it looked as if it was running on its
side the way dogs run when they think
they're chasing a cat in a dream but the
dog was not running or asleep the dog
was dead
whoo so in this book a child is
a story and he's trying to solve the
mystery of the Curious Incident of the
dog there's a dog that's dead and he's
trying to solve this mystery it's just a
clever interesting light book there are
also some some pictures so the child
who's telling the story he also likes to
explain things through pictures so this
is something that he drew and it's a
really clever way to tell a story so
this is my second recommendation the
next level up let's talk about another
book the next book that I want to
recommend is a little more challenging
but it's similar to the dog story it is
the Diary of a young girl and Frank
you've probably heard this heard of this
book and in this story and Frank writes
a diary about her life during world war
two when she's hiding in an attic with
her family and they're hiding from the
Nazis it's really just I openin to see
that a young 13 14 year old girl can
write such beautiful words such deep
thoughts and when I read this book it
just touched me in a different way so I
wanted to recommend it and like before I
want to read a couple sentences so that
you can see in English this style of her
writing she says I hope I will be able
to confide everything to you as I have
never been able to confide in anyone and
I hope you will be a great source of
comfort and support she's writing a
diary and she's talking to the diary I
hope that you the diary will give me
comfort and support
so she's writing just such a clear
powerful message in this book I
recommend it if you feel like this maybe
is too thick for you there are a lot of
shortened versions of her diary so feel
free to check it out see if you have an
English library in your area maybe an
english section of your
library check it out of the library for
free like I did and that way you can try
it or go on Amazon and read a couple
pages usually they let you see a couple
pages for free check out a couple pages
and see if it would be a good level for
you and a good way to challenge your
English skills let's talk about the next
book the next book is actually two books
and kind of just a general idea it is
series of books so here we have Harry
Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia
these are two different series these are
actually my French versions of these
books that I have read to help me
improve my French skills but I recommend
if you enjoyed a series like this Harry
Potter Narnia
Hunger Games if you enjoyed that in your
native language
that's excellent you already know the
story the vocabulary is challenging but
the general concepts aren't too too
difficult to advance there's not too
many descriptions and this is a good
place to start reading something that
you've already read and going back and
checking it out in English so these are
just two examples but if there's another
series that you like go ahead and do the
same thing with that the next book is I
think one of the most challenging of the
books that I've mentioned so far this
book is certainly not for children it's
for adults and it is the Kite Runner
this book is about modern-day
Afghanistan and it follows a young boy
living in the city trying to figure out
life all of the good and bad things that
happen to him and his strength and just
his journey there's also a second book
written by this author it's not a series
but he wrote another book in the similar
setting called a Thousand Splendid Suns
but this is the first book and the
second one if you enjoy this one you can
read that one as well this book I'm
going to read a couple sentences at the
beginning just to show you his style of
writing and sometimes it's easier to see
the words
and hear them at the same time instead
of just listening so if it feels
challenging to you just listen don't
worry go to Amazon and check out a
couple pages try to read it yourself and
see if it's a good fit let's read a
couple sentences chapter one December
2001 I became what I am today at the age
of twelve on a frigid overcast day in
the winter of 1975 I remember the
precise moment crouching behind a
crumbled mud wall peeking into the alley
near the frozen Creek that was a long
time ago but it's wrong what they say
about the past I've learned about how
you can bury it because the path claws
its way out looking back now I realize I
have been peeking into that deserted
alley for the last 26 years it's a
beautiful book certainly a little more
challenging than the other ones but if
you feel comfortable with your reading
skills and you want something to just
enjoy read this book check out on Amazon
other recommended books that are similar
and you'll be able to really expand your
reading style the final book is the only
nonfiction book that I'm recommending
today because I think it's great to read
fiction books and get lost in a story in
English this way you've kind of
forgotten that you're studying language
you're just immersing yourself in
English but a lot of people enjoy
reading nonfiction as well I certainly
do but there's a lot of topics different
topics that might interest you that
don't interest me
so I chose one book and I wanted to
present it to you how to win friends and
influence people by Dale Carnegie this
is an extremely popular book and it's
something that you can take chapter by
chapter and learn something from each
chapter when you're reading non-fiction
I recommend
taking some notes because you're
supposed to learn something specific in
each chapter if you want to learn how to
win friends and influence people you're
going to want to remember each of his
tips
so when you read nonfiction take a
notebook and after each chapter write
some things that you learned or that you
said I'd like to review a couple
sentences from this book even though
it's nonfiction he tells a lot of
stories to make it easier to read these
are usually true stories from his life
from things that happen in the world and
they give good concrete examples for
what he's about to talk about so let's
start with chapter 1 and I'm going to
read just a couple sentences chapter 1
if you want to gather honey don't kick
over the Beehive on May 7th
1931 the most sensational manhunt New
York City had ever known had come to its
climax
after weeks of search to gun Crowley the
killer the gunman who didn't smoke or
drink with that Bey trapped in his
sweethearts apartment on West End Avenue
hmm so here you can see he's about to
tell an interesting story about a killer
trying to find a killer but he's going
to use this story to explain something
broader another idea to help you win
friends and influence people I hope that
these six books have been useful to you
and helped you to find a starting place
for reading in English like I've
mentioned throughout this video go to
amazon.com and search for one or more of
these books or another book that you
like you can check out the recommended
books that are similar and that way you
can see other options and also I'd like
to share a lot more books with you that
I love to read so please click on the
blog post below this video or at the end
of the video so that you can check out
other recommendations and now I have a
question
for you do you like to read or do you
like to read in English and what books
do you recommend let's learn from each
other suggestions thanks so much for
learning with me and I'll see you the
next time bye