How to read in English effectively (read these books first!)

79,744 views ・ 2023-08-27

English with Veronika Mark


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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sometimes you lack motivation to start reading in  English and sometimes you just don't know what to  
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read it's totally okay if you struggle with  the same things this video is for you in this  
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video I want to mention five Super interesting  books that you can read in English to get back  
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into reading and also give you a few tips when it  comes to reading in a foreign language in general  
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not just in English the books I'll be mentioning  later in the video are suitable for people who  
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can already read in English and feel somewhat  confident maybe you just don't know which book  
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to read because you know there are so many books  where the vocabulary is way too complicated but  
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the books I've chosen have great vocabulary so I  hope you like them but what can you do if you're  
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a complete beginner in a foreign language well if  you're a beginner consider reading graded Readers  
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first graded readers are books that are adapted  for language Learners which makes them easier  
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to read and understand they also tend to use  everyday vocabulary which makes them super fun  
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and enjoyable to read The Next Step you could take  is reading books for kids some people say that  
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children's books are a little bit too difficult  for non-native speakers but I would say that it  
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all depends on a book for example recently I got  this uh super cool book it's called Don't Let the  
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Pigeon Drive the Bus looks like this and honestly  it has a whole series it is definitely like a kids  
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book because it's very thin and has a lot of  pictures for example here's just one page like  
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you literally only have one sentence pigeon at  the wheel I mean it's not even a sentence but for  
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example this one is a sentence I never get to do  anything I mean obviously the problem with these  
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books is uh sometimes they are way too simple you  know they have just like a sentence or two but I  
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personally like children's books that's why I  purchase them it's not necessarily because oh  
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my God I want to learn English obviously viously  this book is way too simple for me right now but  
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it's more like oh I like kids books I like  looking through pictures I like reading them  
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like honestly so it all depends on you if you  feel like it's going to work for you then please  
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go ahead and purchase a children's book when it  comes to Spanish for example these are the books  
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I'm reading right now these are already books  for kids but not like super little babies you  
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know because it looks like this and obviously  you have a lot of text here and I like these  
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books because you know again we have pictures  we have text but at the same time it's not too  
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difficult and usually chapters are super short  because we usually struggle with this problem as  
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non-native speakers we get bored because you know  the chapter is too long like so many new words and  
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you're like oh my God I can't read this anymore  but this like actually two pages is one chapter  
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and again it makes it super easy to read you've  also Al probably heard people say oh you should  
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read a book in English if you have read it in  your native language for example and yes that  
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also might work for me one of my favorite books  of all time is Charli and the Chocolate Factory  
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I love this book I read it in my native language  Russian I've read in English multiple times and  
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now I purchased this book in Spanish and so when  I open this book and I see all of the pictures and  
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like all of these words in Spanish I'm excited  because I know what this book is about I know  
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that I love this book so much and you know that's  why I'm excited to read it and obviously the next  
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stage the next stage that every single language  learner wants to get to is reading like actual  
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literature in a foreign language this book is  for adults and this book is very thick and it's  
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all in Spanish to be completely honest it's kind  of hard for me to read sometimes but I also think  
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that for me the problem was I started reading  this book when I just started learning Spanish  
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and I was not ready at all because for example on  December 21st 2022 look how many different words I  
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didn't know it's crazy and now when I look at this  page I'm like I know all these words so again this  
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proves my point that it's absolutely important to  choose the book that is right for you you open the  
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book and you see okay maybe it's too difficult  over me it's too hard then don't read it because  
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what happened to me last year I was like okay I'm  just going to read like one two pages and then um  
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I started reading the book I read the first page  the second page the third page and by the fourth  
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page I was like I can't it's not happening it's  way too hard for me and now I came back to this  
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book and I'm reading it all over again and it's  a lot easier for me it's a lot easier and it's a  
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lot more enjoyable because my level right now is  a lot higher so how can you determine if a book  
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is right for you the level is not too easy or not  too difficult if you have a chance to go to the  
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bookstore and look through an actual physical copy  like you know look through the pages obviously  
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it's kind of the best idea because it will even  motivate you to read once we pick up a book we're  
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like oh my God I want to read but I understand  that sometimes it doesn't work maybe you don't  
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like buying paper books or maybe you don't have  this possibility so for that I recommend Amazon  
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and you don't even have to purchase a book there  all you need to do is go to amazon.com find a  
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book you want to read and then look inside this  book most of the books on Amazon now have this  
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feature and it's super fun for non-native speakers  because this way you can look inside a book for  
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free and kind of read the first maybe just one  or two pages and this way you can determine if  
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this book is too easy or too difficult for you  to be honest I used this feature all the time  
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even when I read in English for example because  I read like a lot of different books in English  
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when it comes to like oh is it easy is it hard  it's not even that important for me anymore what  
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is important is that I like the book when I'm  reading in English because my level is pretty  
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high right now however if I want to choose a book  in Spanish I use Amazon I look inside this book  
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and I'm like okay I can kind of understand what  it is about I feel like it's interesting and I  
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feel like it's the right level for me recently  I've also discovered this amazing thing that  
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we call audiobooks I have used audiobooks in the  past but the problem was I was just listening to  
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a book obviously because it was an audio book  but now what I do is I listen and read at the  
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same time you know how like when we were kids our  parents would read to us and sometimes imagine  
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like your parent opens up a book and they read it  to you and you can kind of follow you can follow  
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the text and you can read together with them so  this is is exactly the same thing that I'm doing  
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right now in Spanish sometimes in English when I  use audiobooks honestly helps me stay more Focus  
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because sometimes there are a lot of difficult  words maybe something too scientific and it's so  
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easy for your mind to wander somewhere but this  technique really helps me stay present and you  
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guys know that I love talking to people about the  books I read and even when I have language classes  
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for example English classes or Spanish classes  I always talk to my teachers about the books  
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I'm reading and I especially love learning on life  XP because there I can find a teacher who has the  
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same interest as me I have been learning Spanish  and life XP for months now and I really like  
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it for example on their website you can choose  English if you want to improve your English and  
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then click on interests for me it's literature  and yoga and here are all the teachers who are  
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also interested in literature and yoga this makes  classes with my teachers super interesting because  
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we can talk about something we both enjoy and  of course on life XP you can study a lot of  
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different languages with professional teachers  my Spanish teacher Eric is absolutely amazing he  
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helps me with my vocabulary pronunciation and  grammar in Spanish thanks to him I discovered  
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a really useful website ino.com where I can read  articles that match my level learning a foreign  
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language with a native speaker like Eric is like  unlocking a secret vault with tips and insights  
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that you won't find anywhere else I'm telling you  it's a game changer you have to try it and see  
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the magic happen for yourself and one more thing  that makes language learning on life X spe super  
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enjoyable is that all the teachers have the same  prices if you subscribe to life xped and to make  
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your experience even more enjoyable you can use  my discount code Veronica English 30 to get 30%  
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off of your subscription if you're using life XP  for the very first time you can use the link in  
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my bio and get your first class on life XP for  only 99 now let's move on to intensive reading  
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versus extensive reading which one is better you  guys are always asking me this question Veronica  
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is it better if I just open a book and read it  if I don't worry about all the new words or do I  
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actually have to pause when I see a new word and  I have to use my dictionary I have to translate  
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the word which approach is better ultimately I  think you have to use both of these methods it  
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honestly depends on your mood because sometimes  I don't feel like translating every single word  
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I don't know I feel a little bit lazy and I think  it's better if I practice extensive reading if I  
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read for enjoyment but if I feel like I'm super  motivated I want to read I want to study I'm going  
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to practice intensive reading which means you  actually like look up every single words maybe  
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you see like a new grammar structure and you try  to understand it so for example if I'm practicing  
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extensive reading if I'm reading for enjoyment  it might look something like this likea no
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so as you can see here I was like not sure what  this word actually meant and total oh solo Oh my  
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God I know this word okay whatever just forget  about it for example let's say um I don't know  
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honestly here I know all the words but let's  imagine I didn't know what the word incomoda  
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meant right I was like hm incomoda again  if I'm practicing for en joyment probably  
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I would not be translating this word I will just  continue reading because for me right now what is  
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more important is reading more pages and More  Words however if I were to practice intensive  
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reading I would be like incomoda what does this  word mean I would go to the dictionary I will  
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translate this word and be like okay so I would  use my computer I would go to Google Translate I  
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would type in and comma that and I will see  that the translation is uncomfortable and I  
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would be like okay perfect so the life because  of that was very uncomfortable like something  
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like that the difference is now I'm trying to  understand the meaning of every single word and  
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now it's time to move on to the actual books I  always recommend people will start with books  
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for young adults because they're a lot easier to  understand than Classics for example actually I  
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think this book I have Right Here Charlie and the  Chocolate Factory well maybe it's not really for  
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young adults more for kids but I feel like young  adults and adults all enjoy this book this book  
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is just amazing you can use the website called  goodreads.com to search for new books for young  
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adults or adults or children this a great website  because there you can see reviews for a book you  
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want to read and you know if people liked it  if they didn't what they thought about it and  
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also you can see like the genre of this book you  can read the short description of this book so I  
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highly recommend this website so the first book  I've chosen is the fault and Our Stars by John  
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Green John Green is one of those authors that I  highly recommend checking out if you're trying  
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to get back into reading if you need motivation  if you want to read books and not feel like oh my  
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God I'm drowning and all of this new vocabulary  then John Green is the author for you the Fon AR  
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sters is probably the most famous book he has so  let's go to Amazon together right now and read  
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kind of like the first paragraph always try to  do it it's super easy and super fun late in the  
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winter of my 17th Year my mother decided I was  depressed presumably because I really left the  
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house spent quite a lot of time in bed read the  same book over and over ate in frequently and  
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devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to  thinking about death so the first paragraph is  
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like interesting like what is it going to be about  and as you can see it's pretty easy to read yes  
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we have a few words here like presumably we have  infrequently also abundant but all of these words  
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are super useful so obviously books are there to  teach you new words you will always find a word  
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or two you don't know the most important thing  is you don't feel too tired and bored because  
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of that the next book is The Perks of Being a  Wallflower I like this book because some of the  
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chapters are written like a letter so this way  you can kind of read the thoughts of a different  
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person and it's pretty fun so again as usual  we're going to Amazon and we're going to check  
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out the first paragraph to make sure this book is  the right level for us dear friend I'm writing to  
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you because she said you listen and understand and  didn't try to sleep with that person at that party  
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even though you you could have please don't try  to figure out who she is because then you might  
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figure out who I am and I really don't want you  to do that I will call People by different names  
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or generic names because I don't want you to find  me I didn't enclose a return address for the same  
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reason I mean nothing bad by this honest so as you  can see here we can already feel like this book is  
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going to be pretty informal like short sentences  like honest or I mean nothing bad by this it's  
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actually the way native speakers speak English in  real life book number three is 13 Reasons Why and  
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actually guys if you like watching movies you  have probably noticed that all of these books  
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I'm mentioning were also used as an inspiration  for the movies with the same names it's great  
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because you'll be reading a book and then later  when you're done you can just watch a movie if  
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you want to so again let's go to Amazon and read  the first few sentences sir she repeats how soon  
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do you wanted to get there I rra to fingers  heart over my left eyebrow the throbbing has  
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become intense it doesn't matter I say throbbing  probably a new word for many of you however it's  
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a very useful word if you have a wound you can  say oh it's throbbing like a very uncomfortable  
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feeling or if you have a headache you can say  throbbing pain so highly recommend to check out  
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this book book number four is called It's Kind of  a Funny Story great book with a lot of humor have  
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you ever noticed how on all the ads on TV people  are watching TV my friend is like B it son my  
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other friend is like no yo that's true my other  other friend is like there's always somebody on  
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a couch unless it's an allergy ad and they're in  a field or on a horse on the beach so as you can  
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see this book is super informal a lot of informal  words saying my friend is like for a book it's  
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extremely informal and then my other other friend  is like instead of saying my other friends said  
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like something like this so yeah highly recommend  it and finally the book that I also wanted to  
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include here is lock and key the genre of this  book is romance and I know that maybe some of  
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you guys don't like it but I also know that some  of you do and also usually books that are kind  
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of in this genre of romance are easier to read  because they're all about love they're all about  
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those like emotions and conversations between  people for example this book by Colleen Hoover is  
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a romance book and honestly I liked it like it's  great originally it was published in English so  
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this is a translative version even though maybe  it's not the most interesting book because it's  
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all about love and like you know all of those  things and sometimes it's quite boring if not  
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written well Colleen Hoover really does know how  to make it interesting so it all depends not all  
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Romans books are boring and finally Jamie said  as I pushed the door open we come to the main  
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event your room I was BRAC for pink Ruffles and  quilting or maybe even applique which was probably  
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kind of unfair but then again I didn't know my  sister anymore much less her decorating Style  
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with total strangers it had always been my policy  to respect the worst usually they and those that  
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you knew best for that matter did not disappoint  so here I don't even know this word applique I'm  
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pretty sure maybe I'm not pronouncing correctly  but I think it's a French word so let's check  
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okay it's like needle work okay very interesting  applique yeah I pronounced correctly so that's  
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great even from the first paragraph We have so  many great words like Ruffles and quilting or  
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maybe even applique so it all depends on what  you like some books are more descriptive they  
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describe a lot of things the environment clothes  people's characters and other books are more like  
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personality driven they're all about a character's  personality their thoughts and their conversations  
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with other people so I think it's going to be it  for this video now I hope you know how to read  
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books in English or in a different for language  effectively sometimes there will be moments when  
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you don't have any motivation and it's totally  okay you can practice extensive reading for  
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example just don't worry about all the words  and just read also don't forget to use the link  
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below and give life XP a try the first lesson is  only 99 Cents if you're ready to subscribe don't  
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forget to use my discount code Veronica English 30  to get a 30% discount if you like this video don't  
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forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe  to my channel and I'll see you in my next
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video
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