6 Books for Improving Your English: Advanced English Lesson

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In the description below this video, you can click on the link to see a lot of other recommendations.

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 kid's books.

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 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 one, 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 Boggis, Farmer Bunce and Farmer Bean."

Then in this chapter, they go on to talk about these mean farmers and then you get to meet

the main character who was fox.

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.

You can see some other books that are as 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 it will let you see the style of writing,

the sentence 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's 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."

In this book, a child is telling the 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 pictures so the child who's telling the story, he also likes to

explain things through pictures.

This is something that he drew and it's a really clever way to tell a story.

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, Anne Frank.

You've probably heard of this book.

In this story, Anne Frank writes a diary about her life during World War II when she's hiding

in an attic with her family and they're hiding from the Nazis.

It's really just eye-opening to see that a young 13, 14-year-old girl can write such

beautiful words, such deep thoughts.

when I read this book, it just touched me in a different way, so I wanted to recommend

it.

Like before, I want to read a couple sentences so that you can see in English the 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.

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.

She's writing just such a clear, powerful message in this book.

I recommend it.

If you feel like this may be 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.

Kind of just a general idea, it is series of books.

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.

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 difficult, too advanced.

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.

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 happened 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.

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.

Sometimes, it's easier to see the words and hear them at the same time instead of just

listening.

If it feels challenging to you to just listen, don't worry.

Go to Amazon.

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 12 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 past claws its way out.

Looking back now, I realized 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.

Checkout on Amazon of the 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.

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 nonfiction, 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.

When you read nonfiction, take a notebook and after each chapter, write some things

that you learned or that he said.

I'd like to read you 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 happened in the world and

they give good concrete examples for what he's about to talk about.

Let's start with chapter one, and I'm going to read just a couple sentences.

Chapter one.

"If you want to gather honey, don't kick over the beehive.

On May 7, 1931, the most sensational manhunt New York City had ever known had come to its

climax.

After weeks of search, "Two Gun" Crowley, the killer, the gunman who didn't smoke or

drink was at bay trapped in his sweetheart's apartment on West End Avenue."

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.

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.

Now, I have a question for you.

Do you like to read or do you like to read in English?

What books do you recommend?

Let's learn from each other's suggestions.

Thanks so much for learning with me and I'll see you the next time.

Bye.