A language learners’ forum

I need to do a fair bit of extensive reading to improve my Italian and I am looking for good intermediate level books. I have finished the Little Prince but would prefer shorter-length books and perhaps material free of charge? Modern crime series and such are okay. It doesn't have to be highbrow, just not LP or Harry Potter.

Italo Calvino is pretty good for an intermediate level although some of the vocab used is quite outdated. Il visconte dimezzato and Le citta invisibili are good

For crime, there's Carlo Lucarelli and Andrea Camilleri (although he uses a lot of Sicilian words, it shouldn't be a problem for an intermediate learner).

In the Andrea Camilleri mold I recently really enjoyed "Non è stagione" by Antonio Manzini.

Calvino is a really good recommendation, he's a fabulous (and approachable) writer.

I found a lot of Hardy Boys mystery novels translated into Italian.

Do you have a Kindle? If you are looking for something really quick and easy, grab Che fastidio! (It's free!). It's basically just a collection of really short texts (some just a sentence long) about things that are annoying about life. These are reader responses to the book Momenti di insopprimibile fastidio by Federica Bernardo which I guess would also be quite easy to read, but I don't know because I haven't bought it.

Apologies if you are not interested in this kind of thing. I just thought I would mention Che fastidio! because it was free. I will be following this thread for recommendations for my own reading.

In bocca al lupo!

This may not be your cup of tea, but when I was learning Italian, the first book I read to completion was The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown, translated into Italian. The language was accessible and I already knew the story.

I also ended up reading several Patricia Cornwall novels. They were equally accessible.

Pick novels that are easy to read in your native language, then look for translations of them.

R.
==

Da Vinci Code was my first novel in Italian, too. At that time, strangely, it was easier than any other novel I browsed in the library. It probably still is. It seems I can only understand the novels available in the free Kindle eBook section. These are what I've read:

Il codice Da Vinci (felt easy, didn't need to use dictionary)
Emozioni nella nuvola (felt very easy, definitely didn't need to use dictionary)
Non ti vorrei (didn't need to but preferred to use dictionary) (I haven't finished this book yet)
La scusa (harder, needed dictionary, ok with dictionary)
Un'impresa da eroi (didn't need to but preferred to use dictionary) (I haven't finished this book yet)

PS. Self-development books tend to be easy, it seems. I means ones about "how to form good habits" and "how to think positively".

I love Calvino's writing but I found it very challenging, lots of uncommon vocabulary. I read a few of his books last year (when I had been studying Italian for around two years) but I struggled through, only thanks to my Kindle dictionary, and decided to leave the rest until I had a higher level.

Fabio Volo is very easy to read. The stories are a bit cheesy and banal, not the kind of thing I'd ever read in English, but they're quite readable and full of everyday language. I've read Il giorno in più and È una vita che ti aspetto.

I like Niccolò Ammaniti, but he can also be a bit on the hard side, a lot of descriptive language and slang. I've also read Esche vive by Fabio Genovesi which was the same sort of style but a little easier.

Translations are probably a good bet for starting out but I've never tried.

Beppe Severgnini has some fun books about Italian culture that aren't too hard.

Hrhenry wrote:This may not be your cup of tea, but when I was learning Italian, the first book I read to completion was The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown, translated into Italian. The language was accessible and I already knew the story.

I also ended up reading several Patricia Cornwall novels. They were equally accessible.

Pick novels that are easy to read in your native language, then look for translations of them.

R.
==

I think this may be slightly under my level, or maybe around it.

A bit of a side question: what "lower" genres are popular among the italian writers, what can one look forward to? I would like to read Eco or Calvino one day but I need lots of other books usually (and italian is definitely on my list). Are there many polars? Historical fiction? fantasy? Thrillers? BDs?