German: Improving Reading Skills (Intermediate and Advanced)

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DaveAgain
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Re: German: Improving Reading Skills (Intermediate and Advanced)

Postby DaveAgain » Thu Mar 05, 2020 7:31 am

Andorra by Max Frisch, and Der Vorleser by Bernhard Schlink both appear to be set books for A level (A levels are exams taken by 18 year olds in the UK).

The Goethe eLibrary currently offer both as eBooks, and they also have Der Vorleser as an audiobook.
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Sparverius
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Re: German: Improving Reading Skills (Intermediate and Advanced)

Postby Sparverius » Sun Mar 08, 2020 7:43 am

David1917 wrote:Just an update - I saw a copy of Dichter, Denker und Erzähler for 7 USD on Thriftbooks and decided to roll the dice (since they cost 60 new/30 used on Amazon) with a quality descriptor of "Good." Well, it came today and it is in certainly good condition - no markings/tears, etc. just normal wear.

I must say this book is a beast and I cannot wait to get working on it. The introduction mentioned that the glossary includes all of the words used in the book save for numbers, pronouns, etc. I checked and yes, words like Nacht and gut, which might certainly be expected to be known thoroughly by anyone having spent a few months learning German, were included. The glossary runs 172 pages, at roughly 60 words per page giving a grand total of 10,320.

The format is also ideal - each page has some relevant vocabulary words at the bottom, rather than other readers that put vocabulary lists at the end of each reading and require you to flip back and forth. Very convenient.

Thank you for this recommendation, truly one of the best readers I've seen.

On the back of what's said in this thread, I just ordered a used copy of this as well. I'm very optimistic. Thanks for putting all these resources together, speakeasy!
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Re: German: Improving Reading Skills (Intermediate and Advanced)

Postby tungemål » Sun Mar 08, 2020 10:43 am

I prefer to pick and choose what to read in German, instead of systematically going through a huge textbook. Reading something I want to read is more fun. At the B1-B2 level you just need to take the plunge and start reading native material. Hard in the beginning, but you will improve tremendously.

I take my time reading, since I seem to read intensively, because I find it hard to just skim the text and not looking up words. In the last 1-2 years I read these books/short-stories:
- Der Sandmann (rather difficult to read)
- Sprachen (Gaston Dorren) (not too difficult)
- Die Germanen (history, publisched by Spiegel)(medium difficult)
- Kafka: Der Hungerkünstler (medium difficult)

In addition I read German language forums, news, e-mails, and so on. I don't read much fiction overall, and accessible non-fiction books like the one by Dorren (and on a subject I am interested in) seem to be easier to read. I also like to read books on history. Classic or older novels and stories are often the hardest to read, allthough Kafka doesn't seem to be that hard language wise.
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chove
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Re: German: Improving Reading Skills (Intermediate and Advanced)

Postby chove » Sun Mar 15, 2020 10:25 pm

Thanks for the recommendations in this thread! I picked up German for Reading Knowledge (Jannach) and have just started working with it. I have no real idea what my German reading level is, my vocabulary tends to cause problems so this sort of book should be helpful.
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