Contents
- 1. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Conan Doyle (The Hound of the Baskervilles – Arthur Conan Doyle)
- 2. 1984 George Orwell
- 3. The Picture of Dorian Grey. Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde)
- 4. And the sun is rising. Ernest Hemingway (The Sun also Rises – Ernest Hemingway)
- 5. Three in the boat, not counting the dog. Jerome K. Jerome (Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K. Jerome)
- 6. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams)
- 7. Catcher in the rye. Jerome Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger)
- 8. The jungle book. Rudyard Kipling (The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling)
- 9. Misery. Stephen King
- 10 451 degrees Fahrenheit. Ray Bradbury (Farenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury)
If you ever decided to thoroughly study English, then you probably bought yourself books in English. Reading will help to enrich vocabulary very quickly. Also, if there is a film adaptation of the book and you watched this film adaptation, this contributes to greater immersion in the storyline. This article will provide a detailed recommendation on which books to choose for beginners to learn the language and for those who have already read some elementary works in English and want something more.
1. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Conan Doyle (The Hound of the Baskervilles – Arthur Conan Doyle)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1900) turned out to be not only the first detective work of the XNUMXth century, but also a kind of canon of the classic detective story. Sherlock Holmes created a world where the victory of reason over monsters takes place, this is a world where everyone is perfectly dressed and trains run on schedule, and the telegraph works with perfect accuracy, like a Swiss watch.
The book is easy to read, besides, you can turn on the movie in parallel in order to listen to how certain words are pronounced, so as not to make mistakes in your mental perception of the language.
2. 1984 George Orwell
This book is George Orwell’s fantasy of what 1984 might have been like. The book itself was written in the late 40s and for the author it is a fantasy, but for us it is a possible alternative story of the outcome of events.
The whole world is divided into 3 superpowers and each of them is at war with each other. Each power has its own party at the head, and in one of these powers, our main character Winston Smith works in one of these parties. He works as an editor in a newspaper and is trying to understand how people lived in the past, whether historical documents are lying, and whether his contemporaries and he himself live better than their ancestors.
If we discard the idea, the plot, the motives of the characters, the book itself, its words, the text is described very tasty, it is pleasant and understandable to read.
3. The Picture of Dorian Grey. Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde)
The plot of the book is about the price we are now paying for our actions and our decisions. Each person sees their own sins in the main character. This novel not only made the writer famous – it to some extent anticipated his own fate. Keep in mind, after reading “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, you, with a pencil in your hands, write out absolutely wonderful aphorisms in English that can be inserted into a conversation, thereby making an extraordinary impression of a person not only smart, but also sophisticated.
If you want to impress, read Dorian Gray.
4. And the sun is rising. Ernest Hemingway (The Sun also Rises – Ernest Hemingway)
The main characters of the book are a group of friends who decide to go on holiday to Spain for a fiesta. During the 7 days during which these festivities take place, numerous events also occur in the fate of the main characters, sometimes funny, sometimes close to tragic.
This book is definitely worth reading even if you are not a fan of Ernest Hemingway and the work of the lost generation, it is a fascinating story despite the rather rough English in the original, which describes life after the first World War.
5. Three in the boat, not counting the dog. Jerome K. Jerome (Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K. Jerome)
If we talk about the plot, then this book is about three people, not counting the dogs, who did not go on a trip, but rather on vacation to swim in a boat on the Thames, for a week without air, that is, to live, sleep, eat on the water. The story itself is conducted from one of them, who talks about the behavior of other participants in the journey, about himself, about the feelings that this journey causes.
The book itself is written in a very unusual way, the author gives a digression from the main plot of the book, which describes small stories from the life of the protagonist, such a secondary story in which the author immerses the reader.
In addition to the light, English humor that this book is saturated with, the reader will receive a short course in the history of England (and Scotland).
6. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams)
The story of this book is told in 5 parts. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” – an incredibly funny book about the travels of the protagonist and his alien friend through the galaxy. On their way, they get into trouble more than once, change the course of history, get lost, find themselves, save the earth and all that in the company of Zaphod Beeblebrox and Marvin the robot. The actions of the book change at the speed of light and a lot of interesting things happen in 100 pages. The book makes it easy to follow the storyline and at the end of the reading you won’t have any questions as the author explains everything in detail.
7. Catcher in the rye. Jerome Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger)
This novel has been translated into almost all languages of the world, it is considered a classic and a cult novel. The book immerses us in the world of Holden Caulfield, in his heightened perception of American reality. What does Holden Caulfield love? He loves to lie, but not in order to get some kind of benefit or deceive someone, but in order to amuse us, he is a maximalist to the marrow of his bones. This is an atmospheric book in which, perhaps, everyone will find themselves.
8. The jungle book. Rudyard Kipling (The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling)
Familiar from childhood, the story of the life and adventures of the boy Mowgli. In the center of the plot is a boy left in the jungle, who is taken in by a pack of wolves. For several years he is brought up among animals, until the time comes to face his worst enemy Shere Khan, who vowed to destroy the human cub before he became an adult hunter.
In general, the book is very atmospheric, it completely immerses you in your world, captures, keeps you in incredible tension, and even knowing the plot by heart, you experience and live it all again.
9. Misery. Stephen King
The book is quite tense and the tension builds until the very end. Can salvation from certain death turn into such a nightmare that even death will seem like a merciful gift of fate.
Paul Sheldon, a popular writer who has achieved success by writing a series of popular novels, is captured by a crazy woman. Kinga, like no one else, knows how to immerse tension and fear into the world of horror, and then takes the last step that you will not be able to forget all your life.
The book is not just mesmerizing, it is a great read in one breath.
10 451 degrees Fahrenheit. Ray Bradbury (Farenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury)
The book belongs to the light genre – science fiction. However, in my opinion, this is one of the most significant works of the twentieth century and should be included in the school curriculum and studied in all languages of the world.
The book is about the fact that firefighters do not put out fires, but burn books. This is a dystopia about culture and its regression, which can occur, up to its complete forced destruction.
Ray Bradbury’s book is absolutely symbolic, it is contemporary in every moment of time.
Enjoy reading books in the original, in English.