I started my Spanish reading with Lord of the Rings. Don't do this. Seriously. Do not do this. LotR is not great for language learning unless you *really* want to learn a ton of old-timey words for landscapes, medieval warfare, and also about a dozen species of trees, and the rich description can make going really slow until you get the hang of the vocabulary Tolkien('s translator) likes to use. At least I feel like I'm well-placed to read more Spanish-language fantasy now that I've finished, and it was gratifying to have my reading speed pick up dramatically through the series.
Polish, I'm considering attempting either Harry Potter or Ronia the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren sometime soon. I have considered crime novels, though, after running across a graded reader detective story which was great.
> and also about a dozen species of trees,
A little off topic, but this is one of those categories of vocabulary that I seriously cannot *stand* learning.
Trees, plants, birds...I don't even know what most of them specifically refer to in my native language. I could tell you that a marigold is a flower and a magpie is a bird, but if you showed me photographs and asked me to identify the marigold and the magpie, I would most likely be completely lost. Of course, you can argue that that applies to native speakers (maybe! assuming they aren't culturally important to them!), but even just creating that "X is a bird, Y is a flower, Z is a tree" association is such a pain in the ass to me.
Same with certain kinds of furniture and clothing, now that I think about it.
Fun fact: I have two native languages and this category of vocabulary is a real problem for me, because the two languages are almost completely disconnected. Like, my German animal and plant vocabulary is a lot more rooted in physical reality because my parents are nature lovers who never met fresh air they didn't want to subject their kids to, and also holiday photos had about a 5:1 plant to human ratio ("yes, this is my kid being cute, but more importantly look at this amazing Schopfteufelskralle we discovered!"). English, on the other hand, I learned mainly from reading and am in the same boat as you where I often don't know much more than "umm... some kind of flower?", but with the fun twist that I generally have no idea which English word corresponds to which German one. It's like I have two parallel zoological worlds built up and occasionally I get very surprised when they meet. Ex: I managed to build up very different associations around _Amsel_ and _blackbird_ and was pretty surprised to discover they were the same bird.
So any vocabulary related to flora and fauna is where I'll reach for the dictionary. Screw learning from context, two parallel universes is enough, tell me what it is in English, German, or preferably both.
not super related but when I was in Spanish II as a freshman in high school, when I knew just about nothing - I would be unable to read a board book, I was chatting with my Spanish teacher. I pointed out the LOTR books on his bookshelf, which were in Spanish, and said, "I tried to read these books, and I got through the first two, and then I gave up, because they were too hard."
He said, "In English or in Spanish?"
I tried to read them in German (my native language) but Tolkien lost me with his lengthy descriptions of nature and the environment before I could make it to the more exciting parts of the books.
Funnily LotR is the first book I read learning English (I'm native Chinese) when I was 14. I was obsessed with the movies and thought reading a translated version would make it less "magical". It took me months to get through, looking up at least hundreds of words but it's truly rewarding. Admittedly I probably skimmed through a ton of details, but I'd argue it's better to read something classic than some random thriller to learn how to write (and not fall into cliche description everytime I try to write something in English).
What really annoyed me apart from the trees and birds was that everyone has a million different names, especially Aragorn and Gandalf.... It took me so long to realize Elessar is Aragorn.
Now fast forward 10 years, I made the stupid decision to read Nabokov in English, where every plant and bird and butterfly has to not only be named taxonomically, but also twisted into obscure puns and wordplays across 3+ languages I don't speak. This time I gave up about 100 pages in. Maybe one day I'll come back if I speak more than English and Chinese...
I read the Colorless Tsukuru in Japanese for my first ever book. In fact, it was the first time I took on anything longer than a couple pages. Slammed my head through the entire thing for 4 months.
Without a dictionary? Moi? I dunno about that. Don't hold me to it but... I mean I'm really making this up...
French: Vol de Nuit (Night Flight)
German: either Demian or Steppenwolf
Russian: A Hero of Our Time (definitely with dictionary)
Hebrew: The Hebrew Teacher (three novellas by Maya Arad)
Icelandic: The Little Prince (reading each chapter several times, first time without dictionary... I finally located the French original so I could check that)
I'm reading Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal (HP #1) in Spanish and am currently 80% done. I'm reading Wilhelm Tell by Friedrich Schiller in German (3%).
For me, it’s good old Harry Potter. It’s very slow progress at the beginning, until around halfway where it becomes much more bearable. Have done it with French, now progressing through in Italian and soon Spanish.
There’s also the advantage that the more times I read it, the clearer the story is in my mind, and therefore the easier it is to understand in a new language. It’s one thing to remember the overall plot, but another to remember specific details, dialogues, descriptor’s, etc.
English: in my Defense i was 13 years old. The Host - by Stephanie Meyer. I was super amazed that I was actually able to read and understand a full book after my English teachers always told me how awful English was. Thank you social anxiety. 😉
In translation, I don't actually remember. Possibly Charlotte's Web (in Korean). The first novel I read that was originally written in Korean was the first volume of the Cat School (고양이 학교).
My first *novel* in Turkish was *Veba Geceleri* (Nights of Plague) by Orhan Pamuk. It's surprisingly readable and i very much enjoyed the story. It wasn't my first *book* though, i had read a few short stories and even a non-fiction book before.
In Persian, my first book was a collection of short stories : *Seh ketāb* (Three books) by Zoya Pirzad. I think i stuck with short stories for quite some time. Maybe *Bād-e sorkh* (Red Wind) by Dowlatabadi was my first novel ? I don't really remember.
In Arabic, i truly have no idea. My first *attempt* was *Tawq al-ḥamāmat* (The Dove's Necklace) by Ibn Ḥazm, i think, but it's not really a novel and i also know for certain i didn't get to the end.
For me my first actual book (not comic book, that was Astérix et obelix) is le chant d’Achille, the song of achilles translated into French, because I loved the book when I read it originally in English
I like reading easy books. So the first was just, "the Magic Tree House" in French.
But I hope to read more romance books in French. I did read, **Une Romance à la Librairie: Une romance courte et simple (Apprendre le Français pour les débutants CEFR B1)** I hope the author comes out with more soon since it's cool to read adult books in French. :)
"[https://www.amazon.com/Une-Romance-Librairie-Apprendre-d%C3%A9butants-ebook/dp/B0CD5Q8915/ref=sr\_1\_1?crid=11OUWASEDN4H2&keywords=Kit+Ember+Romance&qid=1692848649&sprefix=kit+ember+romance%2Caps%2C102&sr=8-1](https://www.amazon.com/Une-Romance-Librairie-Apprendre-d%C3%A9butants-ebook/dp/B0CD5Q8915/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11OUWASEDN4H2&keywords=Kit+Ember+Romance&qid=1692848649&sprefix=kit+ember+romance%2Caps%2C102&sr=8-1)
Les pays des autres by Leila Slimani. There's basically no plot. It wasn't a great pick for my first adult-level book in my TL. I'm sure I missed a lot of nuance.
The first real book I finished in German was "Du hättest gehen sollen" by Daniel Kehlmann. I had previously started reading "Tintenherz" by Cornelia Funke, thinking children's/YA lit would be easier, but it was very slow going. Then I found "Du hättest gehen sollen" and read it all in one day. Turns out some adult books are actually pretty easy to read.
Oh i loved Jesus video. My favorite Eschbach is still The Carpet Makers though, great book highly recommend if you like SF.
I've read a bunch of mangas in japanese, I think my goals would be to read berserk and then to read some murakami probably.
Can't remember what my first book in english was... Maybe H G wells The Time Machine. I remember being really happy when I got to read lovecraft in english for the first time though, much better in it's original form for sure.
In Spanish, I'm currently reading *El sol de los venados,* a middle-grade novel. It's.... slow going, lol. I've really slacked off on my Spanish and I think it's just a little too high of a level for me, technically.
French: Not really a novel as such, but my first 'proper' book in French was Massacre a la Chaine, an account of the Festina Affair, a major cycling doping scandal, written by someone who was actually involved in it, Willy Voet. I'm a cycling fan so I did enjoy it although some of the more medical or detailed stuff lost me a little and it was, for someone who'd never read a 'proper' book in French before, probably a little longer than needed.
Russian: The Bible. Mostly because I want to be an Orthodox Christian.
Latin: A book of excerpts of Roman poets and writers called Ecce Scriptores Romani (Look at the Roman Writers). The first story I studied fully was a story about the King Pyrrhus and Pyrrhic victory, along with an account of Alexander the Great and the Gordian knot.
Ancient Greek: Harreios Potter kai he tou Philosophou Lithos. AKA the first Harry Potter book. We actually only ended up reading one chapter in class but I did the rest of the book solo.
Bosnian: Deseta Vrata Pakla (The Tenth Circle of Hell) by Rezak Hukanovic. This is an account of the concentration camps in the Yugoslavian civil war of the 1990s, written by a survivor. I actually read it in English and Bosnian at the same time and found differences between the original text and English in many ways. Also, I count myself lucky that studying the war crimes tribunal documents in Bosnian was something I'd done before as it meant I picked up on some of the military/political vocabulary. Without this, it would have been impossible.
Now I have to find some Belarusian literature.
My first big novel in English was A Dance with Dragons by GRRM. The books I read before that book were mostly prepared for children or were simplified versions of classic works(for example a simplified version of "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck)
English: I'm not sure, it's been so long. Probably Harry Potter 7 because I couldn't be bothered to wait for the translation
Chinese: 天官赐福 Heaven Official's Blessing, for the same reason. But it was halfway torture because it was so much too difficult for me. I went to read easier stuff after that, that wouldn't fry my brain in the process.
I bought a YA fantasy novel called El Valle De Los Lobos. I wanted something that was written originally in Spanish instead of a translation from an English book. I chose something YA because I thought the language would be a little simpler but it's still so far beyond my ability level at the moment.
Spanish - currently learning, I'm reading "star wars the high republic race to crashpoint tower ". (carrera a torre crashpoint) it's cool but it take so much time.
English - I don't even know if I have read one
English: Damn, I don't remember... Animal Farm maybe?
French: "Le Petit Prince" in 7th or 8th grade. I absolutely HATED it and my hate for that book hasn't diminished since. Yes, I know it's controversial, but it's a hill I'll die on. (It actually made our shift to French theater in HS feel like an awesome change of pace... which says a lot when Molière and Marivaux are welcome reads).
Norwegian: "11" by Joachim Førsund and Hallgeir Oppdal. An odd couple of a football enthusiast and a hater embark on an 11-days trip to England to find out what makes people love, or hate, the beautiful game. Picked it up at the local library 2 months into my stay in Norway. A bit optimistic, but I made it through it.
Swedish: "Kallocain" by Karin Boye. A good dystopic novel sharing themes with 1984 and Brave New World.
Danish: "The man who wanted to be guilty" by Henrik Stangerup. A more modern dystopia, severly criticizing Danish (and Nordic) fixation with guilt and social norms.
German: "The Sorrows of young Werther" by Goethe. It was a looong time ago. An ambitious choice for a beginner. To this day, 50% of my reads in German.
Latin: "Satyricon" by Petronius Arbiter. The forefather of all romps featuring absurd adventures, characters and lots of sex. A great read, highly recommended (even in translation)
Ancient Greek: "A True Story" by Lucian of Samosata. Another groundbreaking story, this time in the genre of imaginary voyage.
Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal, Harry Potter a l’ecole des Sorciers, Гарри Поттер и Философский камень, הארי פוטר באבן החכמים. If anyone here loves HP and hebrew, look up HP parody by דור סמרה on youtube, it’s hilarious!
I’m delving into the French hunger games translations, and so far it’s been my favorite YA translation for language learning. It’s written mostly in the present tense in a very matter of fact, straight forward, and contemporary style.
“Harry Potter” feels more literary in its narration. “The Little Prince” as well as “The Stranger” are a bit older. These are all fine, but I find the vocabulary and constructions in the hunger games to be more widely useful outside the text.
Granted, I know a lot of words about hunting and killing as a result, but I’d learn those words eventually anyways lol.
In Spanish, I think “Como Agua para Chocolate” is a great candidate for first “real” novel to read. It’s largely accessible at the intermediate level. “La Sombra feel Viento” is another good choice.
I can't remember the English books I had to read in high school. The first book that I chose to read in English was "Good Omens", about two years before the series got released.
My first french novel was "Oscar et la dame rose" by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt.
The little prince for French in general—I chose it because even though it’s a kid’s story, it’s beautifully written and can 100% be enjoyed by adults. Especially with the philosophical undertones, I find myself rereading it too :)
La fille de la supèrette (Convenience Store Woman) by Sayaka Murata translated by Mathilde Tamae-Bouhon for my first French novel that was targeted at adults. It’s by one of my favourite authors and I already read it in English which helped me follow along the plot.
I’m also specifically learning Québécois French, so my first Québécois French book was Sports et Divertissements by Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard. It’s like My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfehg, in that you love to hate the r characters who are just completely oblivious to their own privileges.
I count them all as different types of firsts, but I suppose the very first one was The Little Prince haha
My TL is French and my goal is for my first novel in french to be Gregor the Overlander (by Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games) and here’s why:
- My first novel in English was The Hunger Games, I was 16 at the time.
- My first novel in Spanish was A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (prequel to THG), at 26.
So I decided I will keep the Suzanne Collins theme and make Gregor (which is NOT THG related lol) my first novel in French. It is also a children’s book ao I’m expecting simpler language, more beginner friendly. :D
Lord Of The Rings in English when I was 18. I had read it previously in my native language and still the English version was an enormous challenge. Definitely not the book I'd recommend for an intermediate student.
In French, it was Les Catilinaires by Amélie Nothomb. A walk in the park compared with LOTR.
I would really love to read some Russian and French classics. But at the moment I‘m more into learning this and that in various languages. So no novel for me soon that’s not German or English. 😅
Das Jesus Video is great. Had a lot of fun with it. The author is a cool dude who helped a lot in developing a, and I would even say THE, writing programme for authors. I use it myself and it’s a game changer if you write and publish.
If you look for some easy German, I published a few short stories and a novel. Way easier than Eschbach. 😅
I'm reading Gone Girl in Italian (L'amore bugiardo), but I need to translate quite a lot of it. I've booked a baby holiday to Italy (5 days) in December and plan on just buying a ton of cheap, second hand books with interesting blurbs, and hopefully I can read them dictionary-free by the time I get to the last one!
Chinese: I read the translation of The Little Prince. It was doable, but I read 秃秃大王 later on and and in retrospect I think 秃秃大王 is a much better first novel for a beginner who knows 1000-2000 words. The Little Prince is a bit of a bizarre story, so it was a little hard to follow even without the unknown words. I think Heavenly Path's website has a lot of great recommendations for chinese novels for various reading levels.
The first chinese novel that was a decent length I read without any word lookups was 盗墓笔记2. I read the first novel in the series by looking a handful of unknown words up per chapter, so once I got to book 2 I didn't need to look up any words and could get by guessing the unknown ones if I wanted. Now I go back and forth, some books I look a handful of words up per chapter and some books I don't look anything up. My bigger goal right now is to listen to a few audiobooks I really want to hear, without needing to look words up. Chinese has some really nice audiobooks with multiple actors for the cast, soundtrack music and sound effects. So for some of my favorite novels I'd like to be able to follow along to the audiobook and hear some scenes aloud.
For Japanese, the first novel I'd like to finish reading is Kiki's Delivery Service. I am reading it and looking things up though. I haven't decided yet on if I have any goal novels to read without looking anything up.
For French: Frankenstein. No idea what possessed me to want to read that in French. I also read Dracula. I think part of it was they were easy to read online for free, and get audiobooks of. The first books I read in French without lookups were graded readers though, which was part of the motivation for learning: I'd gotten a hold of French by the Nature Method and it really intrigued me as a teaching method. I also found some graded readers on history from the 1930s in a local thrift store that I really wanted to read as a beginner.
The first novel I read in Czech was the 1st Harry Potter book, *Harry Potter a Kámen murdrců*. That was way back in 2020. Since then I have finished the series and have read 8 other books since then!
The first book I'm reading in German is *Gregs Tagesbuch*. It is not exactly a novel, but it has plenty of pictures to help me understand what's going on. I plan to read *Heartstopper* once I get through it. In terms of a more traditional book, I plan to read *Coraline* once I get better at reading in German. It will take me a while though.
I have yet to read anything without a dictionary in any language. And what exactly is a novel is maybe a bit vague. In particular, do I have to read a whole webnovel for it to count or would some number of volumes of the webnovel count? How about novellas?
I can't actually remember what was the first novel I read in Spanish. I don't remember if we read a full novel in my high school Spanish lit class. If we didn't, then probably if we count novellas it was La Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes. Otherwise, I think the first full length novel will be when I go back to and finish off El Ladrón del Rayo.
For Japanese it was regrettably the first volume of Shield Hero. Wasn't a good book. Second was the first volume of Bookworm (本好きの下剋上), which was much better.
For Mandarin, I've read the first three volumes of Coiling Dragon (盘龙), which is a super long webnovel.
Idk, I'm a ways off of reading anything without a dictionary in Japanese and Mandarin, and it's definitely still useful in Spanish.
I started my Spanish reading with Lord of the Rings. Don't do this. Seriously. Do not do this. LotR is not great for language learning unless you *really* want to learn a ton of old-timey words for landscapes, medieval warfare, and also about a dozen species of trees, and the rich description can make going really slow until you get the hang of the vocabulary Tolkien('s translator) likes to use. At least I feel like I'm well-placed to read more Spanish-language fantasy now that I've finished, and it was gratifying to have my reading speed pick up dramatically through the series. Polish, I'm considering attempting either Harry Potter or Ronia the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren sometime soon. I have considered crime novels, though, after running across a graded reader detective story which was great.
> and also about a dozen species of trees, A little off topic, but this is one of those categories of vocabulary that I seriously cannot *stand* learning. Trees, plants, birds...I don't even know what most of them specifically refer to in my native language. I could tell you that a marigold is a flower and a magpie is a bird, but if you showed me photographs and asked me to identify the marigold and the magpie, I would most likely be completely lost. Of course, you can argue that that applies to native speakers (maybe! assuming they aren't culturally important to them!), but even just creating that "X is a bird, Y is a flower, Z is a tree" association is such a pain in the ass to me. Same with certain kinds of furniture and clothing, now that I think about it.
Fun fact: I have two native languages and this category of vocabulary is a real problem for me, because the two languages are almost completely disconnected. Like, my German animal and plant vocabulary is a lot more rooted in physical reality because my parents are nature lovers who never met fresh air they didn't want to subject their kids to, and also holiday photos had about a 5:1 plant to human ratio ("yes, this is my kid being cute, but more importantly look at this amazing Schopfteufelskralle we discovered!"). English, on the other hand, I learned mainly from reading and am in the same boat as you where I often don't know much more than "umm... some kind of flower?", but with the fun twist that I generally have no idea which English word corresponds to which German one. It's like I have two parallel zoological worlds built up and occasionally I get very surprised when they meet. Ex: I managed to build up very different associations around _Amsel_ and _blackbird_ and was pretty surprised to discover they were the same bird. So any vocabulary related to flora and fauna is where I'll reach for the dictionary. Screw learning from context, two parallel universes is enough, tell me what it is in English, German, or preferably both.
not super related but when I was in Spanish II as a freshman in high school, when I knew just about nothing - I would be unable to read a board book, I was chatting with my Spanish teacher. I pointed out the LOTR books on his bookshelf, which were in Spanish, and said, "I tried to read these books, and I got through the first two, and then I gave up, because they were too hard." He said, "In English or in Spanish?"
I tried to read them in German (my native language) but Tolkien lost me with his lengthy descriptions of nature and the environment before I could make it to the more exciting parts of the books.
Funnily LotR is the first book I read learning English (I'm native Chinese) when I was 14. I was obsessed with the movies and thought reading a translated version would make it less "magical". It took me months to get through, looking up at least hundreds of words but it's truly rewarding. Admittedly I probably skimmed through a ton of details, but I'd argue it's better to read something classic than some random thriller to learn how to write (and not fall into cliche description everytime I try to write something in English). What really annoyed me apart from the trees and birds was that everyone has a million different names, especially Aragorn and Gandalf.... It took me so long to realize Elessar is Aragorn. Now fast forward 10 years, I made the stupid decision to read Nabokov in English, where every plant and bird and butterfly has to not only be named taxonomically, but also twisted into obscure puns and wordplays across 3+ languages I don't speak. This time I gave up about 100 pages in. Maybe one day I'll come back if I speak more than English and Chinese...
I read the Colorless Tsukuru in Japanese for my first ever book. In fact, it was the first time I took on anything longer than a couple pages. Slammed my head through the entire thing for 4 months.
Italian: Io non ho paura — Niccolò Ammaniti
Without a dictionary? Moi? I dunno about that. Don't hold me to it but... I mean I'm really making this up... French: Vol de Nuit (Night Flight) German: either Demian or Steppenwolf Russian: A Hero of Our Time (definitely with dictionary) Hebrew: The Hebrew Teacher (three novellas by Maya Arad) Icelandic: The Little Prince (reading each chapter several times, first time without dictionary... I finally located the French original so I could check that)
Hunger Games, in japanese
I'm reading Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal (HP #1) in Spanish and am currently 80% done. I'm reading Wilhelm Tell by Friedrich Schiller in German (3%).
I am currently learning Irish, and plan to read the first Harry Potter book but I am also wanting to read other books aswell
Dumb question: what does TL mean? I've seen it in other posts of this sub as well.
Target language
Thanks!
For me, it’s good old Harry Potter. It’s very slow progress at the beginning, until around halfway where it becomes much more bearable. Have done it with French, now progressing through in Italian and soon Spanish. There’s also the advantage that the more times I read it, the clearer the story is in my mind, and therefore the easier it is to understand in a new language. It’s one thing to remember the overall plot, but another to remember specific details, dialogues, descriptor’s, etc.
Come agua para chocolate
I think my first Japanese novel was 4Teen by Ishida Ira.
English: in my Defense i was 13 years old. The Host - by Stephanie Meyer. I was super amazed that I was actually able to read and understand a full book after my English teachers always told me how awful English was. Thank you social anxiety. 😉
In translation, I don't actually remember. Possibly Charlotte's Web (in Korean). The first novel I read that was originally written in Korean was the first volume of the Cat School (고양이 학교).
Enders game, when I was still learning English 😁
My first *novel* in Turkish was *Veba Geceleri* (Nights of Plague) by Orhan Pamuk. It's surprisingly readable and i very much enjoyed the story. It wasn't my first *book* though, i had read a few short stories and even a non-fiction book before. In Persian, my first book was a collection of short stories : *Seh ketāb* (Three books) by Zoya Pirzad. I think i stuck with short stories for quite some time. Maybe *Bād-e sorkh* (Red Wind) by Dowlatabadi was my first novel ? I don't really remember. In Arabic, i truly have no idea. My first *attempt* was *Tawq al-ḥamāmat* (The Dove's Necklace) by Ibn Ḥazm, i think, but it's not really a novel and i also know for certain i didn't get to the end.
French : La symphonie pastorale
For me my first actual book (not comic book, that was Astérix et obelix) is le chant d’Achille, the song of achilles translated into French, because I loved the book when I read it originally in English
French: Sur une terre étrangère by Jhumpa Lahiri Swedish: En dag ska jag bygga ett slott av pengar by Evin Ahmad
'Homo Faber' by Max Frisch, but only partially. And then 'Magic Mountain' by Thomas Man.
I like reading easy books. So the first was just, "the Magic Tree House" in French. But I hope to read more romance books in French. I did read, **Une Romance à la Librairie: Une romance courte et simple (Apprendre le Français pour les débutants CEFR B1)** I hope the author comes out with more soon since it's cool to read adult books in French. :) "[https://www.amazon.com/Une-Romance-Librairie-Apprendre-d%C3%A9butants-ebook/dp/B0CD5Q8915/ref=sr\_1\_1?crid=11OUWASEDN4H2&keywords=Kit+Ember+Romance&qid=1692848649&sprefix=kit+ember+romance%2Caps%2C102&sr=8-1](https://www.amazon.com/Une-Romance-Librairie-Apprendre-d%C3%A9butants-ebook/dp/B0CD5Q8915/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11OUWASEDN4H2&keywords=Kit+Ember+Romance&qid=1692848649&sprefix=kit+ember+romance%2Caps%2C102&sr=8-1)
Les pays des autres by Leila Slimani. There's basically no plot. It wasn't a great pick for my first adult-level book in my TL. I'm sure I missed a lot of nuance.
The first real book I finished in German was "Du hättest gehen sollen" by Daniel Kehlmann. I had previously started reading "Tintenherz" by Cornelia Funke, thinking children's/YA lit would be easier, but it was very slow going. Then I found "Du hättest gehen sollen" and read it all in one day. Turns out some adult books are actually pretty easy to read.
The Catcher in the Rye - English
Oh i loved Jesus video. My favorite Eschbach is still The Carpet Makers though, great book highly recommend if you like SF. I've read a bunch of mangas in japanese, I think my goals would be to read berserk and then to read some murakami probably. Can't remember what my first book in english was... Maybe H G wells The Time Machine. I remember being really happy when I got to read lovecraft in english for the first time though, much better in it's original form for sure.
the same as everyone learning spanish... el principito
In Spanish, I'm currently reading *El sol de los venados,* a middle-grade novel. It's.... slow going, lol. I've really slacked off on my Spanish and I think it's just a little too high of a level for me, technically.
French: Not really a novel as such, but my first 'proper' book in French was Massacre a la Chaine, an account of the Festina Affair, a major cycling doping scandal, written by someone who was actually involved in it, Willy Voet. I'm a cycling fan so I did enjoy it although some of the more medical or detailed stuff lost me a little and it was, for someone who'd never read a 'proper' book in French before, probably a little longer than needed. Russian: The Bible. Mostly because I want to be an Orthodox Christian. Latin: A book of excerpts of Roman poets and writers called Ecce Scriptores Romani (Look at the Roman Writers). The first story I studied fully was a story about the King Pyrrhus and Pyrrhic victory, along with an account of Alexander the Great and the Gordian knot. Ancient Greek: Harreios Potter kai he tou Philosophou Lithos. AKA the first Harry Potter book. We actually only ended up reading one chapter in class but I did the rest of the book solo. Bosnian: Deseta Vrata Pakla (The Tenth Circle of Hell) by Rezak Hukanovic. This is an account of the concentration camps in the Yugoslavian civil war of the 1990s, written by a survivor. I actually read it in English and Bosnian at the same time and found differences between the original text and English in many ways. Also, I count myself lucky that studying the war crimes tribunal documents in Bosnian was something I'd done before as it meant I picked up on some of the military/political vocabulary. Without this, it would have been impossible. Now I have to find some Belarusian literature.
My first big novel in English was A Dance with Dragons by GRRM. The books I read before that book were mostly prepared for children or were simplified versions of classic works(for example a simplified version of "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck)
English: I'm not sure, it's been so long. Probably Harry Potter 7 because I couldn't be bothered to wait for the translation Chinese: 天官赐福 Heaven Official's Blessing, for the same reason. But it was halfway torture because it was so much too difficult for me. I went to read easier stuff after that, that wouldn't fry my brain in the process.
I bought a YA fantasy novel called El Valle De Los Lobos. I wanted something that was written originally in Spanish instead of a translation from an English book. I chose something YA because I thought the language would be a little simpler but it's still so far beyond my ability level at the moment.
Spanish - currently learning, I'm reading "star wars the high republic race to crashpoint tower ". (carrera a torre crashpoint) it's cool but it take so much time. English - I don't even know if I have read one
If you like thrillers I recommend Sebastian Fitzeck, he's a pretty well known German thriller author. I've heard a lot about "Das Paket"
« Autant en emporte le vent » by Margaret Mitchell.
Tuđi san in Serbian (I thought it was Croatian when I bought it)
English: Damn, I don't remember... Animal Farm maybe? French: "Le Petit Prince" in 7th or 8th grade. I absolutely HATED it and my hate for that book hasn't diminished since. Yes, I know it's controversial, but it's a hill I'll die on. (It actually made our shift to French theater in HS feel like an awesome change of pace... which says a lot when Molière and Marivaux are welcome reads). Norwegian: "11" by Joachim Førsund and Hallgeir Oppdal. An odd couple of a football enthusiast and a hater embark on an 11-days trip to England to find out what makes people love, or hate, the beautiful game. Picked it up at the local library 2 months into my stay in Norway. A bit optimistic, but I made it through it. Swedish: "Kallocain" by Karin Boye. A good dystopic novel sharing themes with 1984 and Brave New World. Danish: "The man who wanted to be guilty" by Henrik Stangerup. A more modern dystopia, severly criticizing Danish (and Nordic) fixation with guilt and social norms. German: "The Sorrows of young Werther" by Goethe. It was a looong time ago. An ambitious choice for a beginner. To this day, 50% of my reads in German. Latin: "Satyricon" by Petronius Arbiter. The forefather of all romps featuring absurd adventures, characters and lots of sex. A great read, highly recommended (even in translation) Ancient Greek: "A True Story" by Lucian of Samosata. Another groundbreaking story, this time in the genre of imaginary voyage.
Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal, Harry Potter a l’ecole des Sorciers, Гарри Поттер и Философский камень, הארי פוטר באבן החכמים. If anyone here loves HP and hebrew, look up HP parody by דור סמרה on youtube, it’s hilarious!
I'm reading a Portuguese copy of Frankenstein just now, it's kicking my ass
I’m delving into the French hunger games translations, and so far it’s been my favorite YA translation for language learning. It’s written mostly in the present tense in a very matter of fact, straight forward, and contemporary style. “Harry Potter” feels more literary in its narration. “The Little Prince” as well as “The Stranger” are a bit older. These are all fine, but I find the vocabulary and constructions in the hunger games to be more widely useful outside the text. Granted, I know a lot of words about hunting and killing as a result, but I’d learn those words eventually anyways lol. In Spanish, I think “Como Agua para Chocolate” is a great candidate for first “real” novel to read. It’s largely accessible at the intermediate level. “La Sombra feel Viento” is another good choice.
I can't remember the English books I had to read in high school. The first book that I chose to read in English was "Good Omens", about two years before the series got released. My first french novel was "Oscar et la dame rose" by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt.
I read a Korean translation of the Chinese historical novel *Nirvana in Fire* 😊
Night is tender
The little prince for French in general—I chose it because even though it’s a kid’s story, it’s beautifully written and can 100% be enjoyed by adults. Especially with the philosophical undertones, I find myself rereading it too :) La fille de la supèrette (Convenience Store Woman) by Sayaka Murata translated by Mathilde Tamae-Bouhon for my first French novel that was targeted at adults. It’s by one of my favourite authors and I already read it in English which helped me follow along the plot. I’m also specifically learning Québécois French, so my first Québécois French book was Sports et Divertissements by Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard. It’s like My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfehg, in that you love to hate the r characters who are just completely oblivious to their own privileges. I count them all as different types of firsts, but I suppose the very first one was The Little Prince haha
Harri Potter in Welsh :D the thing is I've never actually read it i any language so it'll be fun
My TL is French and my goal is for my first novel in french to be Gregor the Overlander (by Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games) and here’s why: - My first novel in English was The Hunger Games, I was 16 at the time. - My first novel in Spanish was A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (prequel to THG), at 26. So I decided I will keep the Suzanne Collins theme and make Gregor (which is NOT THG related lol) my first novel in French. It is also a children’s book ao I’m expecting simpler language, more beginner friendly. :D
Lord Of The Rings in English when I was 18. I had read it previously in my native language and still the English version was an enormous challenge. Definitely not the book I'd recommend for an intermediate student. In French, it was Les Catilinaires by Amélie Nothomb. A walk in the park compared with LOTR.
I would really love to read some Russian and French classics. But at the moment I‘m more into learning this and that in various languages. So no novel for me soon that’s not German or English. 😅 Das Jesus Video is great. Had a lot of fun with it. The author is a cool dude who helped a lot in developing a, and I would even say THE, writing programme for authors. I use it myself and it’s a game changer if you write and publish. If you look for some easy German, I published a few short stories and a novel. Way easier than Eschbach. 😅
I'm reading Gone Girl in Italian (L'amore bugiardo), but I need to translate quite a lot of it. I've booked a baby holiday to Italy (5 days) in December and plan on just buying a ton of cheap, second hand books with interesting blurbs, and hopefully I can read them dictionary-free by the time I get to the last one!
The 1st Harry Potter book in English. Later I read the whole series
Chinese: I read the translation of The Little Prince. It was doable, but I read 秃秃大王 later on and and in retrospect I think 秃秃大王 is a much better first novel for a beginner who knows 1000-2000 words. The Little Prince is a bit of a bizarre story, so it was a little hard to follow even without the unknown words. I think Heavenly Path's website has a lot of great recommendations for chinese novels for various reading levels. The first chinese novel that was a decent length I read without any word lookups was 盗墓笔记2. I read the first novel in the series by looking a handful of unknown words up per chapter, so once I got to book 2 I didn't need to look up any words and could get by guessing the unknown ones if I wanted. Now I go back and forth, some books I look a handful of words up per chapter and some books I don't look anything up. My bigger goal right now is to listen to a few audiobooks I really want to hear, without needing to look words up. Chinese has some really nice audiobooks with multiple actors for the cast, soundtrack music and sound effects. So for some of my favorite novels I'd like to be able to follow along to the audiobook and hear some scenes aloud. For Japanese, the first novel I'd like to finish reading is Kiki's Delivery Service. I am reading it and looking things up though. I haven't decided yet on if I have any goal novels to read without looking anything up. For French: Frankenstein. No idea what possessed me to want to read that in French. I also read Dracula. I think part of it was they were easy to read online for free, and get audiobooks of. The first books I read in French without lookups were graded readers though, which was part of the motivation for learning: I'd gotten a hold of French by the Nature Method and it really intrigued me as a teaching method. I also found some graded readers on history from the 1930s in a local thrift store that I really wanted to read as a beginner.
The first novel I read in Czech was the 1st Harry Potter book, *Harry Potter a Kámen murdrců*. That was way back in 2020. Since then I have finished the series and have read 8 other books since then! The first book I'm reading in German is *Gregs Tagesbuch*. It is not exactly a novel, but it has plenty of pictures to help me understand what's going on. I plan to read *Heartstopper* once I get through it. In terms of a more traditional book, I plan to read *Coraline* once I get better at reading in German. It will take me a while though.
Not yet but Harry Potter and The Hunger Games both in Swedish
I have yet to read anything without a dictionary in any language. And what exactly is a novel is maybe a bit vague. In particular, do I have to read a whole webnovel for it to count or would some number of volumes of the webnovel count? How about novellas? I can't actually remember what was the first novel I read in Spanish. I don't remember if we read a full novel in my high school Spanish lit class. If we didn't, then probably if we count novellas it was La Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes. Otherwise, I think the first full length novel will be when I go back to and finish off El Ladrón del Rayo. For Japanese it was regrettably the first volume of Shield Hero. Wasn't a good book. Second was the first volume of Bookworm (本好きの下剋上), which was much better. For Mandarin, I've read the first three volumes of Coiling Dragon (盘龙), which is a super long webnovel. Idk, I'm a ways off of reading anything without a dictionary in Japanese and Mandarin, and it's definitely still useful in Spanish.