Hi,

I would be very grateful of your opinion as to which book I should look into to learn German. I would like to speak really good German and not only easy German as most of the people speak...

My level is at the moment B1-B2 (...looking to improve).

Thanks a lot!
Aren

Blick am abend

I'm serious by the way.


The paper is complete rubbish, BUT it's on every tram and train, and it's really easy to read.

read for the practice, not the content (or you'll be disappointed)

Your logic totally blows my mind billy boy !!!!

I will be grateful of some serious answers...

are you referring to literature or language lessons?

Whats the best book to learn German?

And again... I ask, "are you referring to literature or language lessons?"

I would tell you to read Grimm's fairytales in the original German... http://www.amazon.de/Br%C3%BCder-Gri.../dp/315030024X


...but for all I know you may be more interested in Rosetta Stone.

http://www.rosettastone.de/

Maybe http://www.germanpod101.com can help you. ^^

If you are talking about books specifically for learning German, i.e. textbooks, I remember using the em Brückenkurs books which would be suitable for your level of German (indeed they offer text books for a range of skill levels). A quick look on Google informs me that they're available on Amazon.

If you are talking about actual literature that you could use to pick up more German, I'd recommend reading popular English books which have been translated into German (for example Diabolus - the German version of Dan Brown's Digital Fortress). Of course that's by no means great literature, but readable and could be useful.

If you're looking for something more challenging than that - but more effective - then I'd recommend the following German literature for a start:

• Short stories (such as Das Brot, Die Küchenuhr and Nachts schlafen die Ratten doch), Wolfgang Bochert (easy to read and not intimidating because of their short lengths)
• Der Vorleser, Bernhard Schlink (easy to read and an interesting storyline)
• Liebelei, Arthur Schnitzler (includes the odd Viennese German word, but - again - not too tricky to pick up)

Those are the kind of books I read and I found them interesting reads as well as instrumental in picking up new vocabulary and getting more of a 'feel' for the language. Hope that helps

You sound as if you could enjoy "Faust".
It`s a book about impatience, contracting and consequences.

I read it in my German class ten years ago.

I'd recommend just the first part of Faust for the time being though. I read it at the start of this year and enjoyed it, but I've heard that the second part of Faust has many references to the classics of Ancient Greece, which if one is not familiar with, would be lost upon the reader.

It depends how good your German is and whether you are happy to read "proper literature" with the risk that you have to check on the vocabulary.

Good reads which should improve your German would be Thomas Mann's "Buddenbrooks" http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddenbrooks

Günther Grass is probably the most known living author in Germany. He received the literature nobel prize in 1999 - one of the most famous books he wrote is "Die Blechtrommel".

Easier reads could be "Der Schwarm" (Frank Schätzing) - good german SciFi eco-thriller.

Alternatively I would go for newspapers and current affairs magazines like FAZ, Der Spiegel, etc to improve your German.

I've been looking for a while to widen my basic German with something that provides commonly used words.
The Basic German Vocabulary by Langenscheidt sells itself on hitting 80% of the commonly used words (2000) with a further 2000 words to it the next 5-10% of commonly used words in written and spoken German. Layout is intuitive and each word is provided with a contextual example mostly using other words in the book. Not bad.

Sounds silly but I`ve got a good few books for learning German and I think "Intermediate German for Dummies" is one of the best. It explains everything quite well and has a lot of the pitfalls to avoid and good tips for optimizing your learning. It really does simplify some of the trickier stuff. If youre just getting one book for now maybe thats a good start.

For a total beginner google "tomsdeutschseite", its one of the best free websites when starting off.

It all depends on your level and whether you want to learn in class or autodidactically.
Learning a language does not uniquely involve studying Grammar. If you want to speak it, then, I suggest that all of following components of learning a language are catered to: listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Any tutor or teacher is of valuable help here.
A course book I can recommend in this case:

Begegnungen (A1-B1), Schubert-Verlag. It's good interesting texts on primarily German culture.

Of course you can also go about it on your own, with focus on Grammar.

A Practice Grammar of German by Dreyer, Schmitt, Hueber - Verlag. It offers detailed comprehensive German Grammar. You gain insight on why this word has to on this or that position in a sentence. Mind you, it's for upper-intermediate students who want to perfection their German.

For basic Grammar I recommend Übungsgrammatik Em, Hueber-Verlag. Very insightful.

Oh and there's an abbreviated version of Faust. Hueber-Verlag. It's THE German classics lit. If you want to know a thing or two, you want to go for this one...
There are so many good books....It's a matter of just choosing one...

This is a link to a series of books by Hueber:

http://www.amazon.de/Deutsch-Rechtsc...3661054&sr=8-1

This are the best books in my opinion. There are about 12 of them.

Some are grammar, some are vocabulary.....

I am taking private German lessons in preparation for the B2 exam. After having a look around Orel Füssli to find self study material, I selected

http://www.amazon.de/Lehr--%C3%9Cbun...3662245&sr=1-3

When I started my German lessons and showed her what book I had been using, she was very excited and very impressed. She said this is a standard grammar book and it's really going to teach you everything. With that said, she also mentioned that the exercises are quite dry and you'll learn more grammar than you'd ever need to know. She says as a reference book, it really is the best.

The one I linked above is an older copy, but I'm sure if you google around you can find the newest.

Hi!
There is an online German course which I found to be very useful:
http://www.German-Online.net

Check out also the following online dictionaries:
http://translationOnClick.com --->>> Very nice!
http://dict.cc
http://dict.leo.org


Hi to all in the forum! I'm new in CH. would be awsome to get to know you all.
Cheers!

Hi, I think Billhardie's response deserve more consideration. Reading newspapers is a great way to improve your German in my view, especially something pretty basic like Blick am Abend or 20 Minuten. Articles are short and generally easy to get the gist of even if you are not a native. In fact, I wish I made more time for it myself!