Disclaimer: I started learning English ever since I was a 1st grader; until now, it has been about 7 years. Everyone's starting point is different, this post is only my personal experience and doesn't apply to everyone so I hope you'll learn something after reading this!
I’ve been reading books for 4 years but I just started reading English books 2 years ago and I love it!
At first, I only borrowed books from the library because English books are extremely expensive and I am only a student. Just a year ago that I bought my first ever English book, and to be honest, it cost me a “certain" amount of money, haha. Now I think I have pretty much experience to show you guys how to get the most out of reading an English book. Let's get started!
P.S. On my Youtube Channel, I made a video with the same content (posted on 6 March), and I included my English book collection, too. If you want some recommendations, you should check it out!
1. Start Reading!
Before reading English books, you should read books in your mother-tongue first. Many people asked me how to read in English because they felt bored when holding the book and couldn't complete it. Let me tell you! If you can't read a book in your language, then you are not going to finish a proper book, not to mention in English.
2. Essential Stuff You Should Know Before Starting
English levels: This is super important. The level that I recommend you start is B1 (CEFR) or above. Why? It's because this is a level when you have a moderate vocabulary range and skills that are enough to understand without translating too often.
Besides, the levels that are lower than B1 are starters. At this level, you won't improve much from reading; for me, the best way here is to continue what you are doing, until you reach level B1, then you can start reading.
One more thing to keep in mind is that when you start too soon and give up too early because you didn’t listen to my tips (B1 or above) and it was too hard, then you’ll lose hopes, in learning English through reading and in the future, it's hard to restart because you already had an impression of “hating" English books.
3. How to Choose the Right Book (without wasting money and time)
There are two things to consider when choosing books, especially English ones.
The first important thing to remember is the book’s genre. This depends on your interests. I recommend you read whatever stuff you like because that’s what keeps you interested in reading the book.
However, there is something I want you to know. First, I don’t recommend you read non-fiction books if you are still a beginner, because the authors usually use a lot of specialist vocabulary. If you want to read about a certain topic, you should have some basic information about it first. Furthermore, non-fictions is usually informative. I think you should go for a fictional book when first started because it's easier to read and fun, too.
The second thing is the book's age range. In real life, not many people pay attention to this factor, but it is essential for the first starters. When you just started, like brand new to English books, I think you should read books for middle grade (8-12 years old). Don't get me wrong, this age range is not as “childish" as it sounds; middle-grade books are very simple to read and they are shorter, thus the topics vary between the stuff in everyday life, which is suitable for everyone. An example can be Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling, a famous book that has been read by different age ranges.
Another age to mention is YA, stands for Young Adult. These books are longer and suit older audiences (13-18 years old) but still good enough for beginners.
4. How to Read Efficiently but still Enjoy the Content
There is a problem, faced by many new readers, which is seeing many new words and not knowing what to do. I have a great solution to this:
Only stop and translate if you see the word more than 3 times and it seems important (remember to write it in a notebook for later) or familiar words (see in real life) that you always forget to translate. This word is important because you're going to see it more often later in your English journey.
In other cases, I highly recommend you just ignore the words that or guess its meaning, because it's not necessary to translate, and you'll forget it at any moment. Plus, you will lose the flow of the story if you often stopped and translated, this will make it easier to get bored. In case you lose track, just reread the whole page, this way, you can continue enjoying the story.
I'll remind you one more time: Only translate if it appears more than 3 times or you have seen it a lot while learning. Aside from this, just ignore the words or guess its meaning, there’s no point in translating.
*Bonus part
This is a way that I’m testing (not sure if it works, but you can try if you want)
Read the book twice! (don't continuously read it twice)
In the first trial, when you are too deep into the plot already and you see some words that apply to the 2 above circumstances, then continue reading. This is my way of reading English books because, in reality, I am too lazy to translate so I just read it non-stop. That's okay!
Second trial: this is when you want to “get the English out of this book”, read it like normal but this time, do what I told you about the vocabulary.
“Only translate if it appears more than 3 times or you have seen it a lot while learning. Aside from this, just ignore the words or guess its meaning, there’s no point in translating.”
This is how you learn vocabulary from books!
5. Conclusion: What I learned
Besides learning new vocabulary, I also know how to write, especially fictional writing. Thanks to Rick Riordan, I know that when having a dialogue, I should include more descriptions of how they talk, not only what they talk about. I understand more about world building, character building, stuff about writing that I’m really into.
I hope you enjoy one of my first ever blogs! Happy reading!
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