Thursday, February 27, 2020

Where to Find The Best Book Recommendations?


It's been a while since I last wrote here! I've been very busy with the children, my husband's new job, and moving to Ontario. I hope I can finally have some peace now and more time to write a few things.

A friend asked me the other day on the blog I write for the New York Times where do we find all the book recommendations we use there. I must say there are many websites specialized in book recommendations but in my opinion the main ones would be these:

http://www.goodreads.com
http://www.officialeditions.com
http://www.nytimes.com
http://www.listchallenges.com

I always find my inspiration there, but the main ones would be www.goodreads.com and www.officialeditions.com

If you have to write an article or create a library those sources will help you more than any other.

I wish you all a nice day!

Thursday, February 23, 2017

List Of The Best Books To Learn Spanish For English Speakers

Here is a list with the best books for learning Spanish designed for English speakers. At the end of the article you can see a list of sources, rankings, and lists of books to learn Spanish that I used for this article.


1. A Good Spanish Book!
(University Academic Editions Ltd.)
The Best Book To Learn Spanish


2. Spanish For Dummies
(Berlitz Publishing International)
 


3. Madrigal's Magic Key To Spanish
(Three Rivers Press)

 
4. 501 Spanish Verbs
(Barron's Educational Series)


5. Lonely Planet Spanish Phrasebook
(Lonely Planet Publishing)

6. Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish  
(McGraw-Hill)
 
7. Eyewitness Spanish Phrasebook
(Eyewitness Travel Guides)

Sources:
https://flipboard.com/@margaretcooperg/books-to-learn-spanish-p51lr5ccy
http://spanishbooks.livejournal.com/

http://www.listchallenges.com/the-best-books-to-learn-spanish

https://www.librarything.com/list/11238/all/


http://www.ranker.com/list/best-books-to-learn-spanish-v1/pattyyy


Thursday, January 26, 2017

The Best Books To Learn Spanish

It's difficult sometimes to find a good book to learn Spanish. The best Spanish books are not the most famous, because publishing companies care about selling nice books with attractive pictures, and they don't really care much about the content as long as the book looks nice. 

The things you have to consider when buying a book are these:

A* Is the author Spanish? If the answer is NO, the book will probably not be as good as those made by a Spanish author. Natives know their language perfectly.


B* Is the author an expert in teaching Spanish? Besides being a native from Spain he has to be a good teacher, preferably a professor, to produce books of high quality.


C* Is the book focused on teaching or on nice pictures, and wasted space inside? A book with nice pictures will be marketing, a book filled with content will be useful.

Taking these points into consideration here are some of the best books to learn Spanish available right now:


1. A GOOD SPANISH BOOK!, UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC EDITIONS

 Amazon Books
As you can see by the cover, the author has the highest standards. He is a native professor from Spain, with a doctorate in Spanish, and this is the best book for learning Spanish if you are a beginner. It's the book with the highest scores in terms of results, easy explanations and efficiency according to several institutions. The exercises inside have corrections included, so you can perfectly learn by yourself with this one.




2. ESPAÑOL 2000, ADVANCED LEVEL, SGEL PUBLISHING

 


This book is correct for advanced students. It's made by Spanish teachers from high schools in Spain. The advanced level book is the best one, the others are a bit chaotic in terms of material and explanations. Half of the book are exercises that are not corrected, so you might need someone to correct them.


 
3. SUEÑA, ADVANCED LEVEL, ANAYA 
Made by a big Spanish publishing company, it has nice exercises and reading materials for advanced students, so if you are already an advanced student and you want to complete your knowledge, this book has extracts from literary pieces and other resources that will be interesting for the advanced learners. A good complement to have.




4 NUEVO ELE, ADVANCED LEVEL, SMELE

This is the best course if you are an advanced student and you already tried the one from Anaya. The contents are up to date even though the method is not as good as the Anaya one. It's the fourth one on the list, so I would recommend you any of the other three depending on your level, but this one is still better than the most sold books in USA these days for example, which aren't even made by natives or professional teachers or university professors.


As you can see you have several options to choose from. If your level is basic or advanced we recommend you the second book on the list because of the method, the author, and the results. For advanced students, the first book of the ranking is the best book to learn Spanish.