Do you like reading? Why not read a book in a foreign language? You’ll improve your vocabulary and learn new grammatical structures.
If you are a beginner, we recommend you start with graded readers. You can find many different ones on the market and they are all clearly divided into different levels.
However, from B1 level upwards we recommend you start reading novels in Spanish.
Here are our 5 recommendations:
1- Manolito Gafotas (by Elvira Lindo): Always ready to share his views, Manolito Gafotas, as he’s called by everyone in his neighbourhood of Carabanchel, is a chatty child who lives with his parents, his grandpa Nicolás and his little brother, the Imbecile. Together with his best friend, Orejones López, and his greatest enemy, the bully Yihad, going back to Diego Velázquez primary school becomes an adventure. The arrival of a new classmate, Paquito Medina, a date in the Árbol del Ahorcado with Susana and the happiest birthday of Grandpa Nicolás are some of the memorable events in this first book in the series about Manolito Gafotas.
2- Tu mirada en mi piel (by Elena Montagud): 31-year-old Carol is a translator who lives in Barcelona who is about to have her life turned upside down by an emotional tidal wave. First she discovers her partner, Samuel, in their bed with another woman doing the things she has missed so much. And then she receives a call from her home town telling her about a difficult family problem she must face alone.
But suddenly her path crosses with that of Isaac Salazar. He’s not the friendliest person, but there is something attractive, almost irresistible, about him. Like a song that gets stuck in your head, Isaac’s penetrating gaze, his rare smiles and his intensity when it comes to making love soon steal Carol’s heart. And she wants, almost reluctantly, to know more about him. As her meetings with Isaac come and go, Carol will have to face her own fears and the secrets both of them are keeping and surrender to his magical, skin-prickling gaze.
We don’t only recommend this book because we love it, but also because it’s written by our wonderful teacher, Elena Montagud, who we all – students and staff – adore.
