I think language learning can be more enriching if don,t limit it to text books. As well as speaking with natives and listening to music, reading foreign literatura helping you to increase your vocabulary and adapt your mind to other language, at least, that,s I done.

At first, can be complicated but over time you realise that don,t already search as many words as before because you understand the main idea of the text and, besides, you reading faster.

A really good blog Ramses!

PD: Sorry my mistakes, i’m not englishwoman .

Personally, I enjoy reading short stories in Spanish. It’s a good way to sample different authors and different styles without a big time commitment. Short stories by Julio Cortázar, Horacio Quiroga and Gabriel García Márquez are amazing.

Graham; I’ll have a look in the book section of Instituto Cervantes, probably next semester.

Jeff; reading out loud is something I’ll write about in the near future, but yes it does help really well .

As with most things, I stress the quality of the quantity OVER quality or quantity alone. So you’re right to say that you need to choose a book that more or less corresponds to your level in the language. For me, it helps to look up a few words every page just to make sure i’m understanding correctly the words and sentences i’m reading. In addition, I like reading out loud, as it helps boost my confidence in my Spanish pronunciation.

BTW, if you like Dan Brown, then you might also like Arturo Peréz-Reverte’s El club Dumas – it’s the book upon which the Johnny Depp film The Ninth Gate is based.