The Books that have helped my Students
I have for some time been recommending reading to my students in Vienna as the most effective way to quickly improve English because I think it is one of the best things you can do to increase your vocabulary.
A lot of my students have taken the advice and these are some of the books they enjoyed and learned from.
Strange incidents at Sea is a book that one of my students found in the British Bookshop. It is short stories and it has the text in English and German. She loved it.
Perfume
This is not a book I would read myself (I would be too frightened), but a group of ladies who work as secretarys all enjoyed it very much indeed, and that of course is the key to improving your English.
Angela's Ashes
This book is absolutely tragic and also true. A student with very advanced English enjoyed this for the story and the unusual English used.
An advanced student was finding that reading English was becoming easy until she read this book. Wideacre, by Philippa Gregory, from the very start it is chock full of rare and difficult vocabulary, every page is a challenge and this can not help but improve your English.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Book 1
We all know and love him and there is some surprisingly difficult but good vocabulary in here.