Tag Archives: books

Free Reading and Downloading Graded and Unabridged Books

General, , ,

Here, in Spain, we are beginning our fifth week of quarantine. A few days before lockdown,  I asked my students to go to the school library and borrow a book to read. Some of them could not attend that day for various reasons – I never ask, they are adults- and therefore could not borrow the book. Their  problem now  is that confined at home, some of them are finding it difficult to get their hands on a graded book in English. No worries! I’ve got you covered!

But before sharing with you this site, let me tell you the story of a time in my life when I almost hated reading.

Why  I don't select  reading books  for my students

I never tell my students which book to read. I have always enjoyed reading, not the point of being called a bookworm, but pretty close. However, when I was at university I was asked to read tons of books, compulsory books someone had decided for me. Every literature teacher had a long reading list of books we had to read if we wanted to pass his or her subject. No point in cheating. Some teachers in exams ,  to make sure we had read them, simply wrote a paragraph from a chapter in the book  and we were asked to write what went before and after the paragraph. They thought they were being smart! I thought they were nuts!

These teachers almost made me hate reading. Almost. So I promised myself that if I ever got the chance to decide on this matter, I would never pick a compulsory book for my students. I would just take them to the library and let them choose something that would engage them. This is what I have been doing for a very long time and have never regretted my decision. I find that students read more and learn more if they are allowed to select their own books.

But, enough of my ramblings and let’s get back to the part where my students are at home, confined, but still in need to find a nice graded book to read. And this is where I need to thank María Argente del Castillo for bringing English e-Reader to my attention.

What is English E-Reader and why do I like it?

English e-Reader offers one of the biggest online libraries of graded e-books. Here, you can find plenty of ebooks in different digital formats: epub, fb2, mobi, rtf, txt, as well as audiobooks in mp3 format. You can download the ebook of your choice and if you sign up, you can read it online for free.

Most books in this website are graded (also called adapted)  by levels: from Starter (A1) to Advanced C1, but you can also find unabridged books suitable for level C2.
Now, choose your book and let’s enjoy reading! 

 

English E-Books- a Site to Read and Download Adapted Books with Audio

Reading, ,

Ebook Readers or traditional books? What’s your choice?

I am a bookworm. I love reading  though it has not always been like that. There used to be a time when I only had time, and this unwillingly, to read the compulsory books my Literature teachers thought were essential to my upbringing, if I may use this word. And believe me, each of these unforgettable  teachers had a long list in mind! As my school years faded in memory, so did my laziness -called it boredom-to start reading again and one day I found myself with a long list of books waiting in queue to be read, only this time I was willing.

Why did I cross to the dark side and stopped buying paper books? I think this is easy to guess, dear readers, I am still an avid reader  but I have more books than shelf space  and that’s the sad truth.

And you, are you like me or do you still  prefer paperbooks? If you prefer e-books, then I’m sure you’ll find this site very interesting

English E-Books  has been created to help people learn English  by reading adapted books – one of the best and interesting ways to increase your vocabulary. Here you can find English ebooks of different levels, from elementary to advanced  in epub, mobi, fb2, rtf and txt formats and very often you can also download the audiobook.

Nice stuff to use for evaluating compulsory reading

Reading, Writing, ,

I am a bookworm and have been so for a long, long time. Not a single day in my life goes by without reading. I like to discover my own books. I don’t want to be talked about endlessly about how good a book is, I’ll for sure end up not reading it ( this has just happened to me with the Grey’s series).  I like books that lure me in immediately.  Books that enable me to forget I have to cook my children’s dinner. Books I can’t put down. Books that even when I turn over the last page, its characters stay with me for a while, characters that have lunch with me and make me wish they had been real.

I feel that everyone has to choose their own books. That’s maybe why I keep putting off asking my students to read their compulsory reading books, normally adaptations from the classics which never come up to anybody’s expectations. I’d rather go to the school library with my students and ask them to select a book of their liking.

This term I have decided to use these cards to work with their compulsory readings. If you go through them, you’ll realize that most of the cards encourage creative thinking or reading with a purpose.  I don’t know who created them as I found them on Pinterest and the link leads to a google docs account with no name. So, I apologize for not giving you credit if you are the owner and I thank you for this wonderful material.

Free Audio Books

Audio, Resources, ,

When I am in the gym trying to sweat my kilos away I’ve sometimes considered not listening to music and  instead ,making a better use of the time I spend there. Today I’ve bumped into this page and I have thought :” That’s what I was looking for!” So instead of running with Lady Gaga I’m going to start running with Jane Austen, Mark Twain or Virginia Wolf.
In Books Should Be Free you can find a lot of free audio books divided according to their genre: adventure, comedy, romance, fairy tales, poetry…etc and you can download them in mp3,iPod or iTunes format . Now, you have no excuse for not practising English, even when you’re at the gym!!

Roald Dahl

Listening, , , ,

Roald Dahl was one of the world’s most beloved children’s authors. Not only did he create such memorable characters as Willy Wonka, Danny the Champion of the World and The BFG, but he also had a very successful career writing short stories for adults. Many of his stories, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach, have become classics in their own time.

He was born in Llandaff, Wales. His parents were Norwegian. He did not have a very happy time at school. As soon as he could, he went abroad, first to Newfoundland at 18, and then to East Africa, to train with the Shell Oil Company.
In World War Two Dahl became a Royal Air Force pilot, fighting Italian planes over the Libyan Desert. He started writing after his plane was shot down, and the description of this adventure was so successful that he became a full-time writer in the US.
He was a successful screenplay writer, working on movies like James Bond’s You Only Live Twice. Dahl moved back to England in 1960’s.
If you want more information about this author, click here to visit his website, one of the funniest I’ve ever visited.

http://www.roalddahl.com/

There is also a listening activity which you might want to try in my website. Click here