Hi everyone, I am looking to improve my German. I understand quite a bit by now but my spoken language is still child-like (I am somewhere B1+). Reading has always been something I enjoy. That being said: any (good) books you could recommend that are written by German-speaking writers and are “easy” to read? Just to say, I am not looking for children books - I need to be engaged with the story to read it. Thanks!
I am not looking for children books
What about books for youths?
Krabat by Otfried Preußler is one of the best youth books, but also just a very good fantasy novel in general.Youth/YA I am perfectly fine with. Thanks!
Preußler is not an author for anfänger. He used words that aren’t really that often used in German these days.
“Momo” is a book you can read as a kid (hence easy to read) but so deep, you will only get it as an adult
Ottfried Preußler has allready been mentioned.
I’d like to add Erich Kästner (probably more children’s books, but imho still very enjoyable).
Michael Ende, the Neverending Story and Momo are classics for a reason. checkout “Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch” it is a childrens book, but very funny and i actually read it first when i was like 13 and still loved it.
Paul Maar, “Eine Woche voller Samstage” and the subsequent Sams books are great, but again more children’s books than YA.
Walter Moers, the Zamonien Books where a big hit in my nerdy friend circle during school. the closest thing i can think of would be Discworld.
Wolfgang Hohlbein, he writes a lot, most of it is not that good, but some of his books are great and the books he has written with his wife Heike tend to be better. I enjoyed as a teen( and these are definitely YA-fiction stuff):
- Der Greif
- Das Buch
- Anders, a 4 Book series
- Märchenmond, 3 Book series
Thank you! I really don’t mind teen books, I mean I read Adrian Mole many times including two years ago (I am in my thirties) and still laught out loud. I just need some plot I can connect with and which drives me to find out what happens next so that the book is not just my language textbook if that makes sense.
ah, you being an adult makes reading Michael Ende even better imho, he wrote stories kids and teens could enjoy and relate to, but there is allways something in them i only really got as i grew older.
another thing to try would be to read translated works of authors you enjoy anyway, german book translations are often pretty good, atleast from my experience and knowing a book or author in the original language might enable you to read above your normal reading level.
maybe also try contemporary popular stuff.
If you are into thrillers Sebastian Fitzek is someone who tends produce “page turners” in the sense that they are very readable and don’t require you to dig through tons of literary layers, but just enjoy a well constructed story. An old english teacher refered to books like this as “airport books”, you’d buy them before the boarding the plane, read them an be entertained during the flight and be done with it.
If you’re not opposed to German translations of English books Terry Pratchett’s YA series centered on Tiffany Aching is pretty engaging. The first in the series I believe is “Kleine freie Männer”, but a German speaker can correct me on the title and even recommendation
So… I guess the first question is if the books should be written in German or if a good translation is enough. I’ll assume the latter and just won’t look whether a book was written in German or just translated.
Books aimed at children are a whole industry, more or less. Kids that learn how to read are their own target group, so you’ll find any genre you want. However, as the children are supposed to easily identify with their protagonists, they are often about school children doing stuff. More often than not about kids that read a lot and are quiet outsiders. If you can’t bear with that trope it’ll be a bit harder, but still manageable.
For criminal stories, there are some franchises that have been going on since more or less forever… “???” (“die drei Fragezeichen” and their “kids” spinoff that is targeted at younger audiences) or “tkkg” come to mind. A very German classic is “Emil und die Detektive”, which plays in Berlin in the 1920s and holds up very well.
If you’re more into fantasy, maybe Michael Ende’s more famous works are more to your liking. “Die unendliche Geschichte”, “Momo” or “Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer” are classics as well and just excellent. Cornelia Funke also wrote neat books, “Tintenblut” or “Drachenreiter” work really well. Recently, “die Schule der magischen Tiere” was pretty successful and my daughter loved the series.
Astrid Lindgren has good translations. All her stories are terrific. Pick anything. Some “Michael aus Lönneberga” book maybe.
Thank you! I think I will start with Michael Ende. Just looked at the preview of Momo Kindle version and that is exactly the level of language I am looking for. :)
I had a pretty good time reading Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. I remember it for expressing deep thoughts with simple sentences, which imo makes it perfect for a B1.
Also, Demian. Really enjoyable book. Maybe it is a little more steep for a first book, but it is not impossible to read and the way Hesse writes makes it really good.
Ime, german does not translate well to other languages meaning that the writing complexity is kind of lowered or flattened through translation, if that makes any sense. Nevertheless, I would also recommend:
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My first book in german was LOTR. the first two chapters were a real pain in the ass (coming and going from the book to the dictionary) but it has an easy to follow pace that makes it almost impossible to lose the track and it is one of those books that catches you. I literally started it thinking of reading only the first book and couldn’t stop till the end. As a downside, language wise, it has not a lot to offer apart from the ton of new words.
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You are avoiding children’s books, but I’m prone to also recommend harry potter. It’s really well translated, it’s a no-end of new words and it slowly but steadily increases in complexity from the start to the end. Strangely enough, it posed me a bigger challenge than LOTR.
Thank you! I tried Steppenwolf some while ago but found it a bit tought. Will go for Siddhartha. I know Hesse is well praised and I am waiting to be at the level of German to read it as he wrote it.
Regarding translations: I bought a bilingual Animal Farm with one page english, one page german and when I first opened I thought what a brilliant idea to make a book like that! But then I quickly realized that the constant difference in sentence structure pains my brain. I think that is a major obstacle when it comes to translations (especiall ger/eng).
Also, thanks for this too - I don’t see Harry Potter as a children’s book. It cannot be I am that old no no no :)
Steppenwolf is imo a whole new level in difficulty. I think it’s partly because of the vocabulary, but mostly because of the genre. Everything changes so fast that it makes it really difficult to catch up if you relay too much on context. It is an awesome book. Note aside, as a spanish speaker, most of what i read is translated from other languages and reading Hesse and Mann in their original language made me realize how good “high literature” can actually be.
About HP, I had a pretty good experience re-reading it. The hardest part was having to catch up with the vocabulary (for some reason, “the prisoner of Azkaban” felt harder to read than LOTR), but once I was on track, I couldn’t stop and ended up reading from the third up to the end of the series.
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If you would also like to prepare for a Trump presidency while improving your German, I hear there is a rather simplistic book written by a failed Austrian painter.
love when you guys think the whole online world is made only of Americans lol
If Trump gets his way…
Nah, I tried reading that book, I didn’t finish it. The writing style is just as garbage as the ideology behind it. It is most definitely not a simplistic book!
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