What are the best reference books and study guides?
I have reached the point where I need to get some good study books. I would like to know what you members can recommend. I especially need help with grammar, verb conjugation and just about everything. I have the 500 verb book and that is all. What do you others use? I need books that have a lot of practice exercises. Thanks in advance.
15 Answers
Hi Sanlee!!
Have you seen this link?
Dictionaries, Grammar, Vocabulary and Reading resources
There's more about Audio and Video here
.
I don't understand why they are not included in the shortcut of the Reference Section? Or is it me who can't find them?? 
I highly recommend Gramática básica del estudiante de español.
I purchased this on the recommendation in turn of a former forum poster, Lazarus, who wrote: I strongly recommend this book for both imperfect/preterite and subjunctive (and everything else): I've never found a book that explains these topics in a simper or more accurate manner (and I have over 20 books on these), but it is entirely written in Spanish. It is full of pictures and the exercises are extremely well designed....
My purchase led to several other purchases from the same publishing house.
Another good publishing house: Editorial Edinumen. I bought Las formas verbales, for example, from
colección paso a paso, autoaprendizaje de la gramática española.
It is fun and uses an interesting mystery story about an archeological dig to work through verbs, their tenses and voices.
I am really interested in books that I can order. I don't know how to download books and I want a real book, not one on the internet. Does anyone use real books anymore?
Hi, Sandy:
I highly recommend the Practice Makes Perfect workbooks. They have topics such as Pronouns and Prepositions, Verb Practice, Sentence Building, etc.
Leer es excelente para aprender
Thanks so much. I have never seen that before. I really have trouble navigating some aspects of the resource section. I think that will be a big help. Awesome information, Benz.
I've just did the "look inside" thing for the 'Practice Makes Perfect: Complete Spanish Grammar' book and have realised that it's the book that a couple of my previous teachers have used. I always found their exercises to be very useful. Thanks Marianne, I know what to put onto my shopping list.
Sanlee - highly recommended.
There are so many things you can find in our learning resources....I hope this link will be more showy soon
I have seen many books for Spanish speakers who are learning English - but this one is different (it is also good for English speakers learning Spanish)
Name - Ingles Basico A Ghiod (There is no é in the title) by Augusto Ghio Dell'Oro
ISBN 978-956-12-1890-1 (106th edición octubre 2007)
I recently borrowed the Butt and Benjamin Grammar Reference and also found it overwhelming. There's a huge amount of information in there and sometimes it's difficult to find what you want. I think it's best for looking up a specific point of grammar rather than flicking through to learn something new. That said, there have been some basic points of grammar that I've not been sure about which I seem unable to locate within the book. I think I need something simpler to start off with. Grammar For Dummies would be more my level. 
For a recommendation, from a previous class I have:- ¡Sigue! 1 2ª edición curso avanzado primera parte By Connor, Jiménez, Mort, O'Connor ISBN: 0-7195-8522-8 It has a good number of exercises and has an audio CD as well for the listening exercises, although it might be too Euro-centric for North American residents.
Recognizing that you probably want to learn grammar, vocabulary and the sounds of the language - because language is spoken - you may be interested in books that have an accompanying DVD or CD.
The publishing house called Difusión, in Barcelona, offers many such combinations along with the books I mentioned in my prior post referencing books on grammar. One example is the series "Lola Lago, detective" ...lots of fun! Another, their newest, is Todas las voces.
And I am listening (yes, ...still, @Heidita, if you happen to read this) to a wonderful story "Pepe Carvalho y una desconocida" from digitalpublishing.de. Their audiobooks include a book with the written story, a CD with the audio for an mp3 player and a program CD to display the written words as you listen to and read them.
The particularly interesting point about the digitalpublishing offerings is that you can slow the speaker down and also annotate all the words you do not know with a little popup to display their meanings in English.
The delivered popups which show when you "hover" (as one expresses it in the language of the Internet) over the words are in German, but you can just ignore those and make your own. Here is their site address if you are interested in ordering one of these audio book stories in Spanish
Both the difusión and digitalpublishing offerings are graded.
Hi Sandy,
I asked a similar question awhile back and here's a link to my thread and the responses I received.
I did order the ''A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish'', 4th edition, by John Butt and Carmen Benjamin and I think it's outstanding--although it's sometimes way over my head.
One drawback is that it doesn't have any practice exercises.
I also purchased ''Manual de gramática: Grammar Reference for Students of Spanish", 4th Edition, by Zulma Iguina and Eleanor Dozier. This is a much simpler text and does not go into grammar in the same depth as the text by Butt and Benjamin. However, it does have 150 pages of exercises followed by the answers. I started my reading with this reference since it wasn't as intimidating as the B & B text.
Good luck!
I found this one at the library. So it probably could be purchased but I've not done any "leg work" to find out. I like it because it multicultural -
"Multicultural Spanish Dictionary" Morry Sofer General Editor and Agustín Martínez Spanish Editor
It has a section "How to Use this Dictionary" and
It also has sections for subject areas: animals, common adjectives, drug culture, food, hobbies & recreation, nature, personal life, shelter & daily living, transportation, and workplace.
I'd say go to the bookstore and get something that appeals to you. Look at it hold it in your hand. You'll know by how it feels. That is the way I get my books. I use the web for spanish because it is so interactive. If you leave your money at home when you shop you can just get titles and ISBNs and then look them up on Amazon and read the reviews. Look especially for the negative reviews as sometimes they will offer alternatives. Some reviewers get into really good detail and I've found some good computer books this way. You can order online or at the information desk of the book store. Happy hunting!
I am really interested in books that I can order. I don't know how to download books and I want a real book, not one on the internet. Does anyone use real books anymore?
You can always learn 
It's really good to have a look at them, then you can decide which one to order. I defintly like real books but I found downloading them veeery useful sometimes!! Hope it helps!
