Reading in Spanish. How?
I am currently reading, "Jorge el Curioso", and Dora la Exploradora books. I figure I am basically a child when it comes to Spanish so I will start with children's books.
Anyway... I understand Direct Object and Indirect Object Pronouns, but they throw so many "lo"s and "la"s in there that it gets really difficult to understand, not to mention all the new vocabulary I come across (every third word it seems). And they seem to use the imperfect tense a lot, instead of the past.
Should I be stopping at every new word/concept to look it up, or should I just keep reading taking in what I currently understand?
13 Answers
When I first started reading, I used audiobooks and I listened to the entire book in Spanish, and followed along in Spanish and then I listened to the entire story again with Spanish and tried just reading along in Spanish with the English version there for the odd phrase I didn't get. I got horribly bored with constantly going over the same chapter, or the same paragraph.
If you can't find audiobooks, I'd get the English version of the book too. If you're looking up every other word, you're going to get bored and disheartened, so instead of looking it up in the dictionary, I'd look it up in the English book - it's faster and you don't have to try to figure out the sentence. Also, you could try reading aloud as it keeps the flow going 
. If you lose the flow of the story then you end up looking up much more than if you keep the flow and guess things from context.
Also, if you read a book you know very well, you'll find it much easier because you'll already have an idea as to what's being said so you can concentrate on the grammar points and why they're being used.
Just keep trying, and don't worry too much about understanding every use of the imperfect, or the subjunctive or le/lo/la, your brain will figure it all out in the end .
Good luck!
I would say you should read a paragraph or a page and glean what you can from it. Then go back and look up the words you don't know. Then go back and read it again. Then go backand and read it out loud.
The popular am-not-are-too argument between two kids uses LO in an interesting way...
You're a liar (or whatever)! / Am not!
Are, too! / Am not!
.
¡Eres mentiroso! / ¡No lo soy!
¡Sí lo eres! / ¡No lo soy!
.
It works with estar-type things, too.
¡Estás cansado! / ¡No lo estoy!
¡Sí lo estás! / ¡No lo estoy!
.
This pattern is kind of like our somewhat antiquated pattern...That watermelon is heavy. Yes, that (that = LO) it is.
I can't answer as I am not by any means good at spanish. (in my first year) However, I personnally enjoy just trying to get the gist of what i'm reading. When i can't make head or tail of a sentence, thats when i break out the Spanish-English Dictionary.
For informal settings, is the ¡ always mandatory for an exclamation?
I'd say so, though it's not always used. Using it is proper punctuation. It's not a matter of formal or informal, it's a matter of right or wrong.
Cartoon books like Charlie Brown by Charles Schulz or books written for young children may be a good starting point because they can offer:
1 Repetitive vocabulary to enable you to become familiar with basic Spanish words and phrases
2 Pictures which illustrate some or all of the vocabulary used
3 You can deduce the meaning more easily from the context
I hope this helps 
I agree with Jen's advice-- just try to read portions of a story and figure things out from the context of the story. You will be surprised at how much you begin to understand! Another thing I have found helpful is reading books on my iPad. If I encounter a word that interests me, I can highlight it and continue reading. Later, if I still need to look up the meaning or research the usage, I can do it and make a little note next to the word. This allows me to keep the flow of the story going. I can also go back and test myself on my new vocabulary by opening the notes on each page. I imagine that you could do this on other electronic readers as well, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I think it's fun!
One of my favorite children's books is from the public library. It has the Spanish on one page and the English on the facing page so there is no "looking up". It is all right there without even turning a page.
I agree with jtt:
"... I personnally enjoy just trying to get the gist of what i'm reading. When i can't make head or tail of a sentence, thats when i break out the Spanish-English Dictionary."
I started reading in English Charlie Brown. Then I couldn´t understand lots of words, but even so I usually could grasp the meaning of the whole story. Usually they used to be quite short. Gradually I began to understand the meaning of lots of words I didn´t know, just by intuition, with the help of the drawings, such as to bark, to howl, to sigh, to moan, to grief, pen pal, and so on.
Count up how many times the words him, her and it show up in the average English book and you'll understand why there are so many lo, la and le's in a Spanish book.
As far as when to look up new words - that's a tough call. It happens at every level, too. I waffle. If you do it too often it will take you forever to read anything. If you don't do it often enough you'll lose the gist of the story. I'd say you want to try to figure it out yourself first, then definitely start looking things up when the paragraph makes no sense. There's no hard and fast rule.
¡Gracias a todos! Me gusta la idea de los audiolibros.
For informal settings, is the ¡ always mandatory for an exclamation?
Siempre corrija mi español. 
You're on the right path.
Please read my blog and if you have any questions, here they will be dispelled.
https://addons.mozilla.org/es-es/firefox/addon/google-dictionary-and-google-t/
Firefox Add-on that allows you to click on a word in Spanish on any website and translate it to English, just as you can on SpanishDict.
It's helped me no end, the ability to look things up instantly rather than having to search through a book turns out to be really good for the memory.
I've started reading El Principito again: http://www.odaha.com/antoine-de-saint-exupery/maly-princ/el-principito And find it really satisfying how much I can understand without looking it up. here it is as an audiobook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D-1W3-YDKU&
