Has anyone ever read...?

Question

I was at Barnes & Noble about a week ago and I was looking in their Spanish section. I purchased "Don Quijote de la Mancha" (the commemorative edition by RAE) and I noticed some other books that they had from the same edition. Has anyone ever read "Del símbolo a la realidad" by Rubén Darío or "La Colmena" by José Cela? I'm not too sure if they'd be worth the while as I'm looking for something to help me keep the vocabulary going.

Hace una semana estuvo en Barnes & Noble buscando por la sección española. Compré "Don Quijote de la Mancha" (la edición conmemorativa por la RAE) y vi otros libros que son de la misma edición en esa sección. ¿Leyeron ustedes "Del símbolo a la realidad" por Rubén Darío o "La Colmena" por José Cela? No estoy seguro si esos libros me interesan y espero que me den sus opiniones porque busco algo que me puede ayudar mantener y desarrollar el vocabulario.

Answer 1

Cody, you could buy something that others recommend as being helpful and famous or you could alternatively choose a story that you enjoy reading in your own native language and read it in the target language that you are learning. The choice is yours!

I would generally prefer to choose the second option and choose a story with which I am basically familiar like The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas or the Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne and then read it in Spanish or French so that if get stuck I will at least have some idea of the story. (plot)

Following the first strategy of choosing an unknown author and storyline (plot) you would already need quite an extensive vocabulary and a fairly good understanding of grammar and perhaps more confidence to tackle unknown idioms and more complex verbal constructions. Please remember that imperfect subjunctive form hiciese (compared to hiciera used in spoken Spanish today) is found more in written literature and I think that perfect subjunctive can still be found in much older books, although it is not used in spoken Spanish; having been replaced by present subjunctice! )

It could take you a lot longer to read it from cover to cover but at the end of doing it that way you could have developed your ability much more than by simply tackling a story that you already basically know. You should, hopefully, end up with a better understanding of how Spanish natives express themselves in their own language in a written way.

I hope these ideas help you

I´m currently reading Don Quijote and well aware of the difference in grammar/vocabulary. In some parts of the book, they still use fecho/fecha instead of hecho/hecha. There are various similarities to that, but not much that I haven't been exposed to. - codyandrews1993, Mar 7, 2017

I also bought Las Crónicas de Narnia because I wanted to revisit that part of my life. I love that series and it's all 7 in one book! - codyandrews1993, Mar 7, 2017

I also have Las Crónicas de Narnia el león, la bruja y el armario in Kindle downloaded form and had been reading some of it during my Spanish classes on Skype with my native Spanish teacher who comes from Spain :) - FELIZ77, Mar 8, 2017

I also love that series. I was able to read it and understand about 90-95 % of it in Spanish but needed to ask my teacher to occasionally explain some expressions to me. - FELIZ77, Mar 8, 2017

Cody, when you say in your profile that you speak Portuguese is that Brazilian Portuguese or Portuguese from Portugal, please? - FELIZ77, Mar 8, 2017

Sorry, I was also not aware that you were fluent in Spanish until I looked at your profile so, much of what I wrote in my post doesn't apply to you - FELIZ77, Mar 8, 2017

I don't know why it's taken me so long to respond, but the Portuguese that I know is the Brazilian dialect. It's the most common, although I can understand some things from Portugal. - codyandrews1993, Jul 12, 2017