April 22, 2004

Recommended Reading

I've added a recommended reading section in the sidebar, with Amazon.com links. These are (some) of the texts that I own and use. Saying that I collect language textbooks makes it sound too organized; I accumulate them is a more accurate way of putting it. I have a number of texts for languages that I have no intention of making any serious attempt to learn; I just enjoy leafing through them sometimes, or diving in to try to trace a word or puzzle out a phrase I've run across somewhere else. I also like to compare the different styles, and tend to think that they each have something to contribute; if nothing else, it can be instructive to try do the exercises out of a book that hasn't been carefully prepping with the grammar and vocabulary you need in order to do its exercises.

Probably my favorite is this:



I like it for its emphasis on reading Latin, that is it attempts to teach you how to read fluently rather than translate word-by-word, which means translating as you go, using mental placeholders, rather than scanning ahead searching for the verb, then the subject, etc. I also like its careful attention to diacriticals.

Posted by joshua at April 22, 2004 05:32 PM
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