Best writer to learn English

Tremmert   Thursday, June 26, 2003, 17:40 GMT
You can't mention Ursula le Guin without her Earthsea trilogy (starting with A Wizard of Earthsea)
Baba   Thursday, June 26, 2003, 18:31 GMT
Hi UltimoAmore,

I suggest you a book what is very interesting. I don't know if you already read it. The title is: "Who moved my cheese? ". That's very fascinating to read also exciting.
Clark   Thursday, June 26, 2003, 18:48 GMT
Merci beaucoup, Kabam. Tu m'aides beaucoup. Je crois que cette expression est très util.
to Baba   Thursday, June 26, 2003, 23:27 GMT
Who wrote the book ?
mike   Sunday, June 29, 2003, 18:56 GMT
The book I'd recommend to you is Orwell's 1984 and the Animal Farm. Both are brilliant examples of his style.
chantal   Monday, June 30, 2003, 07:09 GMT
mike
I read "the Animal Farm" a couple of years ago. Great book. A lot of vocabulary for a learner, though. After reading this book, I always ask myself if the 'pigs' are really that intelligent. What do you think about them ?
Tremmert   Monday, June 30, 2003, 18:06 GMT
Satire.
Clark   Monday, June 30, 2003, 23:35 GMT
Yes!!! 1984 and Animal Farm!!! Great books!
mike   Sunday, July 06, 2003, 15:29 GMT
Yep, the pigs from 1984 are very intelligent and cunning creatures but their intelligence is on the verge of absurdity when they e.g. change the rules to suit their present situation best. 'All animals are equal but some are more equal than others' is a perfect example of how manipulative their intelligence proved to be. Their manipulation caused pain and misery to a number of animals actally leading to massive disaster. The morale is; intelligence is necessary but wisdom is more important.
Tremmert   Sunday, July 06, 2003, 17:51 GMT
The moral is: the revolutionaries who replace a government will not necessarily govern the country any better.
sam   Sunday, July 06, 2003, 18:45 GMT
Is it really about the Russian revolution of 1917 ?
Ryan   Sunday, July 06, 2003, 22:28 GMT
If you want to learn American standard English as you are coming to the USA, then I would not read anything by a British author as there will be too many "Britishisms" in there. If you start calling things "rubbish" in the United States (which is possible), then people will humorously laugh at you and suspect that you are obsessed with Great Britain.

I would recommend Ernest Hemingway for American English, as he likes to write in short sentences as well. F. Scott Fitzgerald is another good one, as well as J.D. Salinger (many teens in Japan enjoy reading him already). Mark Twain and John Steinbeck are good, but have characters who use a lot of accents that will look strange to foreign readers. I wouldn't suggest William Faulkner as his "stream of consciousness" style would be a bit confusing to foreigners learning the language.

But the English books already suggested by the people above are good for British English. James Joyce is Irish but I would not suggest him though as his stuff is very difficult for even native English speakers to read. Irvine Welsh writes in urban Scots language which hardly even looks like English at all. I recommended a friend of mine who is a non-native English speaker to watch the movie based on his book, "Trainspotting," partly as a joke and partly to show him how different "English" accents could sound.

Ryan
Tabisora   Sunday, July 06, 2003, 22:37 GMT
In Animal Farm, the pigs see the farmers as dictators. So what do they do? They decide to FORCE all the other animals to rebellion, overthrow the farmers and then set THEIR own dictatorship which everyone is to obey.
Must be a metaphore for communist dictatorship.
Jack Doolan   Monday, July 07, 2003, 04:22 GMT
Tremmert

Didn't mention the Earthsea Quartet as I was trying to keep away from the fantasy novel. Got a copy right here. Odd how the first Harry Potter story resembles the first book.

If someone wants a good American novel I'd also suggest Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) and The Shipping News (E. Annie Proulx) which are both funny - and you learn from them.