If you are going to learn Spanish fast on your own without taking Spanish classes, you want to study with high-quality learning sources. There are a lot of books and audio courses you can buy to shorten the learning curve, learn Spanish basics and make significant progress to an advanced level. This is my list of Spanish language books that may give you tremendous help in your Spanish learning journey.
Best Spanish language book for you
Which Spanish language book is best for you? In this list, you should find a learning source that fits your needs the best. Some of the books complement each other. For example, it is very effective to study Spanish grammar and Spanish verbs and complement it with reading short stories, as well as with listening practice.
Learn Spanish basics and grammar
Spanish Grammar for Independent Learners by Arie Vicente
As you might know, Spanish grammar is not that simple. But don’t worry, this book has all the information you need if you want to learn Spanish basics and progress to advanced topics. This book will teach you not only to read the sentences and say “hello how are you”, but also to understand how they are constructed, and how you can use words and sentences the right way.
1001 Most Useful Spanish Words (Beginners’ Guide) by Seymour Resnick
If you know 1000 words, you can understand 80% of the language. It is good to have the list of most useful Spanish words right on the table. The words in the book are separated by categories, such as family, food, work, and so on. Also, it has a dictionary with a sample sentence with each word, and as every language learner knows, one has more chances to memorize a word in context than a standalone word.
Learn Spanish basics with another great book for learning Spanish and verbs – the grammar part that causes 95% of complications in Spanish. If it is about you, then you will not think that Spanish verbs are difficult anymore. The book will teach you how to form tenses and will cover Spanish verb conjugations and their irregular forms. You will find an answer to any question about Spanish verbs.
This book is a shortcut for learning the Spanish Language. Its purpose is to teach you enough basic stuff so that you can keep conversations and learn from them without getting into complicated details of Spanish grammar. It doesn’t claim to make you fluent in three weeks.
Spanish readers and short stories
This awesome book of short stories will be a great source that will give you a taste of Spanish literature and a lot of fun. Reading short stories is a great way to learn the Spanish language: you practice reading skills, memorize new words from context, see how the sentences are constructed, how verb tenses are used, and how native speakers form their speech. You will find Spanish short stories and proverbs listed by level of difficulty, from beginner to advanced.
Spanish short stories for beginners + AUDIO, series of 3 books
Great Spanish reader for beginners and more. All stories come with a vocabulary list and translation and audio downloads. The perfect source for developing Spanish vocabulary, grammar usage, and listening skill. Must have for every beginner.
Learn Spanish while driving
Learn in Your Car Spanish Complete Language Course by Henry N. Raymond and Oscar M. Ramirez
If you go through traffic jams or spend a couple of hours per week in your car, you still can use this time to learn Spanish while driving. You must concentrate on the road, so the course is not going to distract you from it, repeat after the speaker. The CD course will walk you through basic and advanced Spanish dialogues that will improve your Spanish conversational skills.
This course is simple and awesome to learn Spanish while driving. It is based on repeating words and sentences multiple times. You start with simple dialogue, and then in every next lesson, you add more and more words to this dialogue, until it becomes a complete conversation.
With these books and audio courses, your study should become faster and easier. The cost of most of them is less than the cost of one Spanish class, and you are free to study whenever you want, and how you want. And in order to research Spanish even more effectively, you need to have conversational practice. Learn more about it in the next article.