Short Stories in Russian for Beginners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn Russian the fun way! (Foreign Language Graded Reader Series)

I bought this to help me immerse in the Russian language, to help me learn. It is perfect for beginners, as phrases are understandable to an extent, and if not, there is an easily-accessible list of the meaning of some more difficult words throughout the book.

I have just finished the Ruslan Russian 2 course and am delighted to find that the Short Stories for Beginners are very easy to read using the vocabulary which I have learnt over the last two years. The stories are bang up to date, interesting and I can relate to them. The vocabulary is reinforced as you progress through the book. I really appreciate the presentation - large easy to read print. No need to refer to a Russian Dictionary because there is a handy vocab list at the end of each chapter (which saves so much time) and the stories are fun to read. I am halfway through and looking forward to sharing them with my fellow students.

This a very effective way to learn. I have recently finished the book, and have absorbed vocabulary and correct grammatical forms in a natural way. I did not follow the author's advice about not translating unknown words - at first I tried this approach and I was frustrated and stopped reading. I then used my own approach, that works for me. I translated unknown words and worked through the entire text this way. This has been powerful.I am very grateful for this book.There are a few editing errors, but nothing that inhibits the stories or learning process. The stories are not boring and you learn naturally. It is fun!*Update* I ordered the new version as well, when it came out because it said there was a new story in it. There is, but one of the stories that's in the first one is missing, so it's not extra.That annoyed me because id worked hard to learn that particular story.It seems some of the language in the first one is incorrect (and this was pointed out to me when i used these words).The second version of this book is not sentence for sentence the same. In fact the sentences have been changed completely, some entirely left out and some new ones put in. At first. this eally annoyed me. I thought, since i had worked hard learning the first version, i should be able to now read this second version through... but no: it's not the same. However, of course this is a good opportunity to improve! Hopefully, it's error-free. I certainly hope so, i will be very glad.I found this book very, very useful. I learned from it, and it was enjoyable. I was aware of language errors and that did bother me. But i went along and did my best with it. I used it alongside a translation tool becauseit is quite a hard book for beginners. At the time, though, this was the only book like this for russian i could find. So i really appreciated it. It seems it was a first and others have appeared now.In their 'translations' at the end of the chapters, they provide a sentence in english that is not word for word what the russian sentence says. A lot of books do this and it's not helpful.

This beautifullythors are presented book has been a revelation to me and my fellow students. Our teacher has recommended the method of reading advised by the authors, but this book made it possible to follow it. (Read to the end of the story without stopping to look up unknown words.) We were thrilled to find it works, and we learned the meanings because our brains worked them out from the context, as children do! I highly recommend this book. The authors are to be congratulated!

An excellent idea, well executed. Olly and Alex are an enterprising pair, and this book is an exciting achievement. "Beginners" may be put off by all the text - the glossing of vocabulary doesn't provide definitions for every word, but it gives enough for you to understand the gist, and the stories get progressively more advanced throughout. I'm a Russian graduate, albeit a rusty one, and I would say the level was more Intermediate than Beginner - but definitely a valuable resource and learning tool.

Described on the cover as "for beginners", this would be more accurate if the support had been better presented. For instance, the vocabulary supplied at the end of each chapter seems inadequate and arbitrarily selected. Repeating all these words again at the end in alphabetical order seems a waste of space, which would have been better used simply supplying a glossary of ALL the words used in the stories, at the end for easy reference.The encouragement to "work out" what words mean would be more effective if the "root syllables" linking certain words were pointed out, say at the end of each chapter. Similarly, idiomatic phrases could be flagged up and explained. I do not have the impression that the writers of these books are either experienced teachers or linguists, who know how to "put themselves into the position" of beginners, and think how best to present the material.I have also read in other reviews that there are grammatical errors, suggesting a lack of editing.This is not an effective "teach yourself" book. I am currently using it with an online teacher, which is helpful, but even with this, reading it is a slog. Even if one tries to follow the "six step teaching programme" and attempt to work out or guess the meanings of words, there is a good deal which one is obliged to look up, which becomes very tedious when the book lacks an adequate glossary.Neither do I think that the stories focus on vocabulary appropriate to a beginner, and particularly useful to know at this stage e.g. "big, hairy monster" or "all my life I carried out my duties as a citizen".Although I have noticed words being repeated, which does help learning, there is no coherent effort to aid progression by building and linking vocabulary in the course of the stories, again suggesting that the authors are not really experienced language teachers.There is a lack of good reading material for students of Russian, so it is a pity that the opportunity has been missed here to fill the gap effectively.

Bom demais. Embora meu russo ainda seja bem básico, consigo me divertir tentando entender as histórias. E, no final de cada capítulo, têm exercícios e um dicionário com palavras novas. Muito bom para ir praticando. Realmente a proposta do conhecido autor Olly funciona neste livro.

Great

Ziemlich verständlich sogar für Anfänger

👍🏻

If you're like me and you finished the Russian Duolingo course and are looking around for other resources to use, this is a good one. I noticed the reading got increasingly comfortable as I progressed through the book. The short stories were interesting too. Highly recommended.