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for the past 50 years, American students were taught bullshit

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tomos:
For what I see as good German language, I recommend reading Siegfried Lenz or Günter Grass. So going back to the English language: What's your recommendation of a Good English Book? Should I try the classic Shakespeare, or Hemingway, or Poe?
-housetier (April 21, 2009, 05:15 AM)
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first, thanks for the german book recommendations :up:

so,
you're looking for a Good English Book - I'm not sure what you're implying by those capitals there, lol. That'll be like searching for the "Great American Novel". I cant tell you what's good in the context of this thread but I'll happily recommend a couple of books.

these below are all older books (but all 20th C. except for Jane Austen) - I would have to think/search some more for more recent writers.

Jane Austen "Pride and Prejudice" - you may be confronted with some not so modern English, and convoluted sentences too, but she did write great books!

I've only read one short story by F.Scott Fitzgerald but that was really beautifully written.

P.G.Wodehouse not only writes in beautiful English but is also very entertaining along the way (a rare combination) - there can be a lot of slang in his books - maybe, as a non-native English speaker, avoid the "Jeeves" series because they're the worst 'culprits'. Actually, I'm not sure how readable he would be for a non-native English speaker :-\  I'd recommend any books about Blanding Castle/Lord Ermsworth.

Hemingway "For Whom the Bell Tolls" & "The Old Man and the Sea" are both great books. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" does use a sort of archaic style in the dialogue to indicate when they are speaking Spanish (or it may be a dialect, I cant remember exactly)

kartal:
I think George Carlin is a good source-critique for English language :)

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