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 because it 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.

Having studied Russian for approximately 6m on and off I was pleasantly surprised I could make my way through the first chapter without the audio (sold separately). The author has pitched this book exactly at the right level. This book is not for a novice and won't teach you Russian, but it will aid in consolidating your russian and make you more comfortable with the language.

I have been learning Russian for just over a year and I bought this book rather too on. It is only now that I am beginning to find it helpful and enjoyable. I have completed the first two of the eight stories successfully and overall I find the approach the authors advocate to be effective, more so than studying parallel texts with Russian and English side by side. The stories so far are quite simple and engaging, with the second story building on new words presented in the first. That's the good part. Unfortunately, the book also suffers from a number of irritating shortcomings. The most important of these is that there is no indication of where the stress should lie in each word. The authors make the point that in modern Russian, current practice is not to distinguish between "e" and "ë" but they have decided, sensibly, to make the distinction to assist beginners. So why then do they not make the equally important concession to learners of accenting the stressed syllable? The stories are accompanied by a fairly limited vocabulary section. Unfortunately, the choice of words that have been defined is somewhat erratic. Furthermore, some of the definitions do not match the wording given in the story, whilst others have been omitted altogether. I would also find it useful for the literal meaning of the defined words and phrases to be given. For example, the Russian for "I really want to eat" is not the same wording as "I am hungry". Some of the stories also suffer from logical inconsistencies. Overall, the book would have been considerably improved had stress marks been provided and by a more thorough approach to proofreading. Finally, this book is billed by Amazon as "Volume 1". Actually it appears to be the only volume in the series, as far as I can make out!

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.

This was recommended to me by my Russian teacher. It really helps me to feel that I am progressing, and I can understand the gist of the story without having to check the dictionary every other word. The word list provided is great and the stories are short and entertaining. I will be looking for an other one once I have read this through twice :)

I studied russian and lived in russia for 3 years so bought this to try and keep up my language skills. Great book for light language work but definitely not for beginners!

Trae un diccionario al final de cada historia que siempre puedes consultar si hay dudas. Es precioso y tiene un tamaño ideal para llevarlo de viaje y seguir aprendiendo.

Ürün güzel ama küçücük bir Amazon kağıdına konulduğu için ürün ezilmiş bir şekilde geldi

Eine sehr empfehlenswerte Art Sprachen zu lernen. Gefällt mir sehr gut.

2～3ページ位のショートストーリーで、単語の説明もお話ごとについているので、サラッと読める。

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.