Thread: как быть в курсе на популярные книг? / how to stay up on popular books?

There's nothing wrong with reading "pulp" novels. They may not be pieces of art but you're not looking for art, you're looking for language. I have read two novels by Oksana Robski (the two "Casual" novels) which are absolutely not what I would read normally, but they make use of everyday language. Then novels by Sergei Lukianenko and Dmitri Gluchowski, both authors write fantasy / horror / SF, also using modern language.

On the other hand I am currently reading Akunin's Pelagia novels, and while they are contemporary they are set in the 19th century, and the vocabulary shows it. I was told in e-mail conversation that I was writing like a 19th century duke because I used a couple of words from there which the dictionary did not mark as obsolete...

And with the Classics it's just the same. For a language learner who wants to learn contemporary language they are not the right material.

Originally Posted by bitpicker

I was told in e-mail conversation that I was writing like a 19th century duke

=)



...до 17 лет я жил в родовом замке, где, благодаря заботам моей матушки баронессы де Монжу, был прилично воспитан и получил изрядное образование...

A way of discovering the Russian classics in Russian: the Easy Readers series.