Hello everybody!

You are here because you want to start reading in Spanish! That's right? Well, it's very easy and simple and I’m here to help you!

One thing you must know is that spanish literature is a very huge mass of texts. Lots of countries, lots of ages, themes, genres, everything!

First rule: READ THINGS YOU LIKE [ edit | edit source ]

So, here's the first rule, the most important thing in this whole article and the reading universe: READ THINGS YOU LIKE.

Well, it's easy to say it, right? Maybe dumb but ... There are a lot of people who starts reading just the things they have or found or get into it. Most important thing is to start reading things you like. Try with an author you have already read in your native language, or with a genre!

For example: I love science fiction, so one of my goals is to read science fiction in Russian! (one of the most important language for that language). So, it's here again: READ THING YOU LIKE.

But, to help you know what kind of things you might like, I have made a little list of important spanish authors, themes, genres and other things! I even ranked them by "spanish level of difficulty" (You can find the list at the end of the article, you must earn it!).

Second thing to have in mind is: START WITH SHORT STORIES [ edit | edit source ]

The best things to start with are short stories (in Spanish "cuento/s"). It's so much better than novels because they tend to be easier! Much less characters, troubles, arguments and pages! And, if you don't like or don't understand too much the short stories you can leave it and start with another one, no need to finish a 800 pages book to decide if you want to keep going or not with that author or genre. For example, i start reading Isaac Asimov's short stories before his novels and it was a good call!

Also, there are a lot of good spanish storytellers ("cuentistas").

Third advice is: BE PATIENT [ edit | edit source ]

Do not despair! There will be moments when you're going to be frustrated and even angry with the texts. Keep the calm and try to read it multiples times and use everything you have nearby to aid yourself in this task: ask your friends (here, at this page! You can even contact me and ask me anything about books!), use the dictionary (there are lots of spanish dictionaries online), use the RAE website (Real Academia Española). One of the best ways to learn a language is to read in that language, so you will be learning a lot of new things!

Fourth lesson: HAVE FUN [ edit | edit source ]

That’s one of the most important things here: having fun in the process of reding and learning a new language. Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges used to say: “El verbo leer, como el verbo amar y el verbo soñar, no soporta ‘el modo imperativo’. Yo siempre les aconsejé a mis estudiantes que si un libro los aburre lo dejen; que no lo lean porque es famoso, que no lean un libro porque es moderno, que no lean un libro porque es antiguo. La lectura debe ser una de las formas de la felicidad y no se puede obligar a nadie a ser feliz.”

That would be: “The verb reading, like the verb to love and the verb dreaming, doesn't bear the imperative mode. I always advised to my students that if a book bores them leave it; That they don't read it because it's famous, that they don't read a book because it's modern, that they don't read a book because it's antique. The reading should be one of the ways of happiness and nobody can be obliged to be happy.”

Recommendation list [ edit | edit source ]

And now, here’s the recommendation list!

The difficulty of the works is ranked as followed: P, PP, PPP, PPPP, PPPPP (Polyglot points).

This ranking makes it easier to understand.

Jorge Luis Borges (PP - PPPPP) [ edit | edit source ]

Writer tags: similar to Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Фёдор Достоевский), Lev Tolstoi (Лев Толсто́й), Fantasy / Fantastic, Science Fiction (very weird but he has some serious influences from early Science Fiction magazines), Mythological themes, Philosophical themes.

Jorge Luis Borges is one of the most complex and deep writers in the spanish literature. He was an awesome storyteller; he only wrote short stories and poems (He never wrote a novel). His works themes include: mythological characters and themes, symbols (he was a symbolist) and philosophical questions. It is, sometimes, easy to read but very complex to understand and almost impossible to REALLY understand it (you need a lot of knowledge of history, philosophy, literature, linguistics and much more disciplines).

Recommended works: “Ficciones” (PP - PPPP), “Historia universal de la infamia” (PP - PPP), “El Aleph” (PP - PPPPP)

Julio Cortázar (P - PPP) [ edit | edit source ]

Writer tags: in the same line of Jorge Luis Borges (Cortázar is younger, and was influenced by Borge’s work), Fantasy, Linguistic plays (this is the only thing that might make him hard to read). Julio Cortázar was an Argentinian writer who lived in the Twentieth century. Most of his works are about fantastic literature and the lane between reality and fantasy. His short stories could be a little bit tricky because he tend to play with the language, so it could be very difficult if you are not prepared to those kinds of things (learn a new language is pretty hard in that circumstances). His novel (“Rayuela”) is a pretty complex work.

Recommended works: “Bestiario” (PP), “Final del juego” (PP), “Rayuela” (PPP)

Carlos Fuentes (P - PP) [ edit | edit source ]

Writer tags: Pretty recent literature, Short Stories, Psychological themes.

He was a Mexican writer and died not long ago. His narrative is pretty lineal and easy to read, although a lot of his themes are complicated. He wrote about psychological dramas and problems. His short stories are pretty easy to understand and read.

Recommended works: “La muerte de Artemio Cruz” (P), “La region mas transparente” (P), “Aura” (PP)

José Saramago (PPPP - PPPPP) [ edit | edit source ]

Writer tags: Portuguese, A little bit tricky at the start, Linguistic plays, Philosophical themes, Religious themes, Short Novels.

Ah, here’s a little cheat! José Saramago is not strictly a Spanish writer, he was Portuguese and wrote in that language, but! His works in Spanish are remarkable. His wife was a native speaker of Spanish and he himself knew a lot about this language so his traductions are really really good (they made them together). His work is pretty complex because he doesn’t use punctuation signs (“ – “ ,“¡!”, “¿?”). This is not a work for beginners in Spanish, but it’s really good and fun to read. Most of his works are about human nature (philosophical themes) and religious things. He was exiled from Portugal for his “heretics themes”.

Recommended works: “Informe sobre la ceguera” (PPPP), “Informe sobre la lucidez” (PPPP)? “El evangelio según Jesucristo” (PPPPP)

Gabriel García Marquéz (PPP - PPPP) [ edit | edit source ]

Writer tags: Fantasy / Magic realism (“Realismo mágico Latinoamericano”), Very funny and sarcastic, Long novels mostly, Complex. He was one of the most important Latin-American writers and millstone of the Magic Realism. Gabriel Garcia Marquéz was a Colombian writer. His books are about the magic that is present in the most common situations. It’s some kind of fantastic literature. It might be a little difficult to read if you don’t master the language because there’s a lot of linguistic plays and tricks in his works. You might also need a little bit of American history to understand some of the situations (American revolutions, USA interventions, etc.).

Recommended works: “Relato de un náufrago” (PPP), “Cien años de soledad” (PPPP)

Mario Vargas Llosa (PP - PPP) [ edit | edit source ]

Writer tags: Strong political content, Might need a little bit of History to comprehend, long Novels, Complex. Mario Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer and Nobel-prize winner. He’s one of the most influent latinamerican writers of the century (past and actual). Most of his works are about common people but in the end he’s talking about serious political content hidden in his stories. His novels tend to be long and complex and with a lot of characters. It’s not one of my favorite’s authors.

Recommended works: “La ciudad y los perros” (PPP), “Pantaleón y las visitadoras” (PP)

Ernesto Sabato (PPP - PPPP) [ edit | edit source ]

Writer tags: Short and Long Novels (The long ones are huge), Philosophical content, Psychological content, Depressive, Dark, Political content, Might need History to understand. He was a great Argentinian author who wrote lots of things and then burnt them. He started as a scientist and then he left that career to be an artist. He was very dark most of his life and a depressive character. His works are very psychological and deep. He wrote a few light novels and a few really really long novels (very complex too). It’s some kind of dark Jorge Luis Borges or even as depressive as Kafka.

Recommended works: “El túnel” (PPP), “Sobre héroes y tumbas” (PPPP), “Abbadon el exterminador” (PPPP)

Rosa Montero (P) [ edit | edit source ]

Writer tags: Easy reading, Very simple style, Recent, Lineal, Science Fiction (just one work as much as I know), Fantasy, Romantic, Short Novels mostly. She’s a Spanish contemporary writer. His works are pretty easy and simple; it’s a good way to start reading something you can understand very quickly. His narrative is pretty lineal so that makes it easier to understand it. Most of his themes are romances and crimes. Also she write in a newspaper column so some of his books are scraps of those articles (pretty shorts ones, good for a quick reading).

Recommended works: “Historia de mujeres” (P), “Lagrimas en la lluvia” (P)

Juan Rulfo (PPP - PPPPP) [ edit | edit source ]

Writer tags: Strong political content, Short Stories, Short Novel, Complex, Linguistic plays, Non-Lineal narrative, might need History to understand. Juan Rulfo is one of the most important Mexican writers of the twentieth century. He has two notable works and both of them turn around the Mexican Revolution. His narrative might be a little tricky and hard to understand tough. He tends to use a lot of linguistic plays and non-lineal sequences along with multiple characters. This is a hard but very good read.

Recommended works: “El llano en llamas” (PPP), “Pedro Páramo ” (only if you have an advanced level of spanish, due the vocabulary) (PPPP - PPPPP)

Alejo Carpentier (PPP) [ edit | edit source ]

Writer tags: Short Novel, Magic Realism, Complex, Music content, Political content. He was a Cuban writer and a big influence for the “Boom” artists. Also he was a musicologist (the second man that I know with that profession other than Theodor Adorno). His works has a lot of influence of the music and a lot of political hidden content. Also they are structured according to music themes, rhythms and types of songs. If you know about music you might enjoy and discover a lot of things reading Alejo Carpientier.

Recommended work: “El reino de este mundo” (PPP)

Adolfo Bioy Casares (PP) [ edit | edit source ]

Writer tags: Short Stories, Short Novels, Fantasy, Science-Fiction, Easy, Lineal narrative (almost from nineteenth century), Entertaining, friend of Jorge Luis Borges (they tend to appear in the literature of each other). He was an Argentinian writer and a good friend of Jorge Luis Borges. Most of his works are short stories along with short novels. His narrative is lineal and very easy to understand. He wrote mostly fantastic / mistery works. In some points it’s almost like reading Jules Verne. As I said before, he and Borges were good friends so they influenced each other and they even wrote some things together.

Recommended works: “Diario de la Guerra del cerdo” (PP) and “La invención de Morel” (PP)

AzDune