You've heard this before.

It should come as no surprise to you.

Reading is one of the best ways to improve your English.

The question is, Do you read enough in English to really start noticing progress in your language skills?

Mm, I'm not saying that you need to be a bookworm or anything like that.

But if you commit to reading a book, whether it's a fictional narration, a biography, a self help, your English is sure to improve significantly.

All you have to do is pick up a book, read the first few pages and then let the story capture your imagination.

If it's a good story and if you can connect with it, that's when you're going to experience the magic of reading.

That is, transporting yourself to a different world, interacting with characters and almost feeling as if you're living the events and consequences of the story.

As one psychologist puts it to the human brain, imagined experiences are processed the same as real experiences.

Through imagination, we tap into creativity that is the foundation of innovation, self discovery and change.

And hey, these things can be game changes in your learning journey.

But before we get into it, and in case you're new here every week, we make lessons just like this one to help you learn fast English without getting lost without missing the jokes and without subtitles.

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In this video, I'm going to introduce you to five novels that have been made into movies.

The idea here is that you can use the same story to engage with the language in its different manifestations.

And if you've read a novel first, that's going to aid your comprehension of the movie.

The same is true the other way around.

As I'm introducing these novels and movie adaptations to you, I'm also going to talk to you about five benefits you'll get by reading novels in English.

This is a 2000 and five novel by the American author Cormac McCarthy.

It's great for all learners, regardless of their comprehension ability.

But if your English is lower Intermediate.

This novel is going to be great for you because it was initially written as a screenplay, which means it was intended for a movie.

For this reason, the novel has a simple writing style regarding the story.

It occurs in the vicinity of the Mexico United States border in 1980 concerns an illegal drug deal gone awry in the Texas desert back country.

If you decide to watch the movie, you won't regret it.

When I watched this movie, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

And Javier Bardem, who, by the way, is a non native English speaker, plays a masterpiece of a role in this movie.

You need to read this novel and watch the film.

A common misconception is that reading is not going to expose you to the English spoken by natives today.

This is true if you're reading an original novel or poem by Shakespeare.

But if you read a contemporary work like No Country for Old Men, you are going to learn a lot of current relevant vocabulary.

You'll even find examples of realistic conversation between native speakers.

Bird Books is a 2014 Post apocalyptic novel by American writer Josh Kimmelman.

Post apocalyptic fiction is a sub genre of science fiction, in which the Earth civilization is collapsing or has collapsed.

We actually made a reading lesson with another post apocalyptic novel.

The Hunger Games are like that in the description Below Bird Box follows a woman who must find a way to guide herself and her Children to safety despite the potential threat from an unseen enemy.

When you read this novel, you're going to have eerie feelings.

Imagine hearing that people from all around the world are going crazy and then suicidal and seeing something outside.

Actually, it's not even known if they're seeing this thing because it's believed to be invisible.

One last thing about this movie is that you're going to find it a lot like everything that's happened with covid lately.

I guess you'll have to read the novel or watch the movie on Netflix starring Sandra Bullock to get what I mean Yeah, now let me tell you why reading is one of the best learning strategies to grow your vocabulary.

It is simply a super effective way to get introduced to new words in an authentic way and to confirm your understanding of other words.

Reading books in English also helps you to practice using the context of a sentence to guess the meaning of words and expressions that you don't know using context to guess meaning is fundamental for both mastering English and remembering new vocabulary.

Now if you'd like to learn vocabulary that natives really use and learn it in context whilst having a lot of fun, I highly recommend you check out our Fluent With Friends calls.

You can try it right now for free by signing up to our three part master class.

All you have to do is click up here or down in the description box below.

It's that simple, and you won't regret it.

What Mhm Life of Pi is a 2000 and one fantasy adventure novel by Canadian author Yann Martel, this novel tells the story of Pie, a teenage boy from India who finds himself trapped in a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a tiger bookshelf.

Dot com describes this novel as a transformative novel, an astonishing work of imagination that will delight and stunned readers in equal measure.

It is a triumph of storytelling and a tail that will, as one character puts it, make you believe in God.

The movie adaptation didn't fail to deliver either winning awards for its visual effects, its protagonist performance, cinematography and music.

Yeah, now how can reading improve your communication skills?

A key skill of a good communicator is accuracy.

Great authors like Yann Martel are masters of the English language, and reading their work, which is characterized by writing that's exceptionally good in Star and Form, is going to improve your understanding of grammar.

You're also going to become a much better writer if you've read books regularly.

The Great Gatsby is the oldest book on this list.

It was written in 1925 by the classic American writer F.

Scott Fitzgerald out of the books I'm introducing to you in this list.

This could be the most difficult to read, so I'd say you should start with some of the other ones unless you're confident your reading comprehension is advanced.

However, an option to still read this novel, even if your comprehension is intermediate, is the graded reader version of this novel, which is a simplified version for English learners just search on Google, the name of this novel plus graded reader.

So this story is set in the Jazz Age on Long Island.

It depicts narrator Nick Carraway interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.

The 2013 movie adaptation stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby.

What I loved about this movie is that it gives a fascinating visual representation of the infamous roaring twenties in the United States.

This was an era of economic prosperity and energetic social, artistic and cultural activity.

Both the novel and the film paint a picture of American life in the twenties, which I personally find very interesting.

I love the 19 twenties so much that my wedding actually had a 19 twenties theme, and they also explore the theme of the American dream.

In a very interesting way.

The Great Gatsby is a literary masterwork and is seen as a contender for the title of Great American novel.

Not only this, but it has an outstanding soundtrack to If you're a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio like me, then why not check out this lesson we made with his hip film Inception Next you can click up here or down in the description box below to watch it next.

Reading in English and especially novels gives you an opportunity to interact with the language.

But what do I mean by this?

Well, some of the sentences and paragraphs that you'll read may have several layers of meaning, and they could be understood in different ways.

When you consider these possibilities, it's almost as if you're actively using the language and you create a personal relationship with the language.

This is probably a great way to develop the ability to think in English as well.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a historical fiction book written and illustrated by Brian Selznick.

When you open this book, you'll see that it's vastly different from the other ones on this list because you'll see it has tons of illustrations.

The author describes the book as not exactly a novel, not quite a picture book, not really a graphic novel or a flick book or a movie, but a combination of all of these things.

This book is about a boy Hugo, who lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station.

His survival depends on things he does when no one is looking.

But when he crosses paths with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo's undercover life and his most precious secret are put in jeopardy.

Hugo is the name of the 2000 and 11 Martin Scorsese film adaptation of the book.

This movie stars to young actors that you may recognize from other movies or TV series.

This movie received lots of critical acclaim.

It's a must watch.

We often say, Don't just learn it, live it.

This doesn't only mean that you should speak English in every moment, every day.

It means that you should use your English as a practical tool, like not reading a novel because it's a school assignment.

But doing it to enjoy a story in relation to that, you might have heard us say, Now, let's go beyond the classroom and live your English.

And a big plus is the fact that reading will give you a ton of practice to make your English even better.

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Mhm, Yeah, yeah!

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Mm, yeah.

Mm.

Now, before we finish the lesson, I'd like also to give a special mention to some of my all time favorite books made into movies that you can also check out.

Oh, yeah, we okay, Mhm.

Mhm.

If you'd like to learn more about these books and movies, make sure you check out our instagram at your life dot English, where I'll be talking about them and why they're so great to learn English with.

Also, let me know in the comments which of these recommendations you'll try reading and watching.

But now it's time to go beyond the classroom and live your English.

Ah yeah, all right, so our next one is definitely advanced, and I was split whether or not to actually include something from this author.

But the reason that I did is because Shakespeare had such a huge impact on English as it's spoken today.

In fact, he invented over 1700 words that are still used in modern English.

Now, as I said, this is very difficult to read, even for natives.

But it's really for any of you who love literature and you really want to see English at its highest expression of use.