(no subject)

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

Hey again, everyone

My birthday is Thanksgiving (I'm being upstaged by a turkey! How terrible v.v) (It happens every few years, so I'm used to it lol). It's that time where everyone is asking me for my birthday list... and I'd really love to give them something good to get me!

I've already got a few chinese character books and a japanese textbook picked out... but I wanted to get a good, indepth Russian textbook that goes as far as a class would, but still allows me to do it all self-study.

What textbooks can you recommend? Since it's my bday, my parents wouldn't mind getting me something a little extra expensive, as opposed to any other time lol.

Comments

[cpelkey.livejournal.com]

I may be slightly biased because it's the series that we used, but I really enjoyed the Nachalo series. It was two parts for the entire first year and rounded out at about $100.

I liked it.

[smartkitty-86.livejournal.com]

Are you a beginner? Because I used Live from Moscow for my first year class and I thought it was a riot. It didn't go into participles, though. This year I'm using Making Progress in Russian (A Second Year Course), and it's pretty good too. The workbooks are pretty awesome. These textbooks are freaking expensive, though. REALLY freaking expensive.

Also, I found The Case Book for Russian (by Laura Janda and Steven Clancy) to be *really* helpful. One of the best books I've ever used. Clancy was my professor for first year Russian, and I found that he was really good at explaining things. I think this would be useful whether or not you're a beginner, but bear in mind that it only goes through the cases.

[smartkitty-86.livejournal.com]

But price-wise, I didn't shop around for a bargain, and my bookstore is known to be expensive.

The Case Book is only sold by Slavica, I believe, but I thought the price was reasonable considering how awesome I think the book is. PS - It has *lots* of exercises. And the sentences in the exercises are taken from real texts too, so it's awesome. AWESOME.

[chirashi-don.livejournal.com]

Off topic: you're luckier than me. I always get upstaged by jesus. :P

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

You win ^_~

[spazzling21.livejournal.com]

I also really liked Nachalo. And there's an awesome website for the first book... http://www.auburn.edu/forlang/russian/Nachalo/

[24karrot.livejournal.com]

Oh lord... Live from Moscow... that's our book series (actually, teachers here wrote it) and I can't stand it.
But it might just be the fact that all we do in class is the book, and rarely have even slightly off-topic discussions. I'm sick of all the exercises.
But if you don't do all of them I guess it can't be that bad.

[standigio.livejournal.com]

I'm using "Golosa" (It means voices) in a college class. But we just read right from the textbook. It's fairly in depth

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

Don't know if you're a beginner or what your interests are, but I recommend "Political Russian" by Natasha Simes and Richard Rubin.

[coldmacana.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree that this is an awesome book (I just wish I could find a reasonably priced copy -- I'm a tightwad). I would say though that it's somewhat specialized (ie you aren't going to learn weather/clothing/food/etc. taht you would in a standard book), which might be a bit of a turnoff. I do think the book is recommended for second year students. If the 'rents are paying though, maybe you can persuade them for two books (not Golosa please -- I loathed that book; Live in Moscow has a much better reputation among my peers at school).

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

Natasha Simes is my current russian professor. She's very good at what she does.

And you're right, the book IS expensive, and none of my fellow students want to get rid of their copies (I asked on behalf of a friend). Good luck finding a copy...

[daphneisgood.livejournal.com]

We're using Голоса as well... it is good, definitely, though there's a lot that (I think, anyway) one would have to be informed of by a teacher to understand.

Charles Duff (and a Dmitri )Russia

[viric.livejournal.com]

I really suggest to you "Russian for Adults", a self studying book from Charles Duff. I've been using it a long time, and some teachers told me that the book is really good.

Here there is a scanned version - I think this book is no more being sold.

http://vicerveza.homeunix.
net/~viric/tmp/russian_for_adults-charles_duff-dmitri_makaroff.djvu)

Charles Duff и Dmitri Makaroff (the link was wrong)

[viric.livejournal.com]

http://vicerveza.homeunix.net/~viric/tmp/russian_for_adults-charles_duff-dmitri_makaroff.djvu