Italian Short Stories For Beginners: 8 Unconventional Short Stories to Grow Your Vocabulary and Learn Italian the Fun Way!

by Olly Richards

Improve your comprehension, grow your vocabulary and ignite your imagination with these eight unconventional Italian short stories!

In this book you will find:
Short stories from a variety of compelling genres, from science fiction and crime to history and thriller, so you’ll have great fun reading, whilst learning a wide range of new vocabulary and rapidly improving your Italian comprehension!
Stories which are broken down into manageable chapters, so you always make progress with the story and feel a sense of achievement without great difficulty reading!
Realistic amounts of new vocabulary so that you’re not overwhelmed by complex words. Instead of pausing to look up every word, you’ll absorb new vocabulary from the context of the story, and have the satisfaction of that moment when you say: “I totally understood that sentence!”
Carefully written Italian, using straightforward grammar that is comprehensible for beginner and intermediate level learners, so that you can enjoy reading and learn new grammatical structures without the feeling of overwhelm and frustration that you get from other books.
Plenty of natural dialogues in each story, so that you can learn conversational Italian whilst you read, and improve your speaking ability at the same time!
Regular plot summaries, comprehension questions and word reference lists, so that help is always on hand when you need it. You’ll be able to focus on enjoying reading and having fun, rather than fumbling around with dictionaries and struggling through dense text with no support.
A five-step plan for reading the stories in this book the smart way. This detailed introductory chapter gives you specific, step-by-step instructions for effective reading in Italian, so that you know exactly how to make the most out of the book and maximise your learning!


Italian Short Stories for Beginners has been written especially for students from beginner to intermediate level (A1-B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference). The eight captivating stories are designed to give you a sense of achievement and a feeling of progress when reading. You’ll finally be able to enjoy reading in Italian, grow your vocabulary in a natural way, and improve your comprehension at the same time.

Based on extensive research into how people most enjoy and benefit from reading in a new language, this book eliminates all the frustrations you have experienced when trying to read in Italian:
Dull topics that are no fun to read
Books so long you never reach the end
Endless chapters that make you want to give up
Impenetrable grammar that frustrates you at every turn
Complex vocabulary that leaves you with your head buried in the dictionary




Instead, you can just concentrate on what you came for in the first place - enjoying reading and having fun!

If you’re learning Italian and enjoy reading, this is the book you need to rekindle your passion for the language and take your Italian to the next level!

So what are you waiting for? Scroll up and grab your copy now!

Genres: Italian Literature, Fiction, Short Stories, Language, Italy, Reference, Ebooks

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 13, 2015

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a weird book, man. The stories are really weird. But helpful.

[Nick Pageant · Rating 5 out of 5]

My G. continues his quest to pull me up from ignorance and teach me the bella lingua. This was his best effort so far. I really enjoyed this book. The stories are entertaining and written with enough simple words that I was able to scratch my sexy, masculine jaw and figure out the tough words through context. Highly recommended for anyone with some basic Italian skills. If you're learning another language, this series has a lot to choose from. I'm assuming they're all just as good as this one.

C'è solo un modo per imparare a parlare italiano. Pratica! E incontrare un bel uomo italiano. Egli ti aiuterà.

[Aerin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utile e piacevole! Il mio italiano è ancora molto cattivo ma questo libro mi ha aiutato a migliorare.

[Katka Mrvová · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really useful textbook for advancing your Italian, and I believe it’s a very effective way to learn - by reading simple stories full of dialogues.

Just two things that really annoyed me and I think could have been made better.

#1. Italian-English Glossary

This is a book for people who SPEAK English but DON’T SPEAK Italian. In that case, I think those people can figure out for themselves that:

‘stupido’ means stupid,
‘approvare’ means to approve,
‘timida’ means timid,
‘familiare’ means familiar,
‘disgusto’ means disgust,
etc.

Often, I felt as if Olly Richards is making fun of us - bolding so many of these words that are literally THE SAME in both languages.

On the other hand, I had to constantly google many other words that were, in my opinion, much more challenging as they don’t resemble their English counterparts at all.

For example:

colpiscere (to hit)
accorgersi (to notice)
soccorsi (rescuers)
rivolgere (to address someone)
spezzare (to break)
ferire (to hurt)

He ommitted these from the glossary but for some reason ‘stupido’ made the list.

#2. The stories themselves

I think it would have been much more enjoyable reading if the stories were actually interesting and made sense.

Many of them were just absurd, lacking a good storytelling, even sense.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stories!

I bought the audiobook and Kindle version. Italian is my fifth foreign language, and since I already know Spanish, French, and Portuguese, I was able to understand the stories on the first go. However, I will continue to listen and read along to improve my understanding and build my vocabulary. Listening while reading along is an excellent way to learn a language. And repetition is key! I teach English as a second language and use stories with great success. If you are learning Italian, this is a fun and effective way to learn new words and phrases without getting bored. Thanks, Olly!

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

he fet rage quit perq les històries són terriblement avorrides i preferiria passar-me la tarda mirant el sostre de l’habitació. Els personatges són tots plans i totes TOTES les històries acaben de forma molt precipitada i sense sentit (les que tenen final, perq algunes simplement sembla que les tallin i ja)

És útil per aprendre vocabulari i una mica de conjugacions però no per molt més

[Yana Bruggeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

È un libero con diversi storie strane e pazze
Ma è molto buono per imparare/migliorare l’Italtiano 🤌🤌 Mi è piaciuto

[feedesmots · Rating 5 out of 5]

Questo libro mi permette di approfondire la conoscenza e la pratica della lingua italiana. È pratico, semplice e ben organizzato. Mi piace molto. 🇮🇹

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finalmente ho finito questo libro! È un libro per migliorare la conoscenza della lingua Italiana. Il livello è veramente facile e si può leggere senza troppa difficoltà. Le storie sono un pò pazze ma sono molto utili per imparare le nuove parole. E allora ho scritto questa recensione in Italiano! Mi piace più la storia che si chiama “La capsula spaziale”. Mi piace questo modo di studiare Italiano e cercherò più libri come questo.

(As a few other reviews have noted, a few of the answers on page 192 are incorrect which is not fantastic. I had to double check with my handy nearby Italian to check I had understood properly. And the choice of bold words (those added to the vocabulary lists) was sometimes a bit weird: some were easy and had been added while others which were clearly more obscure weren’t in the lists.)

I should note that the handy Italian has also proofread my Italian and corrected several errors in the making of this review :D

[Kyo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are short and easy to read and it's nice that they have a word list at the back of every chapter with difficult words and phrases. The recap at the end of each chapter and the 'test' to test yourself were also helpful and fun! Sometimes the words bolded were not in the back, but my biggest issue with these stories are that they are just really really weird???

Anyway, I was really happy that I could read this in Italian relatively easy, so if you're starting to learn Italian I'd recommend giving this a try!

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. It is very helpful for beginners and for people that have not used the language for ages. Strongly recommend it!

[Ujjwal]

Oddio , Aiuto!

[Heverton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leitura gostosa, boa para iniciantes, os textos não são longos, o vocabulário é simples, histórias simples porém te ajudam a ampliar o vocabulário, gostei muito !!

[Jildou · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally finished this book. Why did it took so long? Because they are uninteresting short stories. By times I got irritated at how bad the storyline was.

But if that's the only complaint I can give a book, who's so limited in it's freedom because it wants to teach beginners Italian, then I think Richards did a good job writing it.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can now say I read in 5 languages 🤗

[Katy Larkman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've given this book of short stories 3 stars because the writing is so well pitched at the high beginner to low-intermediate learner of Italian, as promised on the back cover. The language content has been skilfully chosen, & is appropriately reinforced throughout the book. I was, therefore, very pleased to be able to understand a great deal of the vocabulary, to be able to understand more or less all of the detail of the narratives, & to feel that I was simultaneously making progress with the language.

However, there were very odd omissions from the glossary, & I had frequently to refer to an Italian dictionary to remedy this deficit. Additionally, vocabulary was given in the vocab sections following the individual chapters which definitely belongs to a beginner-beginner level, eg padre, cliente, palazzo. There were also several typos which let the text down.

The biggest failing, however, was the nature of the stories which, as other reviewers have said, are bizarre. Time-slip stories, with the honourable exception of charming children's stories such as Tom's Midnight Garden & A Traveller in Time, are rarely interesting &, as here, are hard to pull off. The sci-fi was deeply odd, & even the one 'credible' story in the sense of 'it could have happened' was rather unpleasant, involving as it did an elaborate, prolonged, & nasty 'joke' as a birthday surprise. It is a pity that the stories fell down on these points as the writer clearly has a gift for scaffolding language learning, & I was very satisfied with the language learning element.

[Lamadia · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I think this book helped my reading skills some, the stories are just poorly written. They don't make any narrative sense and seem to just jump around and end out of nowhere. There were also lots of editing errors. However, I don't know how many other language learning aides like this are out there for self-educating. It was worth reading through them, but I think next I'll just try actual books or newspapers in Italian.

[Renan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The most important thing you need to know is that the audiobook doesn't match the text.

So if you're looking for the audio+text combo for beginners, you're better off with the dozens of podcasts and youtube channels that offer that combo, a lot of them free.

Lucrezia - https://learnitalianwithlucrezia.blog/ (podcast w/ free transcript)
Barbara Bassi - Italian Stories In Italian (podcast w/ free transcript)
Stefano (youtube w/ italian subs)
Podcast Italiano / Davide (youtube w/ italian subs)

Now, if for some reason you want to settle for second-rate fiction without accompanying audio, here is the review:
The stories are a little strange, they end abruptly, and they always have some mystery that never really grabbed me, but that's better than them being completely boring. They don't feel very Italian (one is pretty much The Hobbit).

The highlighted vocabulary feels a tad random. I can't believe a polyglot actually picked those by hand.

This book is easier than "10 Exciting Short Stories to Easily Learn Italian" by Touri Language Learning, but it is not easier than those sources I mentioned at the beginning.

[David Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was once again a series short good little stories each story being divided into four chapters.

One negative about this book is that the little vocabulary section at the end could have been expanded more, but than to be fair its listed as a book for high beginners to low intermediates.

I struggled with some of the grammar points, because this was listed as stories for beginners but on closer inspection it is listed as for high beginners. So that could have been clearer.

I feel like those who reread this book many times will get most benefit from it (as i plan to do) even thought it was a hard read for me it was a million times more interesting than slogging through a grammar book. Although the two (in my opinion) should be used in conjunction.

[Christophe Guérin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bien écrit. On a la sensation d'apprendre et de s'améliorer à chaque fin de chapitre. Rapide et simple, je recommande pour ceux qui veulent rapidement apprendre l'italien tout en ayant du plaisir. Une base en italien est néanmoins requise, en plus d'une maîtrise de l'anglais.

[Elmer Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun book with entertaining stories. The combination of the length of the chapters and the words used, makes the book good and fun to read. I was able to get my beginner level of Italian a small step further!

[Bridget Crossan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Demanding enough to tax your abilities but not so difficult for beginners. Stories are interesting and insightful.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Brian Kell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book if you want to begin to read in Italian.

[Lars · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give it three stars mostly for the educational aspect. The stories themselves range from innocent children’s stories, magical realism to the absolutely bizarre, but you can always see the «so-very-morally-significant-plot-twist» coming from a mile away. As expected though, I guess some sacrifices have to be made in order to make it all comprehensible to learners like me. I did also appreciate the focus on vocabulary-building and the little quizzes at the end of each chapter.

[CKPineapple · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with the other books, the chapters are short and digestible. It progressively gets harder but it should still be largely understandable for beginners regardless.

Favourite story? Lo Scrigno

[Lilly Minasyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Racconri brevi, facili e vari, alla fine c'erano domande a cui rispondere. Più per l'italiano di livello B2.
4 stelle perché fa il lavoro, niente di male da dire 🙈

[Lieke Norder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sono italiana ora?

[george (taylor’s version) · Rating 4 out of 5]

learning? 10/10. plot? 2/10

[Yingli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was fine, good reading practice if anything

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book with some very bizarre stories however they were enjoyable and definitely challenged me.