{"id":64183,"date":"2016-12-21T20:47:44","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T01:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/easy-russian-books\/"},"modified":"2025-02-01T23:39:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-02T04:39:46","slug":"easy-russian-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/russian\/easy-russian-books\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Easy Russian Books for Learners"},"content":{"rendered":"

The right Russian textbook<\/a> will help you learn Russian But there’s nothing quite like reading easy Russian books to help you improve your reading<\/a> while enjoying entertaining stories.<\/p>\n

This is what makes easy Russian books the best learning companions of all. Read on to find eight excellent books to ease into the language.<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1. “Russian Reading: 20 Easy Stories for Beginners”\"Russian<\/a><\/h2>\n

“Russian Reading: 20 Easy Stories for Beginners, First Level” was written by a native Russian speaker.<\/p>\n

The book uses basic grammar and vocabulary paired with present tense verbs to ease you into reading in Russian. The stories focus on everyday Russian life, so you’ll get some cultural lessons along with your language practice.<\/p>\n

What’s more, there are vocabulary lists at the end of each story to help you learn and study new vocabulary words without having to crack a dictionary.<\/p>\n

2. “The English-Russian Joke Book”\"The<\/a><\/h2>\n

“\u041a\u043d\u0438\u0433\u0430 \u0448\u0443\u0442\u043e\u043a, \u043f\u043e-\u0430\u043d\u0433\u043b\u0438\u0439\u0441\u043a\u0438 \u0438 \u043f\u043e-\u0440\u0443\u0441\u0441\u043a\u0438 1: The English-Russian Joke Book” offers easy Russian jokes, perfect for the Russian learner and the aspiring comedian alike!<\/p>\n

Reading a joke book may seem like an unusual learning method, but it offers a lot of benefits. First of all, the jokes are relatively short, so they aren’t as intimidating as other reading activities.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the jokes are fairly memorable, so you can memorize the jokes to help you remember vocabulary and\/or grammar rules. As an added bonus, if you ever travel to Russia, you’ll have some good jokes in your back pocket.<\/p>\n

Sure, some of the jokes may be groaners, but you definitely won’t groan at your improved Russian skills!<\/p>\n

3. “Russian Short Stories for Beginners”\"Russian<\/a><\/h2>\n

“Russian Short Stories for Beginners: 8 Unconventional Short Stories to Grow Your Vocabulary and Learn Russian the Fun Way!” is designed to be both entertaining and educational for Russian learners.<\/p>\n

The book contains stories in a wide variety of genres so that there’s something for everyone’s taste. What’s more, in order to make reading less intimidating, these stories are broken down into brief chapters.<\/p>\n

You can learn a lot from the stories. While they introduce some new vocabulary, they limit it so that you can understand new words in context. Similarly, the stories use mostly simple grammar. The stories\u00a0also use dialogue in order to help you learn valuable conversational skills.<\/p>\n

As an added bonus, this book offers a five-step reading plan. This approach will help you get the most out of these stories and other reading activities.<\/p>\n

4. “Russian Classic Fairy Tales: Baba Yaga the Mighty Witch”\"Russian<\/a><\/h2>\n

“Russian Classic Fairy Tales: Baba Yaga the Mighty Witch” from the “Easy Reading in Russian” series is a handy way to learn about Russian culture and language simultaneously.<\/p>\n

Baba Yaga<\/a> is one of the most popular and well-known figures in Russian folklore, so any cultural education is not complete without a little Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga is a witch who lives in a house on chicken legs (as one does).<\/p>\n

This book is a collection of short stories that share Baba Yaga’s\u00a0often frightening antics. Why are witches always so desperate to eat children?<\/p>\n

Perhaps best of all, the language this book uses is simplified from older versions of Baba Yaga stories that use more antiquated terms. This will make it easier for you to read and help ensure that the words you’re learning are worth learning.<\/p>\n

5. “First Reader in Russian”\"First<\/a><\/h2>\n

“First Reader in Russian: Everyday Life Experiences of Young Russian People” is a reader, which is a book designed to help students practice reading. This is a great tool for very early beginners since the text is relatively simple.<\/p>\n

In this book, each chapter is quite brief (so that you’ll never get overwhelmed) and is focused on one main theme like “morning” or “at the caf\u00e9.” This makes it easy to select what sorts of vocabulary you want to work on.<\/p>\n

Additionally, each chapter uses a lot of illustrations. This will make it easy for you to use context clues to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words rather than needing to refer to a dictionary.<\/p>\n

That being said, there’s also a helpful dictionary at the end of the book if you need a little extra help.<\/p>\n

6. “Russian Folktales from the Collection of A. Afanasyev”\"Russian<\/a><\/h2>\n

“Russian Folktales from the Collection of A. Afanasyev: A Dual-Language Book” is at an intermediate to advanced level\u2014both the verb tenses and vocabulary are at a higher level than other books on this list.<\/p>\n

Still, it will still be an easy read for Russian learners since it also offers English texts of each story. The stories are also very brief (a page each), so you won’t get overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

This volume contains folktales recorded by Alexander Afanasyev in the mid-1800s, so you’ll get some culture mixed in with your language education. Like Baba Yaga who makes an appearance in this volume along with other classic figures and stories.<\/p>\n

What makes this volume particularly useful, though, is that it offers the Russian and English texts side by side. The Russian is on the left and the English is on the right.<\/p>\n

If you don’t know a word or phrase, you can simply refer to the English text. This will make it easy to learn new vocabulary and enjoy classic Russian folktales.<\/p>\n

7. “Short Stories for Children”<\/a>\"Short<\/a><\/h2>\n

“Short Stories for Children: Adapted Texts for Easier Reading to Learn Russian” is also from the “Easy Reading in Russian” series.<\/p>\n

While these stories are intended for children, they’re also great for adult learners since they focus on everyday activities and common vocabulary.<\/p>\n

The book contains 25 short stories designed for Russian learners. They include helpful examples of different grammar features. There are even dialogues to help you improve your conversation skills.<\/p>\n

8. “How the Fox Got His Color”\"How<\/a><\/h2>\n

“How the Fox Got His Color: Bilingual Russian-English” is intended for children, but it’s also a great read for beginning Russian students.<\/p>\n

Since it’s for children, the vocabulary is relatively simple. To make the book even easier, though, each page contains the English text along with the Russian text. This makes it a convenient and easy tool for beginning Russian students.<\/p>\n

Why Read Easy Russian Books?<\/h2>\n