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       Recently the Washington Post published an article entitled "The Wrong and Right Way to Learn a Language," by Stephen Krashen. Among other things, Krashen proposes that the best way to expand vocabulary and develop language is to read. I would add that to expand vocabulary, one must read worthwhile things. This might seem obvious, but I have had students who resist real reading and insist that looking at their text messages constitutes "reading" (I swear, a student actually said this to me with a straight face), from which I would presume that reading an entire e-mail is taxing, and reading a blog entry or a newspaper article a considerable task. The problem with this perspective is that the more effort you make to read, the better reader you become and the easier and more enjoyable reading is. Educators at every level also know that effort equals learning, and that the less effort a student makes, the less that student will learn, no matter what the educator does. As a result, there are literally thousands of articles about how to get your students to put in more effort (because educators are experts at taking on undeserved guilt, we take it on ourselves to motivate you to study, come to class, do your readings, turn things in--it's exhausting, trust me). So we go back to reading. You should read worthwhile things. It's good to read high-quality, reputable newspapers and magazines in order to know what's going on in the world. It's also important to read fiction because it gives you a window on cultural perspectives, it develops your imagination, and it tends to contain more complex, figurative language and ideas, and it's more fun. There are arguments about the value of fiction versus non-fiction reading, but since I spent my all of my undergrad and graduate education studying literature, I will advocate for the beauty and joy that is fiction. 
       If you are going to read for fun and to improve your Spanish (please do), I recommend starting with short stories and poems. They are not necessarily easier than novels, but you don't need the level of persistence that is required to read a novel. You will need to look up words, use contextual clues, and read things more than once, and you still might not get 100% of the meaning. It's okay if you don't understand everything, but try (we're back to the importance of effort)! Here are some tips for reading in Spanish.

      There is a wonderful web site full of many, many authentic short stories called "Cuentos cortos latinoamericanos," which would be a good place to start. There is also a page in "Palabra virtual" that lists poems by many authors and has recordings of them reading those poems. Since poetry is meant to be read out loud, this is a terrific resource. If you'd like to have an actual book with pages to turn, on which you can write notes and underline things, I strongly recommend Seymour Menton's El cuento hispanoamericano: Antología crítico-histórica. There's also Arturo Ramoneda's Antología del cuento español: Siglos IX-XX, if you're interested in Spanish short stories. I use both of these in my literature courses and they have something for every taste. Poetry is more difficult because anthologies really reflect the taste of the editor more than anything else. I would stick to twentieth and twenty-first century writers because as a second-language student you probably want to avoid archaic language so that you don't end up picking up expressions that people haven't used in two hundred years. ​
       Finally, if you would like to read current events or other reputable news media, here are many good options listed by LANIC (the Latin American Network Information Center of the University of Texas). There is also the very well regarded Spanish paper El País, which covers both Europe and Latin America. I hope you're inspired to start your summer reading. Please let me know in the comments if you have questions or if you have other reading suggestions to share.

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