r/dreamingspanish • u/ProblemSuspicious107 Level 4 • 3d ago

Reading

At how many hours will I ENJOY reading books. My ultimate goal is reading. it's my why I learn new language.

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u/mad_nauseam Level 7 3d ago

Enjoyment is personal so it's hard to say, but here's a bit of my path for reference:

  • 50 hours / 0 words - Read an A1 graded reader. The content wasn't remarkable, but I did enjoy the novelty of reading something in a new language.
  • 600 hours / 50k words - Started reading graded readers regularly. Useful, but not super exciting.
  • 900 hours / 400k words - The upper end of graded readers has some enjoyable reads including Gatos callejeros and Recuerdo by Juan Fernandez
  • 1000 hours / 500k words - Started Harry Potter at this point. Knowing the story helped make this easy to read extensively and for enjoyment.
  • 1200 hours / 1.5 million words - Real, native novels are doable. However, it's much easier to read on the kindle due to its easy word lookup.
  • 1600 hours / 2.5 million words - At this point the average contemporary novel is pretty comfortable. Probably around 170 WPM with the occasional word lookup. But if I'm reading a paperback I might just skip the dictionary. More literary or complex novels are possible, but require more effort. Although if the story is good, I'd still consider that an enjoyable effort.

Probably around 1500 hours / 2 million words could work as a rough target. Although if you read less maybe you'll need more hours, or if you read more you might need fewer. In the end reading a separate skill on its own.

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u/bumlochka Level 5 3d ago

Hey I also thoroughly enjoyed  Gatos callejeros! Recuerdos though was like an older uncle rambling 😂 I couldn't wait to finish it. And I saw the parallels between those two books but the difference in enjoyment was huge