German for Reading Knowledge

I found this book to be well organized and easy to navigate. Occasionally there would be a random section added at the end of a chapter that didn't really relate to the rest of the chapter's material, which was odd. And sometimes they'll cover something again that was already covered, but all in all, I thought the flow was great and think it will be a great resource for the future when I need a refresher or to look up a grammatical concept.

I used this book for an intensive (4 week) summer German course specifically geared toward graduate students who require reading knowledge of German for research purposes. It stresses grammar and mechanics without the frill of pronunication and vocabulary memorization or of composition. Stress on the recognition of forms and simple explanations of their uses make this text a very efficient intensive, beginner's guide. For learners who would like to be able to pronounce the words that they are learning in order to compliment your memorization and recognition skills, you might want to buy/rent audio recordings to supplement your learning, esp. if you do not intend to take a class with an instructor to guide you. I am a native English speaker, but have also learned French, Latin, and (ancient) Greek- so I have had some language learning experience which helps me to rate this particular book. Hope this helps!

This book was our main text at UC Berkeley in a Graduate class. It is not a typical language text book, it is for those who want to learn how to read German...not recommended for those who wish to speak the language. If reading is what you want than this is THE book.

This is a great book to use in conjunction with a course, not on your own. FIU is offering a course that goes by the same title, which makes the understanding of the grammer easier to digest. If you are serious about learning to decipher German text, or just want to become fluent in another language, I suggest you enroll in a basic German I course, so that it all comes together. With this book I have moved forward in my knowledge faster than I did when I just took German I for a full semester. If you are serious about learning, this is a great handbook.

This standard college text for acquiring a reading knowledge of German is monumental in scope and demanding in design. This is a serious book for serious learners only.Now in its fourth edition, this warhorse is a solid, no-frills approach that builds on the old-fashioned principles of incremental vocabularly and grammatical precepts, followed by complementary readings using that controlled vocabularly and grammar.The 30 chapters are short but dense, interspersed with several review chapters and additional readings, along with several useful appendices and a German-English glossary and index in the back.Learning German for the sole skill of reading is much like learning a dead language such as Latin. The joy of the spoken word is not part of the process. But this book helped me conquer the thorny and difficult German language and adequately prepare for a graduate examination in the language.