Icelandic

Pages 15 to 46 are missing. Pages 159 to 190 are repeated in this section. Because of this lessons 4 through 7 are missing. This makes the book of little use for someone learning Icelandic.

If you really want to learn Icelandic, you are going to have to buy all of the books on the market and work and work and work on it for several years. No single book is going to do the whole job, and furthermore, the job will never be fully completed. Each book adds a little bit to your journey. Accept them all for whatever good they can do. Anyway, this book can teach you to say all kinds of interesting things, such as "Hvað er orðið af henni? Hún drekkti sér í brunninum." (What has become of her? She drowned herself in the well.) and "Láttu mig í friði, ég brenndi mig" (Leave me in peace, I burned myself). They just don't make 'em like that anymore.

All of the reviews for this book seem to be directed at the previous edition, written by P.J. Glendenning. As most of them correctly point out, that edition was woefully out of date, and not a particularly useful book for a student interested in learning conversational Icelandic. As a student of Icelandic for quite some time, I'm aware of how difficult it is to find materials worthy of recommendation. The new edition by Hildur Jonsdottir is just such a book, vastly superior to the earlier editions. It follows the new Teach Yourself style of introducing the language through conversation rather than rote grammar memorization. It starts with useful greetings and moves on to everyday conversation smoothly, introducing the necessary grammer gradually and naturally. If you need to learn Icelandic, this seems like a very reasonable aid. Don't let all the negative reviews for the old edition scare you away from this new one.

It won't take you very far, but after 3 months of regular reading, I could communicate in Icelandic. A pity there is no volume II.

If your into learning Icelandic using old methods and not the new ones, if you love grammar, if you like the geysírs, Reykjavík, Saell and other "Islensk" stuff then you found yourself the right book.

This is book is geared towards studying Icelandic grammar and culture, and not necessarily towards learning to speak the language. It was exactly what I was looking for to understand more about the etymological origins of the English language. It's true that if you do not have a firm grasp of grammatical concepts, this book may deter (frighten) you from persuing the learning of this beautiful language.