Read and Think Spanish, 2nd Edition 2nd Edition

Pros: 1) A wide variety of cultural readings covering food, traditions, music, history, geography, etc. 2) An effort made to use a wide vocabulary. 3) The readings are written with the syntax that a native Spanish speaker would use, so the Spanish language learner is really pushed to think in the language. 4) The audio CD is good to help the learner with pronunciation and internalization of syntactical patterns.Cons: 1) A number of typos. It needed to have been proofread more closely. 2) The audio CD does not include a track for every reading. This is unfortunate. The value of this book would have been increased a hundred-fold had an audio track been included for every reading. As it is, only 31 of the 132 readings have an audio track. Perhaps the authors deemed it unwieldy or impractical to have included a track for all readings as this would possibly have entailed including four CDs and a much higher price. Nevertheless, including tracks for all readings would have increased immeasurably the pedagogical value and usefulness of this book.Bottom Line: Is this book worth buying? Taking into consideration all of the above, I would say yes. It is very good for any intermediate or even advanced beginner Spanish language learner. For that matter, it would even be good for native Spanish speakers who aren't very literate or who need to acquire academic Spanish proficiency. For the price, it is a good value. If a later version appears with audio tracks for all readings, definitely buy it.

I loved this for the CD. I ended up not reading the book (it's with all the other books I'll read eventually), but the CD was something that played in my car for months as I continued my Spanish journey. At first, it was a shower of words I barely understood. Months later, it was like someone reading a page of text slowly. On my exam, on the culture section, I did well (perfect score), and part of it was from remembering themes from this book. What is life like in Costa Rica? In Argentina? In the Dominican Republic? In Barcelona? Find out about their festivals, tradicions, foods, and folklore from this CD. There's even more stories in the book, which I'll get to eventually. Great listening practice designed for a high-beginner to low-advanced student who needs to learn some culture too.

This is a great reader for Spanish students as it has a vocabulary list along side the reading so students do not have to look up words as they read. It comes along with a CD which does record some of the articles of the text. It introduces the student to Central and South American Culture which is a plus since we a most likely to meet people from these cultures in our own country. It does have related articles to Spain like an article on Andrés Segovia. The downside of this second edition is the fact that the CD does not record all of the text. Perhaps a second CD should be included in future editions. I does make great reading for high school students in their 3rd and 4th years of the language.

I really like this reader HOWEVER......why don't they have ALL of the stories on the CD??There are tons of stories and only some are on the CD. Bummer.I am going to use this in my Spanish 4 class as a supplemental reader. I will create true/false andmultiple choice questions for them to answer after reading the passages to check for comprehension.That's the other issue the book has too.....why didn't they make questions after each reading?

An excellent way to learn about Hispanic culture in Spanish. The recordings are useful but, unfortunately, not every reading has an accompanying recording. The questions are not especially helpful as they merely require regurgitation of the text.

Excellent collection of reading passages covering different cultural topics in various countries. The articles have highlighted words with glossaries conveniently located next to them, and comprehension tests at the end of each chapter. This accomplishes several objectives simultaneously - building vocabulary, improving reading skills, and providing some insight into cultural issues in different countries.

The second edition is basically the same as the 3rd edition. The app has somewhat changed and no longer includes the full test of the dialog

I am using this book to teach new vocabulary to my intermediate/advanced Spanish students. It helps them to practice their reading while they learn from other cultures. I am a native Spanish speaker and I enjoy this book so much as I am also learning about other countries' culture.

A collection of interesting extracts on life and customs in the Hispanic world. The words and phrases translated into English at the side of the page are most useful for the learner, as it introduces him or her to new vocabulary without the effort of having to look up the dictionary all the time

I bought this book after a friend lent it to me. It is excellent for practising reading, comprehension and learning new vocab. Moreover it provides a good insight into a Hispanic culture - the world over. May be a little challenging for beginners but definitely of value, and useful for intermediate level Spanksh speakers.

A brilliant book as not only does it help with Spanish but is an interesting read. It would have been very useful to have a vocabulary section in the back however I would certainly recommend this for any Spanish learner.

For anyone with a fair grasp of basics - grammar, structure,etc this is a brilliant and vert interesting book. The chapters/articles are inherently interesting and the bi-lingual vocab. relating to each article as you progress through makes for easy progress.

My grandson is studying Spanish for his GCSEs and wanted something to help him. The book covers all aspects of life in Spain and the vocabulary is conveniently listed on each page, saving constant searching in a dictionary.