How to Read Your First Novel in Italian

Why the first one is the hard one

Textbook Italian is designed to be understood. A novel is not designed at all — it is written for people who already know the language, and it will not slow down for you. The first twenty pages of any book are therefore the worst twenty pages, in every language, forever.

Almost everyone who quits, quits inside those twenty pages, and concludes their Italian is not good enough. Usually it is.

The method

• Read the first chapter twice. Once badly, once properly. The second pass costs ten minutes and saves the book.
• Set a page count, not a time. Five pages a day finishes almost any graded reader in a month. Twenty minutes a day finishes nothing, because twenty minutes becomes five.
• Look up only what blocks you. If you can tell it is a plant, a feeling or a piece of furniture, that is enough. Move on.
• Never look up the same word twice on one page. Frequency will teach it to you for free.
• When you lose the thread, do not go back. Keep reading for two pages. It usually resolves itself. If it does not, then go back.
• Read the last line of the day aloud. It moves the language from the eye to the mouth, which is where you need it.

How long it should take

A graded novel of twenty chapters at the right level takes most people three to six weeks at five pages a day. If you are taking three months, the book is too hard — see how to choose your level.

The second novel takes roughly half as long as the first. The third feels like reading. That is the whole reason to get through the first one.

What to read first

Something with a plot that pulls. Ideas can wait. Pinocchio at A2 and Il corsaro nero at A2 both work for this; at B1, Il fu Mattia Pascal has a premise that makes you turn pages.

Between chapters, the free exercises cover the grammar you keep tripping over.