I think you're doing a fantastic job. I certainly could not even begin to read something like Abercrombie in a second language.

There are plenty of English natives who probably can't read that book particularly well in their birth tongue.

I started reading books in English when I was just a kid, it was a bunch of brittish detective kids books. Since becoming an adult I have basically only read books in English

My first English read was The Magician King by Lev Grossman. Didn't go as easy as I thought it would but I've since read Le Morte D' Arthur and some James Joyce so I have to say that the more you read, the easier it gets.

I basically just googled every word I didn't know at first but after a while you start to understand difficult words from context.

Keep on trucking, lad.

I started with the third Harry Potter because I just couldn't wait for it to be translated.

I ended up reading the rest of the series in English and moved to other stuff.

Working in translation also made me hyper aware of translation and grammatical mistakes so I just avoid translated books.

That’s a good strategy. Whatever method keeps you engaged and makes you learn new vocabulary.

I’m a native English speaker and I sometimes do a similar strategy when reading in Japanese.

Initially, I’d usually read as I listened to the audiobook like when reading Harry Potter in Japanese (or Stephen King in Japanese). While listening, I read the ebook on my phone or Kindle device, so I can just tap the word and easily see the definition in both English and Japanese.

Later that night or the next day, I’d re-listen to the chapter without reading and it helped me remember whatever words I had looked up earlier.

The other method I used was to pre-learn any unknown vocabulary in a chapter then read the chapter afterward. It makes reading a lot faster since I know almost all the words.

There are Anki (digital flash card) decks for Harry Potter in Japanese and you can sort the words by chapter so I used that. Also there are some websites that have various flash card decks of Japanese books and there are tools to make your own from ebooks.

There’s also open source tools that will sync the ebook text to the audiobook so if you play the audiobook in a video player, it will display the text line by line as the narrator says them. If you use certain language learning video players, you can look up the definition of the words as you listen/read. You can then automatically make an Anki flash card so you can learn the word later on. It will also take the sentence the word was in so you can see the word in context.

I don’t know if it is only for Japanese audiobooks and ebooks, but the maybe tool works for English works as well. Or maybe there is similar tool as English is more widely learned than Japanese. Someone had already synced the Japanese text to the audiobooks I was reading at the time, so I didn’t have to use the tool myself.

The tool is called “SubPlz: Get Incredibly Accurate Subs for Anything”. It’s on GitHub and it’s developed by KanjiEater.

At your level, it sounds like you’re proficient / fluent with conversational English, so your method of listening first can work well.

That’s what I do now with Japanese audiobooks. I’m at the level where I don’t have to look up many words per page, and often times none at all. Although if it’s a new fantasy series with a lot of unique made-up words, it can slow me down at the beginning.

One tip: starting a novel is the hardest in the beginning because of the need to establish the characters and doing the initial world building. The author will likely use most of the book-specific and fantasy-specific jargon here in the beginning so it can overwhelm you with a lot of new words. Once you get past the beginning like the first several pages or first few chapters, then it will get a lot easier.

The author will repeat these words throughout the book (and series) so you will read faster as you go along. You will also get used to the author’s specific way of writing which can be hard for second language learners if the writing is more creative and sytlized than most.

I’m not sure if I can include external links but the Tofugu website talks about this, about how Japanese language learners often give up on Japanese novels too early because of “first page syndrome.”

The article is called “WHY READING JAPANESE IS so DIFFICULT: THE FIRST PAGE SYNDROME”.

What it describes is also the case for anyone trying to read books in a foreign language so you might find it helpful reading that article.

It was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I was 11, I think. Read the first four books in Dutch and didn't want to wait for a translation.

Nowadays I rarely read anything that isn't in English, lol.

So just keep going! You'll be surprised at how proficient you'll become.

I was tired of waiting for the translation of Malazan books, decided to read in English, then realized that Malazan is not the best idea to learn to read, and trained myself with Sanderson books until I didn't have to use the dictionary in every paragraph 

My first read in English was "Shadow of the Conqueror", which I enjoyed quite a bit, but I DON'T recommend, because the author is a transphobe and AI-fan (tho the first book was written years ago, so he obviously didn't use AI back then). I think it had quite easy language, as I didn't struggle much with it, except for when there were some more specialised description (I think there were some flying ships and he got into describing them in detail at some point)

After that I didn't touch any books in English for a few years, until reading Strike the Zither (which was a good read and I recommend it) in 2024. After that I started reading more and more in English.

2024 - I read 4 books in English and started another 4

2025 - I read 26. (and spend like 4000 PLN for Fairyloot special editions, which is a bit terryfying)

So far this year i've read one.

My first book read in English was the 1st part of The Scavenger trilogy by K. J. Parker and it was rough. But it got easier and easier with subsequent books. The most challenging book I read so far was "Moon Witch, Spider King" by Marlon James.

I like reading books in a hard-for-me language on my ereader, because of the built-in dictionary. Have you tried that yet OP?

Sounds reasonable.

English is my first language but I taught myself how to read in another language by reading a translation of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. I knew the story, of course, so I could just focus on my reading skill. Was pretty slow at first and my comprehension wasn’t exactly great, but it sped up and I understood more the more I read.

My first English (second language) book was one of the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. They had stopped translating them and I wanted to continue reading the series so I had to switch the language. Not the easiest read but it went well after 7 years of English studies in school, listening music and watching TV in English, and so on. I used dictionary for few words at the start but quickly stopped doing that and just read on and tried to get the meaning from the context. Nowadays I read mostly in English.

Heyy, the Blade Itself was my first book in english too! I say if it works for you, it works for you. But why do the audiobook first? Maybe it's my terrible attention span, but they're way harder to keep track of. Personally I'd reverse the order

Native English, but have been reading Laura Gallego books in Spanish and am loving them. Young adult is about the right level for me language wise as more "literary" reads can be challenging still. I think it's a fantastic way to learn a language.

I can’t tell you what my first read in another language was because it was a long time ago and I only understood about a third of it (some Egyptian adventure thing maybe?). But I persevered and improved very fast. I suggest starting with YA (Young Adult) because they have a simpler language, if you can tolerate them. Or just do like me and bull your way through whatever catches your interest. The more variety, the more my comprehension increased just from the context.

My first were the three last Wheel of Time novels that were never translated into Finnish, and one book from Tad Williams' Shadowmarch for similar reasons (and then I dropped it for no reason).

It was slow and the biggest hurdle was trying to come into terms with the fact that I don't need to understand every word to understand what's happening in the story.

I was 19 and pretty good at reading and writing English already thanks to consuming lots of English language media like games and news and conversing online in English.

I'm not sure if I have any grand takeaway to offer except that it gets easier the more you do it, and soon you won't even be thinking about the language being "wrong".

My first read was The Martian Chronicles (I think I have read it in translation before that, it's quite some time)... it was quite ok, but a lot of work with the dictionary - I still remember which words I did learn from it, e.g. lurid, pale, sallow... very useful!

Btw you might try to read each chapter twice but with delay - A / AB / BC / CD / DE ... (letters for chapters, / for day; i.e. each day read two in total, the one from the previous day and a next one, the following day read again the one you did read for the first time the previous day and add another.)

My first English read as an adult was A Song of Ice and Fire. I had read some short stories before in school but not a full length novel. I had to look up words constantly but I loved it and I found myself really immersed in George’s writing. To this day, ASOIAF is my favorite series, maybe even my favorite books of all.

My first book in English was one of the Star Wars expanded universe books. It was gifted to me. The first book I actually bought in English, after watching movies and tv-shows in English for a couple of years, was Harry Potter. The main reason to read in English now is to keep improving and the prices. Book pricing in Germany is a pain in the arse…

The first book I read in english was Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson because I also didn't have the patience to wait for the translation. I remember being pretty proud of myself for being able to read it quite comfortably, but also jumping into a series in a different language, all the terms and stuff are translated so that was the hardest part, trying to match what X was in english to my first language. I've now read exclusively in english since that point, some are harder to read and some like Sanderson are easier.

It was quite a few years ago and as I recall it was not difficult. I re-read that book (an early Prey novel) not long ago and my main observation was that during the original read I badly misunderstood some realities it's based on.

PS. These days I hardly ever read fiction in my native language.

This is impressive as all hell. I have absolutely no place to tell you that this is the right way to go about it or not, but you seem to be finding success.

I think I started reading in English with the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. I could not wait for the translation. It was hard at the beginning but I improved with time. Now English is my main reading language..

I got a lot of books from a friend who was moving
My first book in English ( beside school that is ) was Kushiel
It really boosted my confidence and the next I read was Dragonlance and oh my gods...
I had already read them in my own language years before and then......
I discovered that the translated versions to my language was freaking horrible lol

I can only recommend to keep reading in English
Not only does it help with the understanding you will be better at communicating
Yes I still make mistakes, but I have become so much better, and has become more confident

Adding some extra here : This is from my own experience only
You will meet people on social mediason social medias who will try to attack and ridicoule you for mistakes
Usually it happens when they don't agree with you.
They are basically trying to bully you because they don't have a sound argument and they know it or they are trolls
The best thing you can do, is to ignore them and remember you are getting better every day, nobody is perfect and that is okay

Happy reading :)

I believe the first book was Harry Potter and the Philosophers' Stone. I must've been around 13, bc I remember the English teacher who lent it to me. I picked it bc at that point I basically had the whole thing memorised in Polish and thought it would help (it did).

Since then I've been reading books in English for ~23 years, though I'd used to read more fanfiction in the 00s and 10s. it used to be hard and expensive to get a hold of english books back then.

edit: using an english-english dictionary, with word definitions, is also better than using an english-native language one at some level of language proficiency.

I was thirteen years old, and one day my parents gave me a random latest book in a series as present for my piano exam. This is how Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban entered my life and needless to say, I got immediately obsessed and asked for the first two books. I read those a day. Basically in one sitting, actually, as I was conveniently sick with flu. They were all translations in a language that should not be named but we had access to nothing else.

Of course, then came the waiting for book four, and as you probably know the translations don't tend to come out on the same day as the original, not even close. But foreign books did get brought to bookstores even then, so when The Goblet of Fire was released I was presented with an option to ask for an English copy. Which I did. Reading it was hard as hell for my brain, and I didn't even try to use a dictionary because it was incredibly inconvenient to carry two tomes at the same time, but I plowed through like my life depended on it. I didn't understand everything but it was close enough. That experience pretty much destroyed the language barrier for me and my confidence went through the roof.

It was ASOIAF for me as well. Such a special series. Its also the first audiobook I’ve listened.

I know some people hate on ebooks but they're perfect for this. At least on kindle but i assume others are the same or similar.

You dont know a word very well, just click on it and it opens up the dictionary and also has a wikipedia tab, translator and search.

If I have been reading a few boos in my native language, then when picking up a book In English it takes me 50-60 pages to no longer focus on the foreign language and purely on the story.

From then on I have no problems reading in English. I might need to look up a word here and there. I hadn’t read in English for about 6 months and have in the past 6 weeks read the Red Rising trilogy and almost done with the Mistborn trilogy.

My 14 year old daughter prefers to read in English.

The advantages are many… You get to experience how the author actually writes. You get cheaper books. You get a MUCH larger pool of book to select from. You improve your English. You can buy books when travelling Etc

I did something similar: Sat down with a dictionary and a fantasy series in English (The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart, four books), primarily to improve my English.

Took me a few months, at the start there was a couple of unfamiliar words in pretty much every sentence. I didn't look up all of them, just enough to follow the storyline. I started looking up all unfamiliar words when they became rare, a couple of books later.

By the end of the last book I didn't need the dictionary anymore, and I was more or less fluent.

So yes, I think you're on the right track. I like the idea of using audiobooks as well, to train listening skills in addition to reading.

My first English read was Harry Potter. I HATED English, but I wanted to read the books faster when they came out, same as you. My brother got me the books in English (only 1-4 was out) and it took me so many tries to get it read. I think I was 12 or 13 when I finally managed to get through the first book and I remember being incredibly frustrated. Then I read the next and was so happy to realise how much easier it was for me to read it now.

Now the only books I read in my mother tongue are books written in my mother tongue and 90% of my books are in English.

Got Kindle last year and my first book in English was Empire of Silence - I have finished all 7 books and all the stories last month. What a ride it was. Now reading Alatair Reynolds. I could never force myself to buy paper books in English because I knew it will be hard time without a dictionary. The built in dictionary is a gamechanger, still it takes about twice more time to read a book in English than in my native language (Polish).

I started by reading books i read 2-3 times alredy in my own language, like harry potter and a song of ice and fire. Because i knew the story really well it was easy to read in english.

Ah, I've been there :).
I first approached it as a learning opportunity (stopping to look up the meaning of every new word). This didn't work for me - yes, I learned a few new words, but also never emerged in the story in the same way I do when reading in my mother language.

So, I gradually forced myself to stop doing it and simply accept that I understand about 70-80% of the story. Little by little, I learned to accept the grey areas and just move forward. My imagination was pretty good at filling up the voids I didn't understand. At the end of the day, it's not that different from reading in your language, but you get distracted for a moment.

As someone who has learned a few foreign languages, I've never found that reading a book works the first time. But watching a movie and then reading a book in a new language are phases you have to push through, and they start to work surprisingly well after struggling for a while.

A good first-time read in English for me has been Brandon Sanderson's Tress of the Emerald Sea. Another well-working approach has been rereading something I already read in my mother language.

My first read in a foreign language was Le Petit Prince (in French). It's a small book written for children, so it wasn't too hard. In English, my first was Lord of the Rings, but I had already read it before in my mother tongue. Nevertheless, it was hard, specially because there are a lot of unusual words (should I say archaic?). But as I finished Society of the Ring, I was already used to it. Since then, I read a few books in English and French. French I read mostly for practice, English I read when the book hasn't been translated to my mother language yet (eg.: the Cosmere novellas).

I'm doing a similar thing, but in French. Currently working through Dresden Files and Discworld in French.

The only way to get good at something is to suck at it then be kind of okay at it. Sounds like you've done the sucking and you're on the being kind of okay bit. You're on the right track friend.

My first proper book I read in English was Harry Potter 6 when I was 9. I understood most of it, but it was a bit of a struggle and took me a long time to finish. After finishing I swore that by the time book 7 was released I'd be good enough of a reader to blast through it as if the book were written in my mothertongue. To achieve this I spent the next two years mostly re-reading the HP books in English, and, as planned, by the time HP 7 came out, I barely noticed I was reading English and not Finnish.

Personally I've never tried audiobooks, and reading a book by first listening to a chapter and then reading it sounds like work to me :D Personally I would just read the book and skip the audio. Like this I'd get through the story faster, and I always want to know "what happens next?" when reading so getting forward in the story is important to me. If you don't mind reading each chapter twice, then having the first read be through audio will improve your listening comprehension, of course, which is also nice. That said, I don't think you need the audio book to become a better reader, at least in my own experience just reading a lot is enough. "A lot" is also relative; it actually doesn't take that long for your skills to improve to the point where you don't really even notice it's in a foreign language. For me it was perhaps something like 3000 pages. That's roughly equal to the first 5 or 6 First Law books.