German for Reading Knowledge

I needed this book for a class. But as "reading knowledge" textbooks go, this one is not amazing. It is not organized logically, nor does it have tables, so that if you want to review, it is very confusing to find, let's say, all the verb conjugations. I suppose by the end I will have learned the necessary information, but this is not nearly as painless as it should be.

Though I have heard this text being used for German reading courses at Boston University and am currently taking a course with this text at Duke University, there are better options available. I used April Wilson's German Quickly: A Grammar for Reading German on my own and found it much more user-friendly and systematic. Wilson teaches German reading courses for University of Chicago grad students.

In the very first lesson of German for Reading Knowledge, there are a number of words that are untranslated which you have to look up in the back of the book or another dictionary - not exactly a warm welcome.

The chapters cover more than one grammatical concept. They don't have titles which would indicate what the chapter covers. The practice sentences do not cover all of the material presented in the chapter. The reading selections don't cover things related to the chapter at all. For example, in the first chapter, past and present tenses are used when those have not been covered yet.

Both this book and Wilson's are broken up into 30 lesson programs. (Wilson's book has 36 chapters but she recommends a 30 day program on page 265).

Professors, don't require this book. You can do better. Look at the reviews of the hated technical Reading German: A Course Book and Reference Grammar, the out of print but useful German for reading;: A programmed approach for graduate and undergraduate reading courses and the encouraging German Quickly: A Grammar for Reading German.

Students studying on your own, go with German Quickly: A Grammar for Reading German. See the reviews on it at Amazon including mine. Or go with a totally different kind of CD-Rom resource that teaches you how to hear, speak and write German in addition to just reading it such as TeLL me More German Premium - Complete Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced.

Students who are required to use this book, hang in there. It does the job. Be glad you are not using it on your own. There are flashcards available that other people have made at http://www.flashcardexchange.com/search?t=2&q=german+for+reading+knowledge&search=Search

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.

Under no circumstances will I recommend this book for first time learners of the German language. Its poorly structured and fails to thoroughly introduce nerw learners to german grammar. If one has a background in German, then the book will be good for them but if one desires to learn for translation purposes, then this book is not for you. Furthermore, i was alarmed at the inclusion of very many imperialistic german passages....!!!