Introduction

I wanted to make this as when I first started learning languages, I found it so inspiring to read about other people managing to read 100 books in their second languages, and I hope this page can inspire you too! This page is focussed on my experiences reading the books and how my German progressed rather than the books themselves.

It’s important to note that how quickly you progress will depend on many factors, such as: NL and TL, reading abilities in NL, type of reading, study outside of reading, disabilities and so on.
For a point of reference, my NL is English, in which I can read 600wpm, I usually read intensively and do a lot of study outside of reading, and I’m autistic, which is both helpful and unhelpful for language learning.

2025: 11 books (Lingq + physical books)

Book 1: Painfully slow. I was still in a bad habit of looking up every word I didn’t know (I still find this hard to avoid), when I should have just focussed on extensive reading at this level, especially as I’d already read the book. This made me realise I do not enjoy rereading books when beginning to learn to read in a new language, because I need something more exciting to keep me reading.

Book 2: I think parallel texts are an amazing choice for beginners, it’s so helpful being able to look to the other page and see a translation to help you understand difficult sections, it also includes translation notes to explain difficult grammar and vocabulary. That it was a short story collection rather than a novel was also great for me, as being able to finish a short story in not too long kept me motivated.

Book 3: Despite this book being 336 pages and my reading speed still being slow (around 90wpm), I managed to read it in 2 days - I just needed to know how it would end. I definitely recommend reading thrillers to any beginners, it’s a great motivation. I noticed an improvement in my speaking abilities from reading this book which was also great!

Book 7: This was the first fully-German physical book I read, meaning I couldn’t look up words as easily. It was a very slow-paced read, and I had to reread sections frequently, but I managed to get through it without needing to look up too many words.

Book 10: My first audiobook. As I’d already read this book in English, it wasn’t too hard. If I found a section particularly dense I would pause it and read it and look up words I didn’t know. I had my first conversation in German around this point, and I was happy to see that my reading skills transferred at least some degree to my hearing and speaking skills (I obviously did other German studies outside of reading, so it’s difficult to know what contributed the most).

Book 11: This was when I first moved to Austria, and I was really excited to go to a bookshop and choose a book! It was nice actually being able to understand the blurbs, as the last time I’d been in a German-language book shop, I could only get a very vague gist of the plot. It was a slow read, but I actually enjoyed that because I found it helped me build up a relationship with the character more, and it really stuck with me.

2026: ... books (Ebooks + physical books)

Books 14&15 (&7): I find reading books about the German language itself so interesting, it really deepens my knowledge of the language, and makes me appreciate having learnt it.

Book 19: My first book over 500 pages! I was happy about this, as I rarely read books this long even in English. I’d started it around book 5, and dropped it, and returning to it showed me how much progress I’d made as I very rarely felt the need to look up words (although to be fair, it was a children’s/ya book).

Book 20: My first book from the library! I was glad to finish this one, because last time I’d borrowed a book from the library I hadn’t managed to finish it in time. I’d very ambitiously borrowed 4 books this time, and managed to finish 2. I hope to return to the other 2 (Die Manserade/The Attic by Marlen Haushofer and La isla de conejos/Rabbit island by Elvira Navarro) one day.

Book 22: My first more academic-style book from outside my field of study. The vocabulary was definitely a struggle at times, but the grammar was quite manageable. It made me realise I need to learn more about Austrian/German/Swiss history in order to gain a better appreciation for the literature. According to Ritter speed reading my reading speed was 208wpm for a text of average difficulty at this point. This is nearing the average for a native speaker, although still only ⅓ of my normal reading speed in English.