The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I've been learning Russian independently for about a year now, and I bought this book along with a college textbook being used at a local university. Amazingly, even though this book is far less expensive, I consider it superior to that textbook as well as other Russian textbooks I've seen.This book is great for the self-learner because it has many exercises and examples throughout, and everything is explained in a logical manner. Also, unlike most college textbooks, all of the solutions are in the back, so you can check and correct your answers (presumably you are buying this book to learn Russian and not to pass the class, so I'm sure there's little motivation to simply copy the answers to complete an assignment). The exercises directly relate to the associated lesson, and you'll be amazed at how much you'll learn after completing a lesson, as you'll be able to understand passages that were once unreadable to you.Be warned that the book is deceptively thin. You might look at the book, which is smaller than most textbooks, and figure that it's light on information. Trust me, it's not. Although on the outside it looks like a beach-read paperback novel that you'll be able to get through in a day or even a week, each page is packed with information, and you'll have to spend a lot of time on many lessons before these concepts sink in. Russian of course is a difficult language for a native English speaker, so don't expect to fly through this book.You shouldn't use this as your only resource if you are learning Russian. The biggest downside to this book is that it won't help your listening or your speaking (understandably, since it has no audio). You'll need to find another resource to work on these areas. Do not neglect this! I made the mistake of ignoring listening and speaking for the first few months, and I ran into an odd situation with a native speaker where I was able to read and write a few simply things in Russian but found it almost impossible to understand a single word or pronounce anything correctly (very embarrassing). In addition, you'll need to do a fair amount of studying and memorizing outside of the lessons. I found that I would learn words and grammar rules but then "forget" them after a few days or a few weeks. A lot of the grammar and declensions simply have to be drilled and memorized by brute force. Hey, nobody said Russian was easy.In short, this is an absolutely fantastic resource for a beginner who wants to learn to read and write in Russian. It is well worth the price. Get it, and you will not be disappointed.Udachi Vam!

I have used one of these for 15 years. And I give one away to every young person I know who is studying RU... have probably given away at least 10 by now. The strong suit of the book is its organization... it is very easy to find any topic you are looking for in the book. The covers are falling off my copy from use, so guess I need to buy a new copy !

Pretty decent, definitely tape the spine to keep the book from falling apart. Very very helpful in its pronunciations and such. Highly recommend

I bought this book because I thought it would be a great book to have to help me while I learn via Duolingo as well. I have never tried Rosetta Stone or what not. This book has a great section for learning the alphabet and reading cursive, which as I've realized is confusing especially on packaging of Candies and other products. I fully expect it will help me, as long as I am diligent and use it steadily, especially with something like Duolingo which offers the audio supplement as well. I also bought a Russian story book to help me. If this book doesn't quite live up to expectations past alphabet, meaning in teaching grammar, I may come back and change my review, because that would be very important to me. As it stands right now, I would highly recommend this book for its content__________________Now. If you are trying to buy the book new from Amazon, in my experience, I have received two books with rather large creases in them and some scuffs. If the condition of the book matters to you, I'd say its worth to get a replacement and see if you get one in better condition, but not out weigh the condition over the actual content in the book especially for $12 or $16 (which I bought it for) but not for the full price of $21.The first book was shoved into a sleeve that barely fit with mechanical pencils and lead. So I thought: It's because they packaged it wrong and inconsiderably.I am leaving a review to discuss this because the second book I received did have a decent size (but smaller than the first) crease on the front of the book which makes me think: This is not packaging. This is what the product they have in their warehouse looks like before it is even shipped.The second book I received was definitely better than the first as far as damage, and as I have gotten to read it while I got a replacement, I will keep it because I can see how well it works and will work for me. :)I'd still say to definitely buy it but also realize there is a considerable chance you will buy new and get something in what I would consider used condition.