8 Modern Russian Books You Can Read as a Russian Learner | Easy Russian 73

Hello, dear friends, and welcome to a new episode of Easy Russian. Today I'm going to talk to you about books. Actually, my colleagues and I decided to recommend you a few books by modern writers in Russian which will be quite easy to read, but will enrich your vocabulary. Of course, we couldn't come to an agreement during a long discussion, so my list today will be purely subjective. So don't be surprised by this choice. Let's watch. Fantasy. In this futuristic section, I will tell you about two Russian-speaking fantasy authors. These are Sergei Lukyanenko and Dmitry Glukhovsky. Sergei Lukyanenko has a huge number of books. My favorite series by Lukyanenko are the books The Emperor of Illusions and The Line of Dreams. It's just amazing how scary the world can be if it is in the hands of a person endowed with boundless power and how far dreams or a desire to take revenge can lead. Here you will find all the attributes of real combat fantasy. Weapons that shoot five seconds before the trigger is pressed, cyborgs, space flights, and a lot of characters that unfold from all sides while you read. Everything always turns out to be not as easy as you expect. I like Lukyanenko's morality, which he does not impose on the reader, but shows through actions, decisions, and even sometimes horror and transformation of heroes. Be sure to read Lukyanenko, although perhaps you will be a little confused by his position on the current war. Oddly enough, despite the certainly high moral values of his books, Lukyanenko somehow supports this war. The writer Dmitry Glukhovsky holds a completely opposite position. You have probably heard about his book Metro 2033 thanks to the series of famous computer games. Believe me, the book is much more interesting. It is amazing how unusual the usual metro stations, wagons, and crossings are in this gloomy fantasy of the post-apocalyptic future. In both of these books, you will find a very diverse Russian language. In general, they are written quite simply and are easy to read and interesting. But you constantly come across some new tricky words that will help you learn Russian better and more interestingly. Detective Boris Akunin's detectives or Grigory Chkhertishvili is one of the most fascinating and exquisite readings in Russian, in my opinion. He has a lot of different detectives, but, of course, my favorite is his hero Erast Petrovich Fondorin. All the actions of these detectives unfold in pre-revolutionary Tsarist Russia. If you read the books in a row, you will find the whole process of Erast Fondorin's growth from a young man with his torments and doubts to a very mature and wise man. In any case, we have something to sympathize with. And most importantly, you can enjoy an amazing epoch, no less amazingly described. My favorite books are The Death of Achilles and The Turkish Gambit. Recently, by the way, a good Russian film was made. I will leave a link in the description. Of course, following the classical literary tradition, Akunin uses different languages in his works. He also has a very strong motif of Eastern culture. No wonder we are standing next to the Chinese gazebo. In general, there will be a lot of exoticism, amazing twists, sharp plots. Read and enjoy. Hello, Brandon. Hello, Nikita. One of our subscribers and patrons, Brandon, My name is Brandon, I am from America, namely Indiana, Indianapolis. I am 46 years old. I started learning Russian more than a year ago. I decided to go to Riga to study Russian, if possible, to work as a volunteer with refugees or with Ukrainians, if possible. I did not know that Brandon has been studying Russian for only a year, because, in my opinion, this is a brilliant result, how he speaks Russian. I am in full admiration. Thank you. Well, since the topic of this issue is books, I decided to take this opportunity to ask Brandon if he has ever read any books in Russian. Unfortunately, no. But do you know any famous authors? Pushkin, of course. Great. Chekhov. What else? Dostoevsky. Great. Absolutely. These are such heavy authors with a complex Russian language. Yes. Just in this issue, I will recommend several books for foreigners who study Russian, in which this very Russian language is a little simpler, from which it is easier to start. So, Brandon, watch this issue with your participation. Thank you very much. I'm waiting, thank you. Agreed. See you. See you. Fantasy. There is a lot of fantasy written in Russian. And the book that I will recommend to you now is actually quite difficult to relate to this genre. Nevertheless, these are the books of Svetlana Martynchik, also known as Max Fry, about Sir Max. Labyrinths of Yekha. It's not by chance that I pulled this empty cup out of thin air. The fact is that one of my favorite abilities of this magician is the ability to extract drinks and food from the void. I really envy him in this. Well, in fact, this is a story that is very clear to each of us, even similar to a letter from Hogwarts. An ordinary, sensitive, gentle person lives in a cruel, harsh and routine world. And suddenly, it suddenly turns out that these sensitive, subtle abilities of his are actually practically magic. The main thing is to be in a world where these abilities are in demand. I imagine how Svetlana Martynchik came up with this hero. How she looked at the streets of the city, walked, measured the bridge with her feet and tried to divide it all with some additional, subtle and very good meaning. In my opinion, she did a great job. There is magic in this world. There are wonderful elders who are patient, kind, ironic and are happy to share their knowledge. There are wonderful peers, friends and acquaintances with whom you can experience various adventures. There are magical animals and much, much, much more. In fact, this is a series of very kind, unusual, detective stories. Go with Sir Max I almost envy you in this. I finally got the mouse of Art Spiegelman in Russian. Of course, it's awkward to compare this great graphic novel with our exercises, but there is something in common. The fact is that in a very different form you can give important knowledge to people. This is what my colleagues do, who prepare exercises in Russian for each new issue. Follow the link in the description and you will find pictures, crosswords, quizzes, cards and much, much, much more that will help you learn Russian better and more successfully. Stay with us, do it with us and support us so that we can shoot new videos. Self-identification Of course, this is not a genre, but you can't call the memoirs of Maria Stepanova's book Memory of Memory. This is a deep study of one's personal memory, the memory of one's family and general historical memory. The book is written in a rather complex language and I apologize in advance that I advise you such material. But still, this is one of the main books in Russian about what a person can feel and know about their place in history. And what mark can the most ordinary, inconspicuous person leave. And how to make your love, your memories of loved and dear people a heritage of eternity. And whether it is necessary to do this at all. When I visited my father, I often found A4 sheets written by his handwriting on his table. Of course, it was awkward for me to look into it, but a little bit into the scroll, looking at it, I realized that some memories were written there. Unfortunately, when he died, I didn't find any of these sheets. Maybe he threw them out or burned them. Or maybe they never existed. This is how strange our memory works. Maria Stepanova has a wonderful moment in the book when she finds out that somewhere in the Saratov region there is a house owned by a member of her family, a distant relative. She goes there, finds this house, and, according to her words, immediately, in the same second, experiences a special sense of recognition. Indeed, this is the same place. There is so much energy in it, so many feelings. Since childhood, lightning strikes her associations. And after a while, she finds out that she made a mistake with the address. Does it mean that it was not her house, her feelings are not real? In my opinion, no. Be sure to read Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova. This book is more about how we study ourselves. Magical realism. One morning, my mother, in her childhood, was in a hurry to school. Jumping out into the street, she ran, stumbled and fell. Twenty or thirty minutes later, the neighbors began to worry. The girl was lying as she fell. She looked down under her and did not want to move. Then my mother explained that when she fell, she saw how the dusty, hot air of Astrakhan, where she lived, was laughingly blown under her nose and a drop of blood was mixed. It seems to me that this is the same method used to write the book Petrova in the flu and around it. Alexei Salnikov's novel is written in the style of the work of Akynov, which I see and sing about. And indeed, even the first scene of this novel is a trolleybus or a bus in which passengers swear, there are some strange awkward dialogues, a lot of subtle and small observations. I also adorned my life with such details since childhood. You live an ordinary life, you walk on ordinary routes, but all the time you look at the details. Somewhere the ice on the window then some strange person threw an awkward look at the window of an abandoned house. And you always invent what it would mean. And what if someone's fate and the future of the whole world changes from your decisions or actions? The whole novel is built in this way. We can't understand what is real and what is not. Maybe it's all due to the high temperature of the flu? In any case, this is a graceful way to decorate your life, letting in such a third-party observer. And Salnikov brought this skill to perfection. This book is written in a deceptively simple language and easy to read. But you will learn a lot of interesting details about life in Russia and about the life of people in general. There is a glorious moment where the hero communicates with the driver of a catwalk, which, as taxi drivers usually do, tells that in fact he was a much more difficult person in his life. He had the opportunity to make a brilliant sports career or build a business, but a number of wrong decisions led him to such a sad usual result. The hero Petrov thinks well that I have never had any special ambitions in my life, so there are no special disappointments and probably there are no such turning points in life. I like this graceful revelation of the author very much. I want to remind you that the life and fate of each of us is very important. Let peace and love be with you.