Ask HN: Books to improve my English.

[jeremy82]

I am a German living in Germany. I am dealing with english literature, websites, podcasts and videos on a daily basis. It almost feels like I was living abroad. The problem is that I often have the feeling that I am not good at writing english texts. I want to improve my style. Reading lots of information helps a little over time, but I want to actively work on it.

What books or websites would you recommend to really get into the subject?

[gdl]

The traditional answer here would probably be to recommend the book "Elements of Style" by Strunk and White, so I'll do that in case you're not already aware of it. It's short, easy to read, and focuses on good style and common grammar mistakes. It's common as a high school or college text here (USA). From your question you seem pretty fluent already (your intro feels native or very near) so it should be well-suited for you.

[hga]

As gdl notes, your written English is very good: there's two non-idiomatic usages (was in "was living abroad" and texts in "writing english texts") and in your previous comment (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1683335) I simply can't tell your not an native English speaker (well, "landmark" is probably an incorrect usage since by definition it doesn't sound like you have been or can be very influential).

Elements of Style is the first book everyone suggests, although I didn't find it all that useful when I got around to buying it. I'd suggest checking it out and then later getting more prescriptive books.

While I'm not sure I'd recommend it as a second or even a fourth book, I'm rather fond of the rather old fashioned (OK, it's a century old...) and most certainly not American The King's English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King%27s_English

There's an on-line copy of the 2nd edition linked in the above that should give you an idea of if and when you want to try it; at the very least you should try this bit right now: http://www.bartleby.com/116/101.html (well, I love it...).

My copy is this recent printing of the 3rd edition: http://www.amazon.com/Kings-English-3rd-H-Fowler/dp/B0015NYN...

[jeremy82]

Thank you for your answer, I've never heard of it. I'll order it tomorrow. It seems that this could be a good start!