Continuing along with the Norton Library Podcast, this month I read Jane Austen’s “Emma.” You can find the podcast episodes on Youtube. I haven’t read a huge amount of Austen’s work, but since I enjoy the whole “comedy of manners” genre, she has always been on my to-read list. Interestingly, this story of the “idle rich” ties in nicely with a book I’ll write about next month (spoiler: it’s “The Meritocracy Trap”). Let me know if the comments if you’d rather be rich and busy or rich and carefree.
Meanwhile, I spent my time digging into TOEFL books. Most importantly, I finished my examination of changes in the latest editions of the three official TOEFL books from ETS. You can find my blog posts below:
As I’ve indicated on the blog a few times, I’m really happy with these new editions. They have been updated to match the new version of the TOEFL, and great number of small errors and annoyances have been removed. Buy them!
I also continued my exploration of all the random TOEFL stuff that pops up in places like Hoopla. This month I read Jackie Bolan’s “TOEFL iBT Reading Practice.” I posted the following review on my Goodreads page (follow me!):
Not a fan of this one. The cover says “TOEFL iBT Reading Practice” but the content is just general academic reading practice. The articles are superficially like what one would find in the TOEFL reading section, but the questions are not even close.
The cover says that this book might help one to “master the reading section of the TOEFL Exam.” While it is true that it might improve one’s academic reading skills in a general sense, mastery requires more accurate practice materials.
Following that, I read Daniel Smith’s “TOEFL Words Vocabulary Enhancer.” My review went like this:
This book contains about 4000 words, each with a very short definition and sample sentence. There isn’t anything specific to the TOEFL here. There aren’t any practice TOEFL questions. This probably isn’t the best way to study vocabulary for the TOEFL, but I guess it could be used as a supplemental test prep source.
I also read Smith’s “TOEFL Grammar with Answer Key” and wrote:
Not recommended. The book is just 1300 multiple choice grammar and vocabulary questions. There is no categorization, no answer explanations and no lessons. Just a bunch of random questions.
There is nothing that connects this content to the TOEFL, except for the fact that improving your grammar will increase your writing score. But if your goal is to improve your grammar in a general way, it is better to reach for something like “English Grammar in Use” from Cambridge.
That’s all for this month. I’ll be back in August with proper non-fiction and academic stuff. Stay tuned.
