Reading Latin

It would be hard to overstate how excellent this Reading Latin Text - and its companion grammar, vocabulary and exercises book - is for anyone serious about their study of this eternal language. With most introductory language texts you start with drab sentences like "this is my pencil" while ingesting the tedious corpus of grammatical rules and exceptions. With Jones and Sidwell you plunge right into literature - in this case some very wry and funny works of the comic playwright Plautus - and find that, not only are you picking up the grammar along the way, but your vocabulary is expanding in leaps and bounds. Suddenly you feel that all those great works of classical and medieval Latin - from Seneca, Ovid and Virgil to Augustine and Jerome - are within reach. If that's what you aspire to, then this is the course for you.

It came quickly (thankfully because I needed It for class). It was clearly brand new and in good condition.

My hope is to review "Reading Latin, Text" that I took many years ago. The "Text" appears to be friendly and the content interesting;..... enough so that I may be able to communicate in Latin with 2 of my grandkids who are taking it in school.it is amazing how this "dead" language comes back from the dead when you use this Text with its companion:"Reading Latin, Grammar, Vocabulary and Exercise"

Book is adequate but Amazon packaging is terrible. Book has numerous creases but it's supposed to be New.

Excellent quality :) This book provides a thorough approach to reading Latin. Simple and effective :D Really recommended it to fellow students.

Definitely worth it with the other two in this series by Peter Jones.

I've taught Latin for more than 10 years now, using both Wheelock's and Sidwell-Jones' Reading Latin, and I far prefer the latter.Wheelock's Latin follows the traditional grammar-translation method. Its grammar explanations are succise and clear, but that's the best that can be said about it. Language is meant to convey information. Somebody using Wheelock's Latin will find that hard to believe. The sole purpose of the single sentences that are supposed to help students practice reading Latin is trying to cram as much of a unit's new grammar in as possible. The so-called "real" Latin sentences at the end of each unit have been shortened to the point of unrecognizability.In contrast, Sidwell-Jones are adherents of the reading method. They base their texts on three wonderful comedies by Plautus and later, e.g., on Cicero's Speeches against Verres. They start with simplified Latin sentences, but as the course goes on, the sentences become more complex and closer to the original. Relatively soon, they also manage to expose students to short bits of poetry (Catullus, Martial, later Vergil) and even to some early Christian texts (one of my favorites is the story of St. Patrick and the Loch Ness monster).Anyway, whereas it was extremely difficult to keep students' interest alive while using Wheelock's Latin, it is no problem with Sidwell-Jones' Reading Latin. The book teaches not just grammar but makes a whole culture come alive.Regarding the unorthodox presentation of the grammar, I also agree with my colleague, Professor Turpin. There are good reasons why the passive is introduced after the deponent. Most students have a hard enough time to form the passive in English, so it makes sense to introduce first the deponent verbs with their passive forms, but active meaning and then later the real passive verbs with the same forms, but passive meanings.In my experience, Reading Latin students have more fun learning the language, and they learn something about Roman culture as well. Finally, when Reading Latin students go on to intermediate Latin texts, they have an easier time with long, continuous texts than Wheelock students because that's what they have been reading all along. I am extremely grateful to Keith Sidwell and Peter Jones for writing such a successful Latin textbook.

Terrible way to learn the language. I would not recommend any of these books to anybody who is serious about learning Latin.