IELTS Speaking for Success - 📚 Books (S02E06) + Transcript

Episode Date: March 6, 2020

In this episode (our longest episode so far) Maria and Rory discuss books. Page-turners and door-stoppers, fiction and non-fiction, encyclopedias and fairytales, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, Pushkin and Lermontov and of course, red riding hood 😉 Tune in and have a great day! - IELTS Speaking for Success PREMIUM: https://linktr.ee/sfspremium Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Transcript: https://successwithielts.com/s02e06 Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2020 Success with IELTS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello everybody, I'm Maria. And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the AILT Speaking for Success podcast. And next week on March the 13th, we will be the host of the AILT Speaking for Success webinar from 4 o'clock until 5 o'clock Moscow time. Yes, this is the unique time when you can see Rory and myself, our pretty faces, and Rory will be doing a full AILT speaking test. He'll crack jokes on his feet, so no preparation whatsoever. It'll be fun, so please do join in.

We do need everyone to join in, okay? Absolutely. We really insist that everybody is there. Click on the link in the description and join in. For today's topic, Rory, I predict you have a joke for me, right? Yeah, you read my mind. Oh, he's reading my mind. So, dear listeners, today we're going to talk about reading and books.

Rory, do you enjoy reading? Yes, I do. I've always loved it, actually. I think it stems from my childhood when my mother would read books to me. How often do you read? Well, right now I probably don't read often enough due to the amount of work I'm doing. However, when I do read, I'm quite a voracious reader. I can go through quite a few books in just one sitting, actually. Do you usually read for leisure or for work purposes?

Well, right now I read for work purposes. Like I say, because I'm working so much, I always have to stay informed of different things, different trends that are happening. So I will be reading articles mostly. However, I'm hoping I'll be progressively reading more and more for pleasure because as my head fills up with all of this information from articles and things, my brain usually needs a rest. So I need to start working in some more leisure time reading. What's the last book you read? I remember it very clearly. The book I read was called Sexual Personi. It's a book by Camille Pahlia. It talks about the relationship between art and culture for at least the last 5,000 years of human history. It was interesting, but it's a bit of a doorstopper, actually.

It's about 600 pages, and again, because of how much I've been working, it took me about seven months to read. It was very, it's sort of a very dense book, I guess you could say. But after reading it, I feel I know much more about culture now. Oh, wow. It's like reading War and Peace by Tolstoy. Yeah, basically.

Although I think she mentions Tolstoy in the book, actually, as well. I remember when I was much younger, I think it was about 10 years ago when I was 20. I read a book called The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. It was a fictional book, but it made a very convincing case for socialism, actually. And it was so convincing I became a raving communist for about a year of my life, which I think is quite funny since I'm a little bit more conservative now. But what's strange about that is the fact that it was a fiction book, but it still made such a convincing case for something in real life.

And you would usually expect a non-fiction book to achieve that. What was your favorite book or story when you were a child? I can remember the book, but I can't remember the name. There was a nature book, and it was about the life cycles of different animals. It was really engaging just the way the information was presented. And in addition to the great presentation of information, it also had really cool illustrations as well. This was a long time ago,

so they didn't really have many sort of photographic pictures and books. Artists had to draw accurate representations of different things. In particular, I remember a picture of a crocodile, which was really convincing. It was so cool. I really liked it. No little red riding hood? Not quite for me. Little Red Riding Hood is a bit too childish.

Even when I was younger, I preferred reading about things rather than people. So you were mature from the get-go. I like mature subject. I don't know if I was a mature person. Yeah, no, fairy stories, fairy tales for Rory. Okay. Moving on. Do you have many books at home?

Oh, loads, yeah. I have at least 1,000 in my room back in Scotland. I've got a small set of bookshelps for them, although I suppose they're not so small now, given how many. many books I've got. And then people in my family like to read quite a lot. So that's just in my room. But throughout the house, there must be many more books that are there, way over 2,000 books. Wow. Do you have some Dostoevsky, Pushkin? I don't. I keep meaning to read Russian literature. So perhaps, like I said, when I was talking about it in my leisure time, I need to read more.

These books should be at the top of my list, really, shouldn't they? Yeah, but what would you read, like Pushkin or Lermentov, like poems? would you go for this Dostoevsky, gloomy and dune, things? I really, I don't like poetry so much. I think I would prefer to read a book with one narrative, really, as opposed to just different poems about different things. Do people do enough reading these days? I think they probably read more,

but they don't read with enough depth. So, for example, people are reading different things. They read things on social media, and they read different articles online. But they're all sort of like sound bites, I suppose. People don't really analyze them and think about them like they would when they have a book which provides a great deal of thought about different things. And I remember reading something that when they were talking about how people read online.

Usually when people read online, they don't read the whole article. They just read different parts of it. There's never really much in-depth thought about it. Do you prefer e-books or hard copies? It might not be environmentally friendly, and maybe I'm a bit old-fashioned, but I think hard copies are just better. I like having the book in front of me. I feel like I'm more engaged, it's a more authentic reading experience, and then when you finish reading the book, you have this kind of sense of accomplishment at the end. When you finish it and you put it on your shelf with all of the other books that are there, it just, the whole experience is much nicer, I think, although I can appreciate what.

Why people are starting to prefer e-books now, though. They're lighter, you can carry around more with you. And of course, it's better for the environment. Are you one of these people who smell books? Old books, yeah. Old books have a smell that new books don't... No, no, yeah, they don't have a smell. In my opinion.

Oh, okay. They don't have a smell, and they don't have the same smell. Older books would kind of yellow pages have a kind of sweet smell about them, which is nice. But I don't understand smelling new books. For me, it doesn't make sense. Rory, thank you very much for your answers. Thank you.

Dear listeners, as usual, Rory has just used gorgeous vocabulary and grammar for a high school, Ben, nine score. Rory, you've said that I've always loved reading. So, do we have the present perfect here? Yes, we do. We've got the present perfect simple with always. So you've got lots of moving parts there, don't you? You have this higher level vocabulary and you've slotted it.

an adverb with always as well there. I really like this sort of phrase that we've got. I've always loved reading or I've always wanted to be, you know, present of the world. I've always loved talking about grammar. You've used another one. I'm hoping I'll be reading more in the future or something like that, yeah? So I'm hoping I'll be reading. So that's like what future present, no, future continuous? Basically, yeah. With will indeed. So there's lots going on in there. And you can combine this to talk about your future intentions, really, can you? I'm hoping I'll be working less in the future.

Absolutely. And I'm hoping I'll be reading more. You said, when I do read, I read fiction, for example. So that's a nice one. When I do read, so we emphasize the effect of reading. You can do this with all kinds of auxiliary reverbs, but I think do is the most common for when you're, like, stressing and adding emphasis. I do love you.

Exactly. I do work hard for this podcast. Indeed, yes, absolutely. Rory stands the truth. He does work really hard. You've mentioned that you are a voracious reader. Verocious? You're really close.

Veracious. Vouracious. Yes, voracious. What is it? Vouracious. Well, usually people talk about it with reading, but actually it's to do with like a hunger. So you could be a voracious eater.

You're eating a lot. But I've heard people use it more to describe how they read. So like a voracious reader, as someone who reads a great, like, well, a great many books. Like enthusiastically. Exactly. Enthusiously. And a voracious reader would read loads of books, right?

They'd read loads of books, or maybe they'd just read a lot in general, although usually it's applied to people who read books. But it's something positive, right? Yes, absolutely. Could you give us a sentence? I have a voracious appetite for reading. Oh, that's a good one, right. And you've mentioned that you read...

You read books at one go or at one reading? What did you say? I said, I started to say in one session, but actually the term is in one sitting. So it's just like at one time you read books. It can be in a go, in a sitting. You could say it in a session, but that's very formal, isn't it? Yes, usually at one go or in one sitting. I can remember when I went to Paris when I was on the plane, like that.

I treated that like a sitting. So I think I read something like two or three books. whole four days that we were there. That was great. Wow. You can also say that, oh, that book is a real page turner. Exactly. Yeah. So kind of you just keep turning the pages, keep reading, you can't stop. You can't stop it. So it's a real page turner. You said one word, a door stopper. A door and stopper. What is it? A door stopper, well, actually, it's the small thing that's in the ground next to a door to stop it from hitting a wall or to stop it from closing. But you can also use to describe a book that you could use for the same purpose.

If it's a big book quite heavy, then you can just put it in front of a door and it will stop your door from shutting, for example. Yeah, you can also put it next to other books. Yes. Yeah, or... So you use your books to stop doors for hitting the wall. It's more like, I don't know,

I suppose a metaphor is the best way to describe it. It's a thick book, right? Yeah, it's just a way to describe it. Like, one of the volumes of Tolstoy's War and Peace is a real... Oh, Warren Peace is a doorstopper, yeah, for sure. So it's a thick, big book. Okay?

When we talk about books, we use different adjectives, right? Yes. You said something is convincing, right? The book is convincing. What is it convincing? Well, convincing just means that it makes you believe in the idea that's being presented. You can use it with a collocation to make a convincing case for something. So in this case, this book made a really convincing case for socialism.

It was very believable. and you could relate to the ideas involved, so I was convinced by it for a while. The plot was convincing? Yeah, so like I say, it was convincing for a while, but I recovered with my senses. Yes, and after that, you became a raving communist, a raving communist. A raving communist. A raving, call me. Yes, only for one year, though, I got better.

What else can you say? A raving... Oh, a raving lunatic for someone who's totally crazy. A raving narcissist for someone who is very self-centered. Raving is just like crazy about something. Wild. Also, engaging is a nice one. This book is engaging, involving.

Absolutely. So you're basically into it. Yeah. Hopefully most teachers' lessons are engaging. It's just a way of talking about involving people in the process, like you say. Our webinar on the 13th of March would be engaging. And that's a guarantee. Yes, that's a fact.

We say, like, I read lots of books, or I can say I read loads. of books. Loads. Yeah. Loads is just a way of talking about lots of, but it kind of adds emphasis. You can always tell because it's one of the words that stress the most in the sentence. So if I say, like, I read loads of books or I eat loads of food, it's like just emphasizing the fact that you eat a lot.

I do read loads of books. Exactly. Where do you keep your books? I keep my books on a bookshelf. Yeah, bookshelf? Yeah. And what else can you call it? I think really just a book.

bookshelf. You can have one bookshelf or a set of bookshelves, for example. Just kind of like a wall of bookshelves. Yeah. Yeah, and we still call them like bookshelves. Exactly. You said that people don't read enough, but you said that they don't read in-depth. Right? So what else, how else can we use this in-depth thing? Well, I think you could talk about anything that requires a lot of thought and then call it in-depth. So, for example, you can read in-depth. In-depth analysis. And you can give an in-depth analysis.

Yeah. So depth is just talking about the amount of thought that's put into something. If something is very deep, then there's a lot of thought behind it. Yeah, or like something could be very thought-provoking. Yes. Right? Like Dostoevsky, I don't know. Have you read Dostoevsky?

I've not yet, no. But I think a lot of people would agree with that description. Oh, my sweet angels, Rory hasn't read Dostoevsky. I've been busy. I'll get there. He's busy with this podcast, okay? Deleasonousness, right. It's either entertain people and educate them or read Dostoyevsky people.

You choose one or the other. Yes. Make your choice. E-books are environmentally friendly, right? I like to think so. Yeah, electronic books or e-books. And if they're not electronic, what do we call them? Well, maybe not environmentally friendly.

So, yeah, hard copies. Yes, we can call them hard copies or paperbacks or hardbacks. anything that's any kind of book that physically exists. Yeah, but paperbacks, they're kind of like they're lighter, right? Um, they should be lighter, yes. Uh-huh. Can I call, like, um, thick, heavy book with, which is hardcover, like, um, paper. Uh, no, no, you could call it a paper copy, but you couldn't call it a paper back. A paperback is more flexible.

Yes, exactly. Like paperback, um, you go on holiday and you grab some paperbacks. Hopefully, unless you have an e-book, then you don't need to grab anything. Yeah. When you've read a book, you feel a sense of accomplishment. Yeah. Right? Or achievement. Mm-hmm. Right? Does it happen every time with you?

Usually. It depends on how good the book is. But most of my books, I've felt a sense of accomplishment. I've only read a couple of books where I was thankful that the experience was over and then I didn't care about them again. Do you carry around books, like paperbacks? Usually, not so much recently, because there's been no... time to read them. Usually I read emails on the train now. Yeah, maybe it's carrying around emails. Yeah.

Yeah. Anyway, it's a good phrasal verb. You have to carry around. You can carry around books or what else? Emotional baggage? Yes, emotional baggage. Oh, I have some baggage. Yeah, it's pretty negative. Yeah. Well, you can have your baggage when you go on holiday, but if you have some emotional baggage, it's kind of... You leave your emotional. Yeah. Leave your emotional baggage. at home when you go on holiday.

Yeah. When we talk about different kinds and genres of books, we can say fiction, right? If Rory reads encyclopedias every day, we say that these books are nonfiction. Yeah, fiction or nonfiction. So Dostoevsky is fiction. Yes. And encyclopedias are nonfiction. What else do we have?

Sci-fi. Yeah, so science fiction books, well, the clue is there, isn't it? It's fiction. It's not real. And for some science fiction, it's probably good that it's not real. Yeah. And Harry Potter, for example, that's like fantasy, right? Star Wars would be sci-fi.

What else do you have? History. You can have historical fiction, crime fiction, all of these things. Thrillers. Yeah, they're all not real, so they're all fiction. Fairy tales. Yeah, different genres. Now, dear listeners, you can listen to Rory's beautiful answers again

and this time notice all the grammar and vocabulary he's used for high school, okay? Rory, do you enjoy reading? Yes, I do. I've always loved it, actually. I think it stems from my childhood when my mother would read books to me. How often do you read? Well, right now I probably don't read often enough due to the amount of work I'm doing. However, when I do read, I'm quite a voracious reader. I can go through quite a few books in just one sitting, actually.

Do you usually read for leisure or for work purposes? Well, right now I read for work purposes. Like I say, because I'm working so much, I always have to stay informed of different things, different trends that are happening. So I will be reading articles mostly. However, I'm hoping I'll be progressively reading more and more for pleasure because as my head fills up with all of this information from articles and things, my brain usually needs a rest. So I need to start working in some more leisure time reading. What's the last book you read? I remember it very clearly.

The book I read was called Sexual Personi. It's a book by Camille Pahlia. It talks about the relationship between art and culture for at least the last 5,000 years of human history. It was interesting, but it's a bit of a doorstopper actually. It's about 600 pages. And again, because of how much I've been working, it took me about seven months to read. It was very, it's sort of a very dense book.

I guess you could say. But after reading it, I feel I know much more about culture now. Oh, wow. It's like reading War and Peace by Tolstoy. Yeah, basically. Although I think she mentions Tolstoy in the book, actually, as well. Which book had a strong impact on you? I remember when I was much younger, I think it was about 10 years ago when I was 20.

I read a book called The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. It was a fictional book, but it made a very convincing case for socialism, actually. and it was so convincing I became a raving communist for about a year of my life, which I think is quite funny since I'm a little bit more conservative now. But what's strange about that is the fact that it was a fiction book, but it still made such a convincing case for something in real life. And you would usually expect a non-fiction book to achieve that. What was your favorite book or story when you were a child?

I can remember the book, but I can't remember the name. There was a nature book. And it was about the life cycles of different animals. It was really engaging just the way the information was presented. And in addition to the great presentation of information, it also had really cool illustrations as well. This was a long time ago, so they didn't really have many sort of photographic pictures and books. Artists had to draw accurate representations of different things. In particular, I remember a picture of a crocodile, which was really convincing.

It was so cool. I really liked it. No little red riding hood? Not quite for me. Little red riding hood is a bit too childish. Even when I was younger, I preferred reading about things rather than people. So you were mature from the get-go. I like mature subject. I don't know if I was a mature person. Yeah, no fairy story, fairy tales for Rory. Okay. Moving on. Do you have many books at home?

Oh, loads, yeah. I have at least 1,000 in my room back in Scotland. I've got a small. set of bookshelves for them, although I suppose they're not so small now, given how many books I've got. And then people in my family like to read quite a lot. So that's just in my room, but throughout the house, there must be many more books that are there, way over 2,000 books. Wow. Do you have some Dostayevsky, Pushkin? I don't. I keep meaning to read Russian literature. So perhaps, like I said, when I was talking about in my leisure time, I need to read more. This should be the, these books should be at the top of

my list, really, shouldn't they? Yeah, but what would you read? Like, Pushkin or Lermintov, like, poems? Or would you go for this Dostoevsky, gloomy and doomy things? I really, I don't like poetry so much. I think I would prefer to read a book with one narrative, really, as opposed to just different poems about different things. Do people do enough reading these days?

I think they probably read more, but they don't read with enough depth. So, for example, people are reading different things. They read things on social media and they read different articles online. But they're all sort of like sound bites, I suppose. People don't really analyze them and think about them like they would when they have a book which provides like a great deal of thought about different things. And I remember reading something that when they were talking about how people read online. Usually when people read online, they don't read the whole article.

They just read different parts of it. there's never really thought, sorry, much in-depth thought about it. Do you prefer e-books or hard copies? It might not be environmentally friendly, and maybe I'm a bit old-fashioned, but I think hard copies are just better. I like having the book in front of me. I feel like I'm more engaged, it's a more authentic reading experience, and then when you finish reading the book,

you have this kind of sense of accomplishment at the end, when you finish it and you put it on your shelf with all of the other books that are there. It just, the whole experience is much nicer, I think. Although I can appreciate why people are starting to prefer e-books now, though. They're lighter, you can carry around more with you. And of course, it's better for the environment. Are you one of these people who smell books? Old books, yeah.

Old books have a smell that new books don't, well, they don't have a smell. In my opinion. They don't have a smell and they don't have the same smell. Older books were kind of yellow. pages to have a kind of sweet smell about them, which is nice. But I don't understand smelling new books. For me, it doesn't make sense. DeLisness, breaking news. Surprise, surprise. Guess what? Rory is an author himself. We've just been talking about books and Rory actually does write books. Oh my God. Rory, tell us about your books. Well, I've only written three so far.

Three books. He's written three books, you guys. Wow. I'm in the midst of writing the fourth one now. The first three books are science fiction books. So one is military science fiction. The second is science fiction horror. And the third one is science fiction history, actually. Are they in English or in Russian? They're in English, yes.

But they are available all over the world. You can download them from Amazon. Or if you're very lucky, you can buy a hard copy from Amazon as well. Oh, you have hard hobbies? Yeah. Wow. Rory, can I have an autograph, please? Um, yeah.

Rory, can your books help our listeners when they learn English or they prepare for IELs? I think so. Actually, if they have a band eight or a band nine, then they'll be able to use the language quite flexibly. And I use language really flexibly when I'm working. Yeah, but this could be like your driving force, dear listeners, to be able to read Rory's books. You should speak English. So you learn the language and then you read Rory's books. Well, first you buy them and then where can I buy them?

They're only available on Amazon right now, but hopefully they'll be available elsewhere in the future. So, if people are interested in finding them, then the link is in the description below. Thank you very much for listening. Bye! Have a good read!