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Title: Not very interesting selection; difficult references
Review: The introduction to this book states that "learning to read a foreign language means learning how to understand texts that are aimed at native speakers and therefore take for granted references, contexts, and levels of understanding that are mysterious to foreigners." In other words, this is not a book with selections written for students of Italian. I have been living in Italy & studying Italian for a year and have a decent command of the language. Even so, I have difficulty with the references in this book, especially in the many poetry selections. I think this book would be even more frustrating for someone who has not spent considerable time in-country. It is NOT written at a beginner level or aimed at casual students of the language. Furthermore, I found the selections rather boring reading. If I had it do over again, I would buy one of the short-story books.
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