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Whenever I set out to learn something, I like to shop around for the best books I can find, usually available for downloading on the internet. This is especially important being self-learned. There are usually all sorts of books, some better than others, some particularly good, but one has to dig for them, as there are plenty to pick from. In the case of language books, one generally encounters introductory courses, these books are very good as a first approach to the language, but there is a lot more, especially for a language such as Russian. Here are some of the books I've found to be good. Here is a brief overview for the benefit of those learning the language who are looking for good resources to expand their knowledge.
This is the book with which I started seriously learning the language. It is written with a specific audience, it's aim to prepare the reader to understand mathematical texts. I am aware this is not a book for everybody. Hopefully, somebody may take this idea and apply itto other subjects. I would like to see a book entitled "Black Hat Russian" someday, hell, I might write it if nobody does.
But I digress, the merit of this book, regardless of it's specific scope, is an insightful dicussion on several aspects of the language, particularly on word formation, which is understandably absent from beginner textbooks, but which is written to appeal to the "systematizing" mind of the mathematician. Well worth a read, especially chapters 3 to 5. There is a little caveat, it being that, because of the specific texts it is aimed for, the grammar is very incomplete for a general use of the language; not only the vocabulary specialized, but even stuff like the pronouns it teaches is limited to those found in mathematical texts, where one doesn't usually find "I" or "you" but rather "we find the value of the integral..." or "it belongs to the set ...", on the other hand, the watered-down grammar and the example sentences and readings provide much good practice if one is used to reading mathematics, the topics covered being somewhat common knowledge (for mathematics students, thst is.)
This is The Book, if anyone is serious about study of Russian, they ought to give this one a read, after having read a beginner's book. If the previous one provides insight into some aspects of the language, this goes to the next level. To be fair, I can't say much beyond this, as I am just starting to read it along with other books, but the discussions on morphology in the early chapters have already aided my understanding.
Once you have been introduced to the basics of the language and have a certain competence with it, the single best thing that can be done, nay, that needs to be done, is to read a lot and listen to native speakers, a lot. This book provides material for the first, and I seriously wonder why there are virtually no other books like this one.
One of the keys for an intelligent study of the language, as exemplified in the first two books of this list, is a knowledge of the roots that make up a great variety of words, by compounding, by adding morphological affixes that give more precise meanings as well as grammatical information. This little book gives an alphabetical list of a good number of word roots plus some examples. Best used as a reference.
This one seems like a very good resource, though I haven't used it much yet, it goes in some detail on the specific topic of noun cases and their uses for different situations.
My favorite way of learning a language is by reading poetry. And this book is just the kind of book for that. The vocabularies that come with each poem do assume some knowledge on the reader, so it's best for somebody at a post-introductory level, though it really is written with all levels in mind.
Nothing beats having a reference to consult whenever one needs clarification on tricky issues or simply a reminder of the basic elements of he grammar, and there is no better book for this than this classic book by Terence Wade, who has authored a few other very good books for students of Russian. I also recommend his "Using Russian Vocabulary".
Later I may post a new post for more beginner-friendly books, as well as a list of books for Classical Chinese.