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これもながーい

あんまりうまくないです。英語が・・・
でもなおしているひまはないし・・・
で、思い切っていっちまいます。

これは投稿していただいたうち半分くらいです。
ごめんなさい、力尽きたので・・・

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The bulletin board answers Helen’s question---Why are Oxford Bookworms so popular?

Toru

Merits:
* OBW 1 has only 400 Headwords, but they are long (5000 to 7000 words long) and the stories are well developed and good to read.
* Mr Tim Vicary’s books are very easy to read and it has a pleasant tempo.
* Stories are well constructed and make you feel good after reading.
* There is very little variance in the quality of each book in the series, whereas Penguin readers are uneven.

Demerits:
* Some illustrations are gloomy. Overall impression is not quite up to the mark.
* Black covers put off some people, I guess, especially for beginners.

Wakka

I agree with a lot of other people that OBW is easier to read than PGR. It could be the look of the page: OBW has better-quality paper that makes the printing easier to read, and the margins at the top and bottom are wider so that you feel less oppressed.

sumisumi

I agree with Wakka-san. OBW are easier for beginners who might cringe at long stories, because they use friendly fonts, spaces and margins.

I for one find the black covers chique, although illustrations are sometimes creepy.

Megpon

OBW’s use larger fonts and easier to the eye. Small fonts are not useful when you are not really into reading. Stories are written better in OBW than those in PGR at the same level. PGR’s seem to be written for kids but OBW’s are good even for adults.
PGR’s are uneven, but with OBW’s I have read so far, I think you can trust OBW’s for good reading. Illustrations are creepy in OBW’s.

Mariko

OBW’s pages look easy to read. The stories are better known. Washington Square is
easier to read in OBW than in PGR, so are The Wind in the Willows and Little Women.
Maybe sentence structures are easier?

Fluffy

OBW’s have good long stories. I was surprised to know such good stories can be written in so easy words. Juvenile books at Level 3 are hard going for me because they have lots of words I don’t know, but then I go back to OBW’s and I find them easier to go through. I like the somber black format as well. They are much better for adults to take out from a bag and read in public spaces. Illustrations are too gloomy though.

Polon

With regard to Stages 1 to 3:
* Mr Tim Vicary has done a lot to make OBW’s my favourite.
* Good for adults to read.
* Make me curious to know about English culture, history and background to each story.

Stages 4 to 6:
* Sentence structures and grammar become slowly more advanced so I don’t feel the difficulty so much when I go up to next level.
* The books are even as far as readability is concerned. There’s less surprise element from one book to another. One can see the care the editors take about each book.
* PGR’s are very uneven. They are almost chaotic in their readability.
* OBW’s are retold with great skills. Easy to read but still the flavour of the original text seems to be retained. I like Ms Clare West very much.
* OBW’s seem to be written in the kind English that is easy for Japanese learners of English. PGR’s seem to try to retain the style of the original text. PGR’s with American entertainment contents are easier to read.
* All in all, I tend to pick an OBW version when there is the same story in PGR.
Dickens’ stories are good case in point. You can see very quickly which is easier to read. The same might goes with Stages 1 to 3, come to think of it.

* OBW’s have better quality paper, larger fonts. I like the black cover as well.

Hope this helps.

peggy f

* Glossary at the end of each OBW book is my security blanket.
* The books are sturdier than other graded readers.
Especially, the spine is well made and the pages open with much ease.
* PGR has good quality paper and bad quality paper.

* OBW could use Japanese illustrators. Japanese anime is now shown throughout the world so it might be accepted worldwide.

Kerokero-sato

I agree with Peggy F about the glossary. PGR should have one as well.
I also feel the same way as Peggy F about the quality of paper used in PGR.
Good quality paper with slim typeface letters makes me giddy, and bad quality paper make the page look dull.

OBW’s Gothic typeface is easier to read. Especially when I had just started to read GR’s.

Banana

Four reasons why I prefer OBW to PGR:
* The glossary---makes me feel secure, but the volume is just right. Longer glossary would make it look like a dictionary.
* Easier to read than PGR---possibly because of the large font and the quality of paper.
I kind of like the glossy paper used in PGR’s, though.
* Good documentary content in Stages 1 and 2---The Coldest Place on Earth and
Agatha Christie, for instance. Good read for adults.
* OBW’s offers constant good reading. I for one don’t much like film-based PGR’s.

Mariko

The Wind in the Willows is in PGR Level 2 and OBW Stage 3. OBW version was much easier to read.

hikorin

I seem to find PGR rather difficult to read. Macmillan and Oxford are easier.
Maybe PGR just isn’t for me.

Ushinoko

I found OBW easier to read than PGR, up to Level 2. But I find at Level 3 both PGR and CER easier than OBW. Some say PGR Level 4 is easier than OBW Stage4. It would seem each of us has to go in our own way.

Variationen

* Paper quality is higher in OBW and that makes OBW easier to read.
* Some of my favourite rewriters are in OBW.
* OBW books are written for adults.

In a word, OBW’s target audience is ‘adults who want to learn English’.

Kanon

I have read almost every book in OBW 1 and 2, but I have read very few in PGR 1 and 2.
I choose and buy my books at bookshops.

I am a complete beginner, so it’s challenging for me to decide which book to opt for. The only clues are the level and the title of the books. ( I used to find reading titles on the spine quite a challenge!)

OBW is good for such beginner because
* You can read the titles on the spine.
* There are relatively more well-know, classic titles than in other GR series.
This is important because such titles ring a bell. I started each level with titles I already knew and then ventured to modern, unknown books.
* There are so much goody before the story itself starts.
There’s a brief summary of the story on the backcover.
There’s another on the first page.
I welcomed the new, fuller version of ‘About the Author’ in the new OBW’s.
I enjoy stories more deeply when I know their background and the authors.
* OBW’s use bolder typeface than PGR and I can see the letters more clearly.
* Illustrations are sometimes weird.
* The overall quality of stories are so dependable that when I read my first three books in OBW, I remember I decided to read all titles in OBW.
* I do hope they stick to the level they maintain now, because OBW gives me such pleasure.

Junjun

* The glossary makes my life a lot easier because, although I really don’t understand everything in the explanation, I sometimes can guess what the word means by replacing it by the explanation in the glossary.
* Illustrations help.
Not that they are good, though. They explain what’s going on rather skillfully.
I don’t know if illustrations in PGR are trying to do the same, but I have a feeling that pictures in OBW are more helpful than those in PGR.
* OBW is consistent in its format and the large typeface is welcome too.
I like the glossy paper of PGR so I wish all PGR books had it.
* I like the stories in OBW books. OBW books retold from films and classic novels are far easier to read without knowing the original. PGR retold books are good if I have read the original stories, but no so when I haven’t.

Yoshio

I’ll add some points to ones already mentioned.
Plus
* The glossary
* The uniform binding fit for adults to carry around
* Thick spines with legible titles
* Better quality paper
* The decorations at the head of each chapter are kind of nice.
* There’s a section at the end of each book where a number of books on the same level are introduced briefly. It makes choosing a next book fun.
* I enjoy reading about the author after reading the book.

Minus
* Bad illustrations
* The cover sometimes misrepresents the content.

Miya ( one of OBW faction!)

All I have read are PGR2 and OBW2.

1. The glossary: I read the glossary first when I go up to a new level.
2. PGR has only biographies of people of our time, doesn’t it? And they tend to tell you what happened only chronologically. That makes PGR bios read like school course books. I don’t read about modern celebrities unless I’m interested in them. But then bios about people you know tell little that I don’t know. Bios in OBW are written around one keyword, like ‘mystery’ in Agatha Christie, ‘love’ in Mrs Simpson. They are good to read as tales.
3. Typeface. Many people read outside their homes, I suppose, so typeface is important.
4. Retold editions of films and TV dramas: I’d rather watch the film than read about it.
5. I wish PGR had someone like Mr Tim Vicary.
6. The quality of stories in PGR are uneven. This may not be helped because they print so many titles.
7. Paper quality: I myself like that coarse feel of PGR books. They are lighter to carry too! The PGR paper tells me that I’m getting closer to real paperbacks for adults. I was once almost moved to tears when I first realized that in a bookshop.
8. Illustrations: PGR’s are definitely better in this category with their color photos and pictures.
9. Could I ask them to make Marcel books into a series that carries over level boundaries? He has traveled to England, France, and Italy, so why not to Spain with its Dali, Picasso, and delicious wines?

To be continued…

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最後の「続く」は嘘になってしまいました。もう一度、ぺこり