UNIT 3

BOOKWORM

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1. Do you remember these words?

As we all know, every language has written texts and these can appear in different forms, styles and
formats. In this unit, we are going to deal with vocabulary and structures normally used to talk about
books and their genres.
So, let’s read something you will probably understand easily. Afterwards, we will focus on some specific
vocabulary.

I have always loved reading and I have always had plenty of books of all genres. My favourite novel
was the Harry Potter series, written by J. K. Rowling. It is the story of a boy who discovers that he
is a wizard and has to fight the villain with the help of his friends. Although it started as a children’s
book, the story becomes more mature as the main characters grow up.

GLOSSARY:

Genres: written styles.

Series: a set of stories with the same characters.

Story: a piece of fiction.

Villain: the bad guy.

Children’s book: a book for children.

Main characters: protagonists.

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2. Reading

Now, we will read a text which is a little more complex.

In the last decades, the way we read has changed enormously. If my grandmother had known that
nowadays we would be able to have access to all the books written in history from a simple e-book
reader, she would have been amazed.
There are several different genres, and all of them are equally important. Probably, essays may
seem the most boring ones; nonetheless, they are actually incredibly interesting. Poetry is the
expression of the author’s inner feelings. Until the popularization of fiction, this had been the most
important literary genre. Finally, drama may be considered the most important of all of them, since
with the boost of new technologies, has seen itself adapted to cinema and television. Apparently,
it is the most entertaining one.
Within these literary genres, there are a wide range of topics that are frequently mixed by the
author to create a masterpiece. Comedy and tragedy were the most common ones in the past.
Nowadays, thrillers have gained a great popularity, as well as horror stories. Plots and settings have
also been modified with the passing of time, and frequently mixed characters and events of various
eras and backgrounds.
The electronic book may be considered the greatest invention since the printing press given that
whilst books were only available for a few in the past, there are easily accessible from our
smartphones, tablets, or any other portable device. Thanks to this, the number of readers has
increased worldwide.

3. Vocabulary. Books

As you have seen, this topic is incredibly common when talking about books and their descriptions which
are crucial in order to talk about any literary work in depth. Firstly, we will learn the different book genres
in order to choose which kind of book is our cup of tea.

Action and adventure Anthology Classic

Crime and detective Drama Fable

Fairy tale Fantasy Horror

Romance Thriller Poetry

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 Addictive Awe-inspiring Breathtaking

Charming Dreadful Forthcoming

Entertaining Engaging Gross

Heartfelt Predictable Unimaginative

To hit the books In my book To take something as read

To have your nose in a book You can’t judge a book by its cover To be an open book
To be a closed book By the book To be a big reader
A page turner

3.1 Glossary

Book genres

Action and adventure: The plot is mostly
accompanied by danger.
Anthology: A collection of series of works.
Classic: The most influential books of a certain
time and/or place.
Crime and detective: Books about crimes,
criminals and investigations.
Drama: Stories to be usually played written in
verse or prose.
Fable: Fiction narratives about personified
animals written in prose or verse.
Fairy tale: Stories for children about imaginary
creatures.
Fantasy: Stories set in a world that is not real.
Horror: It creates fright in readers.
Romance: It is about love between two people
and have an optimistic ending.
Thriller: It creates the feelings of suspense.
Poetry: It has a distinctive style and rhythm to
express ideas or feelings.

Now, we are going to focus on adjectives which are useful when describing books, some of them are
positive but others are negative because preferences always depend on people’s likes. Let’s see some
vocabulary:

Adjectives to describe books

Addictive: A book that you become addicted to. Entertaining: Enjoyable.

Awe-inspiring: Spectacular. Engaging: Attractive.
Breathtaking: Astonishing. Gross: Revolting.
Charming: Delightful. Heartfelt: Deeply felt.
Dreadful: Extremely bad. Predictable: That can be predicted.
Forthcoming: About to appear. Unimaginative: Not creative.

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Idioms

Finally, we will learn some idioms about books which are essential in everyday life situations. Let’s see
some of them to improve our knowledge in English.

To hit the books: To study.
In my book: In my opinion.
To take something as read: To assume
something as true.
To have your nose in a book: To read intensely.
You can’t judge a book by its cover: You cannot
form an opinion about someone or something
by its appearance.
To be an open book: A person who doesn’t hide
anything from others.
To be a closed book: A very closed person who
doesn’t want to reveal its private life.
By the book: To follow rules or guidelines.
To be a big reader: A person who reads a lot.
A page turner: A book that you want to continue
reading.

4. Grammar

In this unit we are going to learn how to talk about past events that took place before another action that
happened in the past. We will see their structures in affirmative, negative and interrogative, and their
uses. Both, past perfect simple and continuous, are perfect tenses and each one has its own
characteristics.

4.1 Past perfect simple

We form the past perfect with “had” followed by the past participle. The structure is as follows:

Affirmative:
Subject+ had+ past participle

Negative:

Subject + had not (hadn’t) + past participle

Interrogative:

(Question word) + had+ subject + past participle?

Examples:

• My uncle had arrived at the airport 3 hours before the plane landed on.

• When I saw her in the library, she had finished her homework.

• They hadn’t driven a car before that day.

• I hadn’t taken the plane in time and I had to wait for the next one.

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• Had your friend been to New York before 2018?

• What had he told her before confirming her attendance to the meeting?

Uses of past perfect simple

It refers to an action that happened earlier.

It can be used on its own because the action that took place before or after is understood.

It also refers to actions that were finished or completed before some point in the past.

It emphasizes the result of an action in the past.

It links two events, actions or situations.

It is used with time references such as after, before, until, as soon as, at the moment that.

Summary

Affirmative Subject + had + past participle.

Use had not or hadn't + verb in past

Negative participle.
Present perfect
simple
Interrogative Had + subject + past participle?

After, before, until, as soon as, at the moment

Time references
that

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4.2 Past perfect continuous

We form the past perfect continuous with “had been” and the form of -ing of the verb. The structure is as
follows:

Affirmative:

Subject+ had been + verb in -ing form

Negative:

Subject+ had not been (hadn’t been) + verb in -ing form

Interrogative:
(Question word) + had+ subject+ been+ verb in -ing form?

Examples:

• My father had been working for 15 years when he got a bonus.

• The shop which was closed down had been opening since 1886.

• The writer did not publish her work because she had been looking for it all her life.

• Peter hadn’t been waiting for him ages since his friend arrived.

• Had she been reading the book.

• Where had she been living before moving to Spain?

Uses

When an action, event or situation started in the past and continued up to another point in the past.

To refer to another action in the past.

It emphasizes how long an action, situation or event took place before something in the past.

It is used with time structures such as for and since.

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4.3 Certain verbs

There are certain verbs which cannot be used in continuous tenses. Those verbs are called state or stative
verbs and are those ones that mainly refer to liking or disliking something.

Thoughts or opinions believe, recognise, know, understand

Possession own, have, belong, possess, owe

Senses sound, taste, smell, feel, hear, see

Emotions love, hate, need, wish, want

Examples:

• When Mary arrived at the shopping mall she hadn’t recognised her old school friends.

• He had known the secret before I told him.

However, some of them can be used in continuous tenses too, this small group of verbs is called mixed.
Let’s see some of those verbs that can be used: be, have, see, smell or taste.

Examples:

• She had been having a great time.

• My brother had been smelling all the time while my mum was cooking.

Summary

Affirmative Subject + had been + verb in ing form.

Negative Use had not or hadn't been+ verb in ing form

Present perfect
continuous
Interrogative Had + subject + been + verb in ing form?

Certain verbs Mixed verbs vs state verbs

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4.4 Past perfect simple vs past perfect continuous

Now, we are going to contrast these two tenses we have learnt in this unit. It will help you to be able to
use both of them properly and sometimes it may seem confusing when to use one or the other. Let’s see
their differences:

• The main contrast between them is that past perfect simple refers to a finished action in the past
while the continuous tense the action continues up to a point in the past.

• Another difference that we may focus on is the simple one is centered in linking those past events
and the continuous shows the cause of that past event.

• And finally, the past perfect simple emphasizes the result, the continuous tense highlights the
duration of that event or situation.

REMEMBER

The past perfect simple structure is formed with had been and the verb in past participle while past
perfect continuous is introducing the verb to be and the ing form of the main verb. In other words, had
been and verb ending in -ing.
Time expressions like for, since, already and yet can be used in past perfect because these time
expressions are used in perfect tenses.

5. Writing

Nowadays, a book review or recommendation is a really common type of writing, we use it to describe,
analyse and give our opinion about a book to be published in a magazine or newspaper. In this section,
we will learn how to write a book review with its different parts and useful phrases.

5.1 The structure of a book review is as follows

1. Title
2. Introduction
3. Summary of the plot
4. Comments of strengths and weaknesses
5. Personal opinion

The title should be catchy and interesting to make people read it. It is also advisable to use a rhetorical
question or a general statement of the book you are going to write about.

Secondly, the introduction should provide information about the author, title of the book, time, location
and genre to give readers a nice background in a semi-formal but friendly language.

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The summary has to be brief in order not to be a spoiler, the information given should be relevant but not
detailed and do not forget to introduce the surprising moment of the plot. We tend to use 3rd person
singular in present tense or past tense and adjectives to be colourful and interesting.

Furthermore, the next paragraph is about strengths and weaknesses about the book. If it has been the
best book you have ever read and the reasons why, as well as, the part of the storyline which might have
been changed to be better taking into account your likes.

And finally, give your overall opinion and write down if you whether recommend the book or not to be
read by others.

5.2 Useful language to take into account when writing a book review

The language should contain a wide range of adjectives such as terrific, fantastic, great, fascinating,
terrible, disappointing, boring, interesting...

Introduction:

The best I have recently read is

The book begins with

The book was written by

It takes place in

It stands on

It tells the story of

Summary of the plot:

The plot revolves around

The plot focuses on

One of the strongest things is

One of the weakest things is

X is twice as good as
X is even better than
X is even worse than

Comments of strengths and weaknesses:

What I like the most is

What struck me was
What I disliked the most was

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 It was so surprising for me when

It was so shocking for me when

Personal opinion:

I recommend
I strongly recommend
I advise you to

I advise you not to

X is not to be missed

If I were you
You will not be disappointed with this book because
I wouldn’t read the book again because

Main features of a book review

Title

Relevant
Introduction Paragraph 1 information
about the book

Paragraph 2 Brief summary

Main body
Likes and
Paragraph 3
dislikes

Conclusion Paragraph 4 Overall view

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Now, we are going to see a book review sample.

Book review sample

An extraordinary piece of written art: The Picture of Dorian Gray.

This book is a Gothic novel written by Oscar Wilde. One of the most important Irish playwrights. It tells
the story of Dorian Gray who is the subject of a portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, which takes place in the
Victorian period in England.

The plot focuses on a portrait and Dorian’s beauty as he wouldn’t like to be old and sells his soul in order
to keep young while his portrait would age instead of him.

What I like the most is how some famous plays are in the novel, and the performance of Romeo and Juliet
is the first thing that made the portrait change and Dorian realised that his dream came true. However, it
was not surprising for me when Dorian wanted to destroy the portrait as it was the only evidence of how
he really is.

Even if you are not a great fan of Gothic novels, I fully recommend you to read it as it is a great novel as I
had expected and makes readers read it over and over again.

Key ideas

Let’s see a summary of what you have learnt in this unit:

● You have learnt how to talk about books genres, adjectives to describe books and idioms about
books. The world of books has always been considered the best one to know about any subject
in depth and its good effects on us.

● You have leant how to narrate stories and events.

● You have learnt how to write a book review or recommendation. What you have learnt here can
be used to recommend anything. For example, a good restaurant, an accommodation, places you
have recently visited…

● You have learnt how to use past perfect simple and continuous. You are able to talk about
situations in the past making a clear distinction in the order of events since these tenses
happened before another event in the past.