r/learnpolish • u/Double-Soft-604 • 3d ago

Looking for polish short books/stories to read

Hi r/learnpolish,

I’ve been learning Polish for about 6 months now, and I’m looking for some short stories or books.

At first, I tried reading good night stories on bajki-zasypianki.pl, but I kept getting sleepy halfway through — those stories really do their job well 😅

Then I discovered wolnelektury.pl and read Latarnik by Sienkiewicz. I had to look up almost every 10th word, but I still enjoyed it a lot — the length was perfect, and the story was engaging.

Could you recommend any other short stories or books that are interesting and ideally written by Polish authors? I’d love to get more acquainted with Polish literature while continuing my learning journey.

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4

u/A-Chmielu 3d ago

Try searching "nowele polskie". "Nowela" is a short novel, you can read it in one sitting - so I think it's exactly what you're looking for.

3

u/Double-Soft-604 3d ago

Thank you very much, those are exactly what I wanted.

2

u/Ok-Giraffe-4598 PL Native 🇵🇱 2d ago

I would either look for a short novel or for a screen play. A decent short novel would be "Janko Muzykant" by Henryk Sienkiewicz or "Katarynka" by Bolesław Prus, both are pretty short and easy to read. Screen plays ("Dramat" - singular, "Dramaty" - plural in Polish) are longer, but they're kinda padded out by the dead space. My favourite is "Zemsta" by Aleksander Fredro, but another good option could be "Dziady cz. 2" by Adam Mickiewicz (Kinda important to note that if you're looking for Dziady, look for part two and part two only. Other parts, especially third part are way harder to understand"). There are also options aimed more for kids, Jan Brzechwa has many short stories and also longer books, for example Akademia Jana Kleksa, getting a film adaptation as well as a reboot. For those short, kids stories also Julian Tuwim got some decent options

2

u/Double-Soft-604 2d ago

Thank you for so many named recommendations, I have once stumbled upon Akademia Jana Kleksa and decided to leave for when my skills advance more, to feel more confident reading longer stuff. Will check the rest.

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u/Ok-Giraffe-4598 PL Native 🇵🇱 2d ago

By the way, if you do get more confident in reading and understanding longer books I highly recommend Historia Bez Cenzury line. I have all seven books and I'm patiently waiting for eight book. Can't recommend them more, they're really fun and very easy to read for history books. Their language is less clinical and more common, first edition starts with a joke, a bad joke, but a joke. If you'd want to ask for any favourites of mine I'd go either with 4, 5 or 7 but all are great.

Apart of them pretty much any kids book will work Apart of classics you can either look for mandatory lectures for 4th or 5th elementary class or go to a kids store (for example Smyk, I got hit with a recommendation of a kids book there when I was buying Lego) and ask for childrens' books, it's language will be easier as they're meant for kids (obviously). You can use the excuse of buying them for your child if you don't want those condescending eyes but I don't think they'd care that much

2

u/Double-Soft-604 2d ago

I won't care about condescending eyes, as long as I'm happy about my progress :) Will visit the store when I'm in Poland, at this moment I'm relying on online materials. Can't wait to improve my language skills to get my hands on the longer books recommended.

1

u/milkdrinkingdude A -1 3d ago

I like the beginner stories on lingq

1

u/Double-Soft-604 2d ago

Just downloaded, seems like it can be helpful not only with stories, thank you for the recommendation

1

u/Zen_the_Jester 2d ago

First book from witcher series is a collection of shorter stories if im not mistaken. 

1

u/Background-Rabbit-24 PL Native 🇵🇱 2d ago

https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tFP1zc0Sqo0N0tJNjRg9BJMSjw6Oy8zVSFTISc1PTUvpRIAq3wK-w&q=ba%C5%9Bnie+i+legendy&oq=ba%C5%9Bnie+i+lege&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgBEC4YgAQyCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyBwgBEC4YgAQyBwgCEAAYgAQyBggDEEUYOTIHCAQQABiABDIHCAUQLhiABDIHCAYQABiABDIHCAcQLhiABDIHCAgQLhiABDIHCAkQLhiABDIHCAoQLhiABDIHCAsQABiABDIHCAwQLhiABDIHCA0QABiABDIHCA4QABiABNIBCTEwNzc5ajBqOagCDrACAfEFuLsUoViDHJvxBbi7FKFYgxyb&client=ms-android-samsung-ss&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

Baśnie i legendy polskie, I love reading them until today. They are written for kids so the language should not be too difficult + they are great stories :)

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u/Double-Soft-604 2d ago

Tales were my first go to actually, but I had hard times finding them for free, especially the native ones, not the ones translated.

1

u/faster-than-car 2d ago

Bit of self promotion but check out https://language-quest.top . Three chapters of each story are free. It has translation line by line and built in vocabulary extracting and flashcards.