#1 Mission – To get you all reading in Portuguese. Reading develops fluency and is fun!

Every other month we read one book in 4 stages, with optional questions to think about each week. When we meet we falar português and discuss interesting language and our opinions about the section read that week.

We meet on Wednesdays 17-17h45 (PT - Lisbon time)

Next book club is in September, starting the 9th September and running for 4 weeks. We’ll be reading Queria Ter Alguém à Minha Espera Num Sítio - Anna Gavalda (176 páginas), you can read an extract from the book here. (click on LER)
This book is the first collection of short stories by the French writer Anna Gavalda ( born 1970), originally published in 1999 and winner of the RTL Lire Prize in 2000. It brings together 12 short stories that depict the everyday lives of ordinary people in a realistic, melancholic and sensitive tone centred on ordinary moments of daily life in Paris, focusing on streets, cafés and public transport.
Themes: Loneliness, the small dramas of everyday life, hope, romantic misunderstandings and human frailties.
Style: Simple, direct writing, with subtle humour and great empathy for the characters.

€25.00 per month

join the bookclub

INFORMATION ON THE BOOKS BELOW.

  • You can read at your own pace for free, or

  • you can join the weekly meet-up (online) to chat about the weekly tasks together.

  • All books for 2025 are around 200 pages.

HOW TO JOIN THE WEEKLY MEET-UP?

  • We meet online on Wednesdays at 17h-17h45, Lisbon, PT time.

  • Limited to groups of 8. Cost is 25€ per month.

  • To join get in touch to find out about places. 

2026 books

Reading tips   

  • For the first few pages DO check words you don't know, a slow task I know, but worth it as these words may well come up again and again.

  • If you have a printed copy of your own that you are happy to write on, underline or mark words.  Otherwise, keep yourself a marker paper to take a note of words on and their meanings.  You will find yourself looking up the same words several times, having them to refer to can make it quicker.

  • Once past the first few pages, try to work out meanings from context if you can.  Sometimes it will be a new word, but the meaning is obvious from the context. 

  • Try not to look all these words up, rather, only check words whose meanings you really need to know.  Even just mark them and look up a few in one go, so you can keep reading.

  • EVERYONE who wants to improve their Portuguese. From B1 level and up you should be able to read most of these books. Obviously, if you are early on in your Portuguese learning journey, this will be a challenge, and be more time consuming.  If you have already read the books in your own language, this will help.

  • European Portuguese translations of non-Portuguese authors.

    Fairly short and simple books that have a general appeal and include the type of language that will be useful to adult students of Portuguese who are studying because they want to speak Portuguese.

  • -Books for young children

    -Graded readers

    -Classic Portuguese books and authors – Pessoa, Torga, Camões etc.

    -Brazilian Portuguese

    I am trying to find the books (in European Portuguese) in book, digital, and where possible pdf format, and make these sources available.  Of course, if you are in Portugal you can borrow the books from the library!  It really does not matter if you are reading a different edition of the book to the one I have found, all translations are good (and in fact it is super interesting to compare translations!).

  • Because the language can be colloquial / idiomatic and so demand a high level of Portuguese.  Translations are usually simpler (although still very good from a language learning perspective), plus you may have read the books already, so the subject matter is accessible.

  • Because the aim is simply for you to read and enjoy reading, to get into a story (and maybe forget you are reading in a foreign language!!)