In this review I wanted to present some books for those who have reached an intermediate level of Arabic reading. Back in Texas there is a used book outlet called Half Price books that buys books from the public and then turns around and sells them at half their price. Next to the Islamic bookstores this spot was my favorite place. I would rummage through the Arabic section and find books that Muslims had discarded and sold to this bookstore. I bought a large amount of Arabic books from this store. I found books by Shaykh al-Albaanee, Shaykh-ul-Islaam Muhammad bin ‘Abdil-Wahhaab, Muhammad ash-Shinqitee, you name it I would find it. One time I even found Subul-us-Salaam (the explanation of Buloogh-ul-Maraam) for half of what it sells on the Internet! When I got home and started to read to my dismay I found that it had belonged to a brother that I knew personally who had stopped seeking Knowledge, may Allah protect us from that. The way I knew this was because his name was on all four volumes of the book along with other books that I had purchased.I also found a lot of Arabic children’s books and I became fond of reading them to develop vocabulary and to strengthen my reading skills. So I wanted to share just some of the many booklets that I have amassed.
This booklet focuses on teaching short Soorah’s of the Quraan along with lessons about respecting the parents, Paradise and Hellfire, and a host of other Islamic topics. It is a short book and looks photocopied. It was printed in Jordan and I believe was used in the educational system in the late 80’s.
This book (below) comes from Lebanon at a time when it dominated the scene in publishing Arabic books. It came out in the 70’s and centered around teaching Fushaa in an every day conversation setting. What makes it unique is that you learn Arabic by the pictures presented in each lesson. 
If you notice the page I scanned you will see where it is teaching you how to say that you are closing your eyes and opening them, I am seeing you and you are seeing me, etc.
I taught some lessons from this book to some of my children and I found that they were picking up on how to think in Arabic and say simple things such as my hand is on my head, my finger is in my ear, etc. A lot of Arabic books today do not teach simple things like this.
When I first saw this book on the shelf two things went through my mind. One it is an extremely old and dirty book. I mean it is so dirty that your fingers are stained black from the print. Second I thought someone placed this book in the wrong section because it’s written in Urdu. I was right about my first thought but wrong about the second. It was a bilingual book teaching Arabic to Urdu speakers, but written in mostly Arabic. 
As I went through the pages I immediately fell in love with the stories and sections contained in the lessons. It has a lot of vocabulary to learn and the type is very old but the style of Fushaa used is what makes it enjoyable. There is a good portion of poetry along with prophetic narrations and statements of the Salaf.
Now before you think I am strange for buying this next book I would like to share with you something I had read from the biography of Shaykh al-Albaanee’s life (rahimahullah). He once stated:“The first books that I would read from were Arabic stories such as Thaahir wa ‘Antarah, al-Malik Sayf, and other works. Then the translated detective stories of Arsene Lupin and others like it, then I found a desire towards historical readings.”
So when I came across the Arabic translation of “Little House on the Prairie” out of curiosity I wanted to see how well I could understand it. I found that I understood a great deal of the story even though I had never read this book in English before. I was only familiar with the television program that aired when I was a young boy. 
I will say that once you understand Arabic you will prefer to read many Arabic translations over their original sources. I have purchased other translated works and found that the beauty of the Arabic language captures far more in-depth meaning and makes more sense.These are just some titles I wanted to share and I encourage all who are studying Arabic to read as much as you can. Do not just focus on the book you are learning from. Branch out into newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, books, etc. this will improve your reading skills tremendously.
