Reading is good for you, there’s no doubt about that. People who read English a lot will also learn to speak it better than people who don’t read. The important thing is to find something you like to read. It shouldn’t be too hard for you either. You’ll learn more if the text is easy to understand. Once you get better, you can try harder texts.

You will need at least an intermediate level of English for the following links and tips. For beginners, check out this article: https://englishwithasmile.org/2013/06/03/how-can-i-improve-my-english-quickly-without-taking-classes/.

Please note: in the following you’ll find general reading material. Academic articles are a different story.

Magazines:

There are plenty of quality magazines which have their own websites, and you can read many articles online or on your mobile phone, and it doesn’t cost you a penny. Some articles, however, may be screened. In that case, if you love the magazine, you can buy a single issue, or take a subscription. Even if you don’t live in the US or the UK, getting yourself the luxury of a subscription is not as expensive as you think. It’s worth checking out. If you buy the subscription for two years, they give you a (big) discount.

The following are my recommendations.

News magazines:

Time – There’s an easier website Time for Kids

Newsweek

The Economist

Literary magazines (stories and essays):

Ploughshares

Granta

The New Yorker

Nature & Travel:

National Geographic – There’s an easier website National Geographic for Kids.

Of course, if you have special interests, you can also read a magazine about that. If you like cars, go to the Top Gear website. If you’re into science, read Scientific American or New Scientist. If you love gardening, there’s Gardener’s World. And so on. I read Scuba Diving, because I like diving. There’s a magazine for every taste and interest, and you’ll learn a lot of English just from reading them.

Newspapers

If you’re a reader who enjoys reading a new(s) story every day, try reading a newspaper.

The New York Times, National Herald Tribune, the Times, the Guardian, and the Daily Telegraph are considered to be the best ones. You can find all of those online if you google them. You can sign up to their newsletter, and you’ll receive headlines in your inbox. If you click on the stories, they open so you can read them.

Apps

There are also apps of the magazines and newspapers for your mobile phone; but take note that after the additional free issue you usually need to pay a small fee.

Stories

To start, you can read older short stories by Oscar Wilde, Roald Dahl, or Jack London online. They’re freely available, because there’s no copyright on them anymore.

Poetry

Try subscribing to a daily service that sends you a new poem by email every day.

I have a subscription to Poets.org. Follow this link to subscribe: http://www.poets.org/poemADay.php

Other services:

Daily Poem. Follow this link to subscribe: http://www.dailypoem.co.uk/mailing.php

Classic Poem Daily. Follow this link: http://quotations.about.com/c/ec/1.htm

Happy reading!