Customer Reviews

501 Spanish Verbs: with CD-ROM (Barron's 501 Spanish Verbs (W/CD))

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I used this book in Spanish class and it was very useful. I wanted to have it available when I was traveling and taking classes abroad, so I bought it for the kindle. My problem is not the book, it is the way it is formatted in Kindle. First of all, the list of verb forms are in EXTREMELY small type even with the largest typeface is set on Kindle. That makes it really hard to look at to study or find a certain verb form. Secondly, there is no way to type in a verb and look it up like you would use the interface with a dictionary. This feature would be really helpful, but alas, it is not there. The only way to access your verb is to look it up via the table of contents and the verbs are not all listed in the same area so you have to keep searching. When doing homework, this is fine when you can span through pages but tabbing in the Kindle makes for extremely frustrating work. It is a real shame that such a powerful tool for the student does not have a more reasonable and well thought out interface. I hope that a few programming changes take place and make this book worth it's usefulness in Kindle. Until that happens, I highly recommend against purchasing this book for Kindle.

It's almost impossible to search for individual verb conjugations on the Kindle version of this book. Don't buy it.

This is a thorough Verb book but I prefer The Big Red Verb book over this one. Both are valuable tools and if you're serious about learning spanish, I'd advise purchasing them both.

I own the paperback version of this book which I love and thought I would buy the Kindle version so I could carry it around with me more easily. I was anxious to use it but when I did, Ifound the kindle version next to worthless. Specifically, it is very hard to search with for a verb without knowing the exact location (not page.) Secondly, the actual conjugation pages are almost impossible to read. The text is tiny and the size cannot be increased. My guess is that those pages are images and not text so the ability for the kindle to make them legible seems to be impossible, making this book, as a reference and study guide, unusable. I cannot find enough negative adjectives to describe my feelings. I am going to ask Amazon for a refund and would advise the authors (editors or programmers) to correct the kindle version to make it usable.

I have been extremely happy vith the paper version. Alas, I did not read the review before buying for my Kindle. As several have stated, the Kindle version is completely useless as it is not possible to search in a meaningful way!

What follows is as much a testimonial as a review. I started studying Spanish as a second language three years ago, at the age of 38. I fairly quickly purchased this book, and found it to be by far the most helpful resource for me. I believe I may even have learned more from this book than from six weeks of classes, six hours a day.

While obviously the pages with the verbs themselves and their conjugations are very important, the heart of the book is the forty pages of instructional material found at the beginning. Every tense is explained there, very clearly and concisely. Nowhere else did I find the basics presented so well as they are in that introductory section. Long hours spent studying and reviewing this material, and the verbs themselves of course, will be well-rewarded.

In my own case, I recently married a woman who speaks little English, and for the time being Spanish is the only language spoken in our home. I really don't know how I could function without the grammar and vocabulary I got from this book.

I was sorely disappointed in the Kindle edition. The font size on the charts cannot be increased. It is so small that it cannot be read. I will have to purchase a magnifier for my Kindle. This is a waste of money.

Bought this for use in the field. Useless, as uses "locations" instead of page numbers. There are no page numbers on the pages to find your place.

Additionally, while turning the pages one jumps several pages ahead and must go back to the contents to navigate.

Absolutely worthless!

This is a great hardcopy reference book I own that is worse than useless in its electronic format. Because little consideration was given to the book's conversion the Kindle version is almost impossible to use. The title of the book says 501 Spanish verbs. Since the verbs aren't set up with linked references there is no way to jump quickly to a selection. Sure the TOC lists about 50 but what about the other 451? I for one don't want to thumb through page after page looking for them. Even worse there is an appendix that lists 2,100 other verbs that conjugate like those in the book; in the hardcopy each listing is followed by a page number, in the Kindle version there is no reference back to the text! I understand that Amazon wants to offer as much content as possible for the Kindle, but a conversion that might be acceptable for a book like "Treasure Island" produces junk when applied to a book like this one.

I bought this kindle addition because I am planning on living in a Spanish speaking country for a couple of years. I also wanted to take many on my books along on my Kindle to avoid the hassle and weight of bound books. I love my paperback addition and use it almost daily as I study Spanish. However, the size of the print and the inability to adjust the font or use the magnifier makes it almost useless on my Kindle 2. It might be OK on the Kindle DX but I would not recommend it for the smaller Kindle 2. By the way, I do love my Kindle after 2 months, I find I read much more with less fatigue.