Some suggestions I have heard from polyglots are choosing a store that you already know (because you have read the book before in your native language or have seen the movie), choosing a kid's book, or just reading over and over. You may need to wait until you are more advanced in Russian. Otherwise, try reading children's books or reading Wikipedia and news articles that are about familiar topics. Good luck!

It is very important to read books that suit your level of Russian. In general, classical Russian writers of the nineteenth century like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky tend to have very rich vocabulary, to the extent that even native speakers will have to look up a couple of words. I see that you evaluate your Russian with 2 pink bars :) I have no idea how good your Russian is but simpler language and XX century writers may be a good place to start. Have you tried Daniil Kharms? He wrote very short (often about 10 lines) surrealistic short stories with rather weird sense of humor. I don't now if you will like them, with Kharms it's usually love or hate, but I think he is brilliant. You can read Kharms' short stories here (just skip the introduction): http://lib.ru/HARMS/harms.txt Then, Yury Olesha is brilliant. There is this magical feeling about his novel Три толстяка (Three fat men), which is written in rather simple language because it was aimed at children as well as adults. The main idea may look like Comminist (or, more precisely, anti-Capitalist) propaganda, but to my opinion Olesha was simply a humanist, and the political framework doesn't really matter today if a book is written so well and with such love to all people. But if you dislike the idea of romantic revolutionary fairy-tale / parable, avoid this. Три толстяка: http://sheba.spb.ru/libra/olesha-tt.htm Finally, Vadim Shefner is one of the most underrated Russian writers of the Soviet period. I absolutely adore his style and his simple, hearwarming, somewhat awkward characters. You may like to start with this one: "Скромный гений. Сказка для взрослых" / A Modest Genius: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups http://lib.ru/RUFANT/SHEFNER/28-01.txt If you have problems with any phrase and cannot make sense of it, just drop me a message and I will gladly help you out :)

My suggestion: 1. Get a book you really want to read 2. As a beginner, look for short stories 3. Chose one that is not difficult to read. Война и миръ is maybe not the best book to start with :-))

Anfisa, fiction books I tried to read range from '5 words I didn't know per a book, mostly adjectives' to 'every 3d phrase I can't understand'. In other words, books, they differ:) The bad news is that 1. when I understand a lot I rarely look into the dictionary. I'm following the story, I deduce some things from the context....And just skip unnecessary words:( So, my language isn't getting better with the easy reading. 2. On the contrary, when I do look for the word in the dictionary - I often look for the same word 100th time in my life, and I still don't remember this word! There're ways to overcome this. 2.1 draw a dot against the word you're looking for on the margins of your (paper) dictionary. When there're 100 dots against the same word, then something is wrong)))) 2.2 Use this word in order to remember it. ---- So, I don't sure that reading alone (without listening and speaking) has great language improving potential for adults at the level where you read 'fluently' enough. Happily you aren't that good) I can't answer your question directly, but that's what I know on the subject. And yes, I agree with Barrett.

Choose books that you are capable of reading.