This book pops up often on language blogs and forums, thought I'd finally read it. Especially since I found a good copy for less than three bucks. This version is a bit dated (cassette tape courses), but the info is still worth it.
I've been following a multi-track approach for some time now (hat tip: Ron H), incorporating native materials in my language learning. This book advocates this approach as well. Pretty much this is how I took on Italian. Started with an actual class, which turned out to be too slow, so worked my way through a beginner text. Then dove in on Italian newspaper twitter accounts and even an actual Italian book (Dino Buzzati's Sessanta Racconti), albeit just the first story. Worked well enough to get me a 2 on the DLPT Reading test!
If you find this book cheap, or at the library, I would recommend leafing through it. His use of mnemonics to remember words is interesting, as is his "language biography," which, frankly, was the most interesting of the book; the man sure had done a lot in his life (he died recently, I believe).
I read Fluent Forever a few years ago, which was good. I'm not much of a groupie for polyglots, wasting hours watching their Youtube channels. Not that I don't think they have good things to say for those learning languages. I just don't want to spend the time. I'd rather spend that time on my hobbies. As for languages, I've been studying them seriously since 1986's Russian Basic Course at DLI (I don't count the wasted three years 8th-10th grade of Spanish) so I think I know how language studying works best for me. I only grabbed Farber's book because it came up recently, and with libraries closed due to this craziness, thought I'd buy a copy. I'll gift my copy to my language-loving daughter.
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