Selection Criteria, How Books Are Chosen

These reading lists are curated for language learners, but they are not generated from a fixed formula or intended to be definitive canons. They reflect my own taste as a reader: the genres and styles I enjoy, the authors and literary traditions that interest me, and the books I come across through the sources I follow.

At the same time, personal taste is only the starting point. I balance it with readability, literary and cultural value, regional representation, and the practical question of whether a book is likely to make a good sustained reading experience for a language learner. AI models are used as part of this process to help evaluate, compare, and balance selections rather than to determine them automatically.

The aim is not to simplify literature for learners, but to find authentic books that are accessible enough to provide substantial comprehensible input while still offering something worth reading.

How books make it onto a list

My selections come from a combination of sources and personal reading interests, including:

My own reading taste — I naturally gravitate toward certain genres, periods, authors, styles, and subjects, while others are less likely to make my lists.
Literary recommendations — Books I encounter through reading, recommendations, bibliographies, literary discussions, and references to influential works.
YouTube channels and social media — Literary channels, reviewers, writers, publishers, booksellers, and other pages I follow often introduce books and authors I might otherwise miss.
Literary prizes and award lists — Major national and international prizes provide useful signals about literary recognition and help broaden the selection beyond my personal preferences.
Literary and cultural relevance — Books that provide insight into a country’s history, society, identity, or literary traditions are considered even when they are not obvious choices for language learners.
Balance across the list — I look for a useful mix of authors, periods, genres, styles, perspectives, and levels of difficulty rather than simply collecting the easiest books.

A book does not have to satisfy every criterion to be included. The lists are curated selections, not objective rankings.

Core principles

All texts are considered according to several overlapping principles:

Authenticity
Original, unadapted literary or non-fiction works are preferred. The goal is exposure to real written language rather than texts created specifically for language learners.
Readability fit
Texts should be appropriate for the intended difficulty band, taking into account both formal readability and the overall effort required to process the text.
Narrative or structural clarity
Works with a clear progression and coherent structure are particularly useful in the Easy category. More demanding or experimental structures can still be included when their literary value justifies the additional difficulty.
Literary value
Accessibility alone is not enough. Even relatively simple books should have literary, cultural, historical, or thematic value.
Cultural and regional relevance
Books should contribute something meaningful to understanding the literature, culture, history, or varieties of Spanish or English represented by the list.
Variety
Lists should not consist entirely of the same genre, period, perspective, or type of narrative. Variety helps learners encounter a broader range of vocabulary, styles, and cultural contexts.

What is not included

To keep the lists focused on authentic reading, the following are generally avoided:

heavily simplified or graded readers
artificial “language-learning editions” with altered text
overly experimental works where meaning is intentionally fragmented, especially in Easy lists
texts where difficulty comes primarily from obscurity rather than meaningful language use
books included solely because they are famous, highly rated, or award-winning if they do not fit the purpose of the list

These are general guidelines rather than absolute rules. A particularly important or interesting work may justify an exception.

Regional balance

For Spanish, regional representation is important. The lists aim to include:

English reading lists are grouped by major national varieties:

This makes it possible to encounter different lexical, stylistic, cultural, and regional varieties rather than treating Spanish or English as linguistically uniform.

How AI is used

AI models are part of the editorial process, but they do not decide what belongs on a list.

I use them to help assess books from different angles, compare potential selections, identify gaps or overrepresentation, and think about whether a list offers a sensible balance between readability, literary value, genre, period, and regional representation.

This is particularly useful because personal taste can create blind spots. AI-assisted comparison provides another perspective and can help challenge my initial choices.

The final selection remains curated rather than algorithmically generated.

Difficulty assignment

Texts are assigned to difficulty levels based on a combination of:

formal readability score
sentence complexity and density
vocabulary familiarity
narrative transparency
expected reader effort in practice
literary and stylistic features that may affect comprehension

Formal readability scores are useful indicators, but they cannot fully capture the experience of reading literature in another language. A book with a high readability score can still contain unfamiliar vocabulary, regional expressions, unusual narration, or culturally specific references.

For that reason, the classification is approximate. Experienced difficulty is intended to complement the numerical readability score and give learners a more practical indication of what reading the book may feel like.

The goal is not to produce a scientifically precise measure of difficulty. It is to help readers choose books that are challenging enough to be worthwhile without making sustained reading unnecessarily frustrating.

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