The 20 Best Books To Learn Swedish

One of the easiest (and most fun!) ways to learn Swedish is through books.

You’ll improve your vocabulary as well as your reading comprehension and, hopefully, you’ll really enjoy the book as well, which will make it a more pleasant experience. 

I want to find challenging but interesting books for you to read. So I've put together a list of 20 books to learn Swedish that are for beginners or immediate learners.

Hopefully, you’ll be able to enjoy these and improve your Swedish. And to make it a little more interesting I will include fiction books as well, beyond the usual textbooks that I will mention. Let’s get into it!

How To Use Books To Learn Swedish

You might be a bit wary of starting to read a book in a foreign language. Is it too hard for me? What if I don’t understand anything? And I understand that concern.

As a whole, we humans are often scared of failure and reading a book in a foreign language might sound daunting.

But if you follow the rules of StoryLearning, you'll realise that you don’t have to understand the language completely to be able to read or enjoy a book in that language. 

You're reading to improve your proficiency in that language after all and you won't improve if you're scared of making mistakes. All language learners make mistakes sometimes, believe me!

The perfect book for you is a book where you don’t understand everything (it still needs to be challenging and a dictionary should come in handy).

But you should understand it well enough so you can piece together the bits of information that you do comprehend to create a big picture.

It’s perfect if you understand the majority of a sentence, but if you don’t understand anything at all, then it’s too challenging or if you understand everything perfectly, then it’s too easy. 

With that said, let's get into this list of books to learn Swedish.

Textbooks, Workbooks And Grammar Books To Learn Swedish

1. Complete Swedish Beginner to Intermediate Course. By Anneli Haake.

This book is one of the best books when it comes to kick-starting your path to proficiency in Swedish.

It’s perfect if you're a beginner in Swedish and have some concepts down, but still have a long way to go.

It touches on reading, speaking, writing and understanding and at the end you’ll hopefully be able to engage in Swedish at an immediate level. 

2. Språk & Ordböcker From English To Swedish 1: A Basic Swedish Textbook For English Speaking Students. By Bengt Hällgren. 

This book is particularly useful if you speak English as your native language, as the commentaries and grammar explanations are in English.

It’s also a book that is specifically designed for English-speaking learners so hopefully, you’ll be able to relate to the story in the book as well.

Another useful thing with this book is that videos on pronunciation linked to this book are available on Youtube. So you’ll be able to improve your pronunciation as well by watching the videos. 

3. Lonely Planet Fast Talk Swedish. By Pär Sörme, Anna Herbst And Ida Burguete Holmgren

This book is for all the travel enthusiasts out there. It’s a phrase book with smart, fun and easy-to-use Swedish phrases and words.

Ideal for all travellers in other words.

Just having this book with you when you travel to Sweden will make it much easier to communicate with the locals, regardless if you just want to ask the time or have a full-on conversation about an art piece.

There are also pronunciation guides in the book, which makes it way easier to actually pronounce tricky Swedish words. 

4. Swedish For Parents: Language For Life With A Young Family In Sweden. By Sarah Campbell. 

Swedish for parents is not for everyone because of the niche subject. But if you're a parent looking to move to Sweden, then this book is essential.

You'll learn not only Swedish words connected to kids, parenthood and babies, but also information about the Swedish system.

There are also some chapters about how you can connect and speak with the other parents, all of this with pictures beautifully illustrated by Cibele Guimarães. 

5. 2000 Common Swedish Verbs. By David Hensleigh

Verbs are one of the most important things to learn in a language and that's true for Swedish as well.

Therefore this book comes in handy when you want to learn all the verbs in Swedish.

You'll see the verb and then the verb group, forms and English translation that corresponds to every verb listed.

It’s a perfect complement to a good grammar book.  

6. Swedish: An Essential Grammar. By Ian Hinchliffe And Philip Holmes

And a good grammar book is this one. It’s all the essential Swedish grammar and grammar rules, all in one book.

It’s also a book that gets regularly revised based on the new changes to Swedish grammar. So it’s a good book if you want to keep up with the latest news in Sweden,  grammar-wise.

It’s also designed for English speakers and gives some extra care to areas that English speakers usually struggle with. 

7. Colloquial Swedish. By Philip Holmes, Jennie Savenberg And Gunilla Serin

This book is great when wanting to know more about and understand how colloquial Swedish works.

After all, that's the kind of Swedish that you'll use if you're speaking to someone and the kind of language that Swedes uses on the daily. So hopefully you'll sound fluent in no time. 

8. Swedish Tutor: Grammar and Vocabulary Workbook. By Ylva Olausson

I should also add a workbook to this list. It’s an interactive book where you can practice what you’ve learned with more than 200 different exercises.

I truly recommend this book because of its easy and fun nature and due to the fact that you often learn better when you work with the book, instead of just reading it. 

9. A Lagom Guide To Swedish: A Say It In Swedish book. By Joakim Andersson. 

This is an interesting book because it’s way more “relaxed” than the previous books on this list.

It’s not a grammar book per se, but rather a fun book that teaches Swedish in a relaxed way.

It consists of fun facts, things that are good to know, secrets to the Swedish language, commonly asked questions and much more.

It’s a book for more advanced Swedish learners. It’s also written by Joakim Andersson who is the host and founder of the podcast ”Say it in Swedish”, so the quality is high. 

10. Viktig Svenska : Alla Dom Där Språkfrågorna. By Lena Lind Palicki And Anders Svensson.

This one might be very hard, so don’t feel discouraged if it proves too hard to understand.

I mainly added it for all the Swedish language learners that have come a bit further in their journey and want to understand a few different linguistic issues in Swedish.

It touches on linguistic issues that are currently under debate in Sweden at the moment, such as if Swedish should adapt dom instead of de/dem, for example.

It’s a tougher book, but probably fascinating for language lovers.

But make sure that you have your dictionary close by and be prepared to reread this book later when you've improved your Swedish even more. 

Interesting, Touching And Funny Swedish Fiction & Non-Fiction

11. Short Stories In Swedish For Beginners. By Olly Richards.

As you know, I'm a fan of learning through story so I wrote Short Stories in Swedish for Beginners, which consists of 8 engaging and fun short stories.

The stories are designed to be perfectly suited for high-beginner to low-intermediate readers.

It’s also paired with a glossary and a word list to make the reading easier. 

Find out more about how short stories can help you learn Swedish.

12. Learn Swedish – Bilingual Book (Swedish – English) The Adventures of Julius Caesar. By Bilinguals. 

While I prefer learning through short stories, parallel texts can also be helpful. This book was included because of its bilingual nature.

It’s a book with both a text in Swedish and a translation in English, which makes it way easier for English speakers that are new to Swedish to keep up.

It's also a well-known story that many probably have read before so hopefully it's quite an easy and fun book to start with.

13. Learn Swedish – Bilingual Book (Swedish – English) The Life of Cleopatra. By Redback Books. 

This next book is a book in the same style as the previous one.

It’s a bilingual book with a well-known story that makes the transition from reading in English to reading in Swedish smoother.

It’s a wise idea to start your Swedish reading journey with short stories if possible.

But with bilingual books, you'll get used to the style and format of Swedish texts and books, while getting accurate help and translations from the English parts of the book. 

14. Short Stories For Swedish Learners: 25 Bilingual Stories In Swedish And English. By Peter Persson. 

This is the last bilingual book on this list and is a collection of short, engaging stories that will hopefully be both a fun read and a way to expand and improve both your vocabulary and your understanding of the Swedish language. 

15. Sköna Maj. By Eli Åhman Owetz

These next two books are standalone from each other, but written by the same author and about the same characters.

The first book, Sköna Maj, won “Lättlästpriset 2022”, a prize for easy-to-read books in Swedish.

So while it might not be written with a Swedish learner in mind, it’s still a good book to read for a beginner in Swedish.

The book is about Maj and Lennart, who were young lovers, and how they met again after 70 years. A cute and sweet read for readers who enjoy mature romance. 

16. En Jul Tillsammans. By Eli Åhman Owetz

En jul tillsammans is a standalone continuation to the first book, and in this book, Maj and Lennart have moved in together and are gearing up to celebrate Christmas.

This book shares the same feel-good feeling from the first book about how love can still be a beautiful and jittery thing, even if the main characters are nearing 90. 

17. Sorgen I Deras Ögon. By Malin Wollin. 

The next two books that I recommend are graded readers.

That means that they are easier versions of their original books that are specifically written to be read by language learners.

Sorgen i deras ögon is a poignant book about loss, grief and how to deal with all the emotions that occur after losing a loved one.

A really touching book that talks about a hard subject with a sometimes light-hearted and humorous tone. 

18. Kärlek Och Främlingskap. By Theodor Kallifatides. 

The other graded reader is a book that I hope that Swedish learners that have moved to Sweden can relate to.

To book is about Christo who moves to Stockholm and struggles to fit in in a new country and with a new language.

It’s a moving and delicate book that will probably strike an chord within all those who long to belong. 

19. Ålevangeliet : Berättelsen Om Världens Mest Gåtfulla Fisk. By Patrik Svensson. 

Ålevangeliet : berättelsen om världens mest gåtfulla fisk is a book that won Augustpriset 2019, one of the most prestigious literature awards in Sweden.

It’s a nonfiction book about eels, but it’s also a story about the author and his father, how eels brought them together and about origin, destiny, life and death.

A very beautiful book that’s definitely worth reading.

It’s relatively easy to read, but a bit harder than the other books in this list so it would be advantageous to be equipped with a dictionary. 

20. Omgiven Av Idioter : Hur Man Förstår Dem Som Inte Går Att Förstå. By Thomas Erikson

The list should end on a lighthearted and positive note and this last book has made waves through the Swedish literature scene and, in a way, society as a whole.

Have you ever had a Swedish colleague who asked you what colour you are? That person is probably referring to this book.

Omgiven av idioter is a non-fiction book that is based on the DISC model that divides people into four colours.

It sent shockwaves through Sweden and most have read it at least once.

The opinions on the book are very divided and either you hate it or you love it.

It isn’t really a book about learning Swedish as much as it is about Swedish society. But it’s a great book to read if you want to understand why your colleagues are asking you about colours all of a sudden!

Books To Learn Swedish: Some Final Tips To Learn By Reading

It might feel overwhelming or daunting when you are preparing to read a book in another language.

But the best you can do is breathe and just view it as a fun leisure activity because that’s all it really is.

If you set lots of goals with your reading, like I need to reach x by y or I need to understand this many verbs, then I guarantee you that the reading process will just become more stressful and anxiety-inducing, and that hinders productivity and easy-learning.

So don't let the fear villain get to you. Instead, it’s better to approach the books with a curious mindset and tell yourself that you will fully immerse yourself in/and enjoy/ the process.

Good luck, and hopefully you’ll find some books that you love in this list!