Describe a book that you enjoyed reading

The cue card

Describe a book that you enjoyed reading. You should say:

• what the book was
• when you read it
• what it was about
• and explain why you enjoyed it

You have 1 minute to prepare and should speak for 1 to 2 minutes.

🎙 Practise this card with the examiner

Notes you could make in 1 minute

Write key words only, one line per bullet point:

• a novel about a migrant family
• last year, on the train
• three generations
• felt like my story

Band 7+ sample answer

The book I'd like to talk about is a novel I read last year about a family who moved from Vietnam to Melbourne in the nineteen-eighties. A colleague lent it to me, and I mainly read it on the train on my way to work, which meant I missed my stop more than once because I was so absorbed in it.

The story follows three generations of the same family: the grandmother, who never really learns English, her son, who runs a small bakery, and his daughter, who grows up feeling caught between two cultures. Each chapter is told from a different person's point of view, so you see the same events in completely different ways.

What I enjoyed most was how honest it was. It didn't pretend that moving to a new country is easy. There's a lot about loneliness, misunderstandings and money worries, but there's also a lot of humour, especially in the scenes in the bakery.

I think the main reason it stayed with me is that I could really identify with the daughter. Like her, I sometimes feel that I'm one person at home and another person at work. Reading about someone else going through the same thing was strangely comforting. It's a real page-turner, but it also made me think about my own family, and I actually called my mum after I finished it.

🔊 Listen to the sample answer

About 229 words, or roughly 2 minutes at a natural speaking pace.

Useful vocabulary for this topic

• a page-turner
• to be gripped by
• to identify with a character
• thought-provoking
• the plot unfolds
• I couldn't put it down

Why this answer works: it covers every bullet point, tells a short story with specific details (names, places, numbers), uses a range of tenses, and finishes with the "explain" point, which is where you show your best vocabulary.

Follow-up and Part 3 questions

Examiner's follow-up (Part 2): Would you recommend it to your friends?

Part 3 discussion questions:

• Do people read less than they used to?
• What are the benefits of reading for children?
• Will printed books disappear in the future?
• Should schools let students choose what they read?

Answer Part 3 questions in 3–4 sentences: your view, a reason, an example, and the other side.

More cue cards

• Describe a place you would like to visit in the future
• Describe a memorable journey you have made
• All 30 IELTS cue cards