I’m interested in teaching myself Latin this summer. Can anyone reccommend a good book? I have a good understanding of French, so I think that acquiring a rudimentary comprehension of Latin would not be too difficult.
What do most beginning students read? Caesar’s accounts of his campaigns? Dunno. Ovid? Too hard probably. I’d really appreciate any suggestions.
Chickenhead
A classic book is Wheelock’s Latin, ISBN 0-06-467179-8. This book frequently used in beginning college Latin classes, but could easily be used to self-teach, if you’re familiar with grammar in general. You might also try Teach Yourself Latin (ISBN 0-8442-3811-2), a very complete book, although a little terse. Latin Made Simple (ISBN 0-385-41339-4) is probably the easiest to find in a bookstore. Latin for People (ISBN 0-316-38149-7) is a good non-rigorous intro to latin grammar.
There are a lot of on-line latin resources, including a companion to Wheelock’s.
The easiest text to start with is the latin Vulgate Bible- it was written to be easily read, and makes for a good intro text. The latin is available online, and an English translation is pretty easy to find 
Caesar is probably the next easiest.
Arjuna34
Wheelock’s is a good text (it’s how I learned), but a little dry, and short on interesting excerpts to practice on. Here are some supplementary texts that shouldn’t be too hard for a beginning student.
Reading Latin (text), published by Cambridge University Press. Starts with adapted passages from Plautus’ plays (very Dick-and-Jane stuff – you should be able to jump right in), and moves on to unadapted stuff from authors like Cicero and Catullus.
The Vulgate Bible. Very easy to read, especially since you already have a pretty good idea of what it says.
Winnie Ille Pu, by A. A. Milne (translated by Alexander Lenard). OK, so it isn’t exactly a canonical classical text, but it’s a trip.
Selections from the Satyricon by Petronius, publised by Bolchazy-Carducci. A very user-friendly edition with tons of notes and glosses … and it also happens to be one of the funniest Roman texts in existence. (The same publishers also have an edition of Plautus’ Menaechmi along the same lines, which I imagine is probably also worth checking out.)
Wheelock’s Latin Grammar is good enough a primer for anybody. Dry? I never thought so. Sure, you could get one of those baby primers like Ecce Romani – short on grammar, but long on cutesy potted stories.
In each shapter of Wheelock, you get Sententiae Antiquae – the actual sentiments of the ancients, dumbed down for the student’s knowledge in each chapter. An asterisk is given for each sentence that is the exact words of its author. Gradually, the student gets a feel for the type of stuff each author represented writes. It also includes snippets of poetry and prose. It includes an appendix for potted versions of longer ancient writings, and a section of unpotted writings for the advanced student.
Of course, the hard part of learning Latin isn’t poring over ancient writing. That’s the fun part. The hard part is putting those paradigms in you head. It takes many hours of drilling so that you will recognize the form when you see it.
OK, I guess “dry” is the wrong word, but it used to drive me nuts that Professor Wheelock thought we needed to know how to say “The tyrant having been killed by his officers, we enjoy the fruits of peace and liberty in this land” – but not “I’m eating fruit.” The vocabulary lists show a definite bias toward war and politics, and away from sex, mythology, and everyday life. Anyway, I figure it never hurts to have a supplementary text or two, just so that you can get a broader sense of vocabulary and style.
Fretful Porpentine wrote:
Actually, I consider this an advantage. When one is studing a living language, one is bogged down in light fluff, such as “Where is this bus going?” But if you study an ancient language, you get stuff like, “He certainly denied himself ever to have oppressed free men.” Fact is, if you’re going to be reading Latin, you’re mostly going to be reading this kind of stuff.
But there is no particular dearth of fun reading in Wheelock.
From Martial, he gives us humor:
“Why do I not send you my book, Ponty? So that you will not send me yours.”
“Thais has black teeth, Laecania has white ones. Why so? Laecania has store-bought teeth, Thais has her own.”
From Catullus we have love and sex:
“Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love.”
“Give me a thousand kisses, and then a hundred, then another thousand.”
“Bitch, to hell with you!”
“Sparrow, delight of my girl…”
Mythology? How about Virgil:
“Do not fear, Venus: the fate of your people has not changed. Carthage will not be kings of all races; I declare the reign of Rome to be without end.”
“The night and day, Pluto’s gate lies open.”
Sure, there’s a lot of Cicero. But he can be fun too. Note his account of the meeting of the Greek and the Spartan at the battle of Thermopolae:
Greek: “The sky, because of the number of our arrows, you will not be able to see.”
Spartan: “We shall fight, therefore, in the shade.”