IELTS Cue Card Sample - Describe a book that had a major influence on you

Describe a book that had a major influence on you.

You should say:

what the name of the book is & who the author is
how you first heard of the book
what the main story of the book is

and explain why it played such an important role in your life.

[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you're going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

Part 3: Follow-up Questions:

How often do you read books?
How books can impact on a man's life?
Name some of the famous writers of your country?
Have you ever thought about writing a book?
How reading books is different from watching movies?

SAMPLE ANSWER
Whenever I get time, I try to read books and the ranges vary from profession related books, technical, religious, fiction, classic and contemporary books. The book I would like to describe is a novel called ‘Kane and Abel’ and is written by the famous British writer Jeffrey Archer. Sometimes I read book reviews on the internet and after reading 2/3 books by Jeffrey archer, I tried to get the list of all books by Jeffrey Archer. I found that most of the Jeffrey Archer fans have recommended the book ‘Kane & Abel’. Some people even commented that this is the best book ever written by the same author. I made my mind at this very moment to read this book. After one month or so, I bought the book from a bookstore and started reading it.

The book was first published in 1979 in the United Kingdom and in the USA in 1980. The book was the international success and reached No. 1 position on the New York Times best-selling book list. The storyline started with the birth of two infants named Kane and Abel in the year 1906. One of them was born to a life of prosperity and ease in the USA in a rich family while the other one to a world of hardship and struggle. On different sides of the Globes, they grew up: one shaped by a luxurious upbringing, fine schooling and history he read, the other one who lost his mother at the time of his birth and did not know who his father was, well tempered by war, slavery and history he was part of. The story telling of Jeffrey Archer is magical and enchanting. Most of his story simply mesmerises the readers and for Kane and Abel the attraction worked even more. Every page I turned tempted me to read further. Not for a single moment, I could have stopped thinking about the events and characters of the books and that had a major influence on me. The characters have their own charismatic powers and followed their own paths. One is gold, meritorious while the other one is steel and have forfeited the Dead himself. On their journey in life, they confront each other and became the ultimate adversary of each other. In their relentless battle, both men knew that there could be only one victor- and one vanquished.

Across three generations and around a rapidly changing world, their war rages unchecked, for the love of a dream, the loss of an empire, and the lure of a fortune. Kane became the owner of the largest bank in the USA while Abel came to the USA as a penniless emigrant after the World War I. With intelligence Kane started flourishing the banking business, while Abel made his fortune at last in Hotel business. The first time they confronted each other as a bank owner and a debtor. Though Kane wanted to help Abel regain his business by financing further, but could not do so because of the bank’s board members’ decision. After that, Abel considered Kane as his greatest enemy and sought to destroy Kane. As time passed both had to fight their own fates but the vendetta remained in their hearts. When both men finally grew older, their son and daughter fell in love and got married. They never agreed on the marriage because of their personal hatred of each other. Abel succeeded to buy the bank stocks of Kane’s Bank to hold the power to veto Kane. At the end of the story both confronted each other for the second and last time. After that Kane died and after his death, Abel learned that it was Kane who backed him financially to start his hotel business. The story was told like a magician and is a powerful portrait of a world and two men that a reader would never forget.

Tips for answering this cue card sample:

This cue card asks you to talk about a book you have read. You should pick a book that you know well. Let's say you have read a book which was very interesting but you have forgotten the name of the author or the publisher, you can't tell the story in an organised fashion, then you should not talk about that one. Rather pick a book which is interesting, you have read and you know the writer and story of the book. If you are not sure of such a book, think about one, google for the details of the book and remember the following information about the book:
1. Writer.
2. Publisher.
3. Publishing year.
4. Some other book names by the same author.
5. The story of the book.
6. Why the book was critically acclaimed.
7. Some characters of the book.

For the part why this book has a great influenced on you mention some of the following points:

1. The book was written by a writer who has a great way of telling a story.
2. The story is a page turner and you had a hard time keeping it away.
3. You have learned an important lesson from this book.
4. The characters of this book gave you a great impression.
5. Some of the trivia and facts about the book. etc.

Part 3: Details Discussion:

Q. How often do you read books?
Answer: Unfortunately, I don't read books very often. When I was younger my mom used to tell me stories from different books so this is the reason that I am aware of the fairytales. The only book I have read is 'Twilight' by Stephenie Meyer when I was 15 years old and the motivation to do that was the movie with the same name which was released in 2008. From another perspective, though, I read almost all of my books when I was at university but I was forced to do that. So I would come to the conclusion that, I don't read books in my free time but only when I have to.

Tip: You can either say that you don't or you do read books. If you are in the first category refer to the reasons why you don't do that. For example, you can say that you don't have time, many interesting books are expensive, you can't read online books because it's tiring and anything else comes to your mind.
If you are in the second category, just think of the kinds of books you have read and try to describe them in a few words. You can also include your university books.

Q. How books can impact on a man's life?
Answer: Books are good sources of knowledge and they actually enlighten us. Reading a book is a really good and helpful way whenever you are bored or stressed out. It is preferable to me reading a book than to surfing the internet. Going further, in this way people can develop their imagination and nurture their mind and thinking skills. Moreover, there is a possibility for someone to change their view about specific things such as religious issues, gender parity, culture and so on and become more open-minded by reading books. For instance, somebody who isn't romantic may change his opinion after reading a book with a romantic story or someone who is narrow-minded and biassed may change their attitude. Finally, it's a good and effective way to practice a foreign language and this is something I did before coming to England.

Q. Name some of the famous writers of your country?
Answer: Answer: One of the most famous English writers is JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series. Her books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, and were sold more than 400 million copies so far. John Milton whose poetry has been seen as the perfect poetic expression in the English language for four centuries is also from my country. Agatha Christie who is reputably known throughout the world as the "Queen of Crime" and Samuel Johnson who is known as 'arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history' are only some of the many meritorious English authors.

Tip: You can talk about a/few writer(s) of your own country who is successful and well-known even worldwide. They might be contemporary writers or might be from past centuries.

Q. Have you ever thought about writing a book?
Answer: To be honest I haven't. My writing skills aren't so good so if I had decided to do something like that it would have been a moderate work. In fact, I wouldn't want that because I am a perfectionist. In addition, my imagination isn't that vivid to create a story myself so I would jump to the conclusion that I am not the proper person for this activity. Besides, my favourite types of books are biographies so this is the only plot that I could have written. However, I prefer sharing my personal stories and experiences with my family and friends in verbal from than written form.

Tip: You can also give a semi-negative answer by saying that you haven't written a book but you would like to and give examples and your idea about the story. You can also say that you have thought about writing a book and refer to its content. Finally, you can say that you have written a book if so give details when you wrote it, what was the story and how you were inspired to write this book.

Q. How reading books is different from watching movies?
Answer: It is quite different indeed! While reading a book you can imagine the characters and the scenes you are reading about and adjust them to your desires.  Everyone makes an image about the main characters' outer appearance, inner traits and so on and personally when I read a book I have a specific actor or actress in my mind. So, I would say that books give someone the chance to make stories based on their personality.
Movies, on the other hand, have some standards. There is the visual element which is absent in books and it can be either good or bad because in some cases watching a movie is much better than reading a book but the opposite can happen as well. Personally, I have seen movies having read the books before and some of them weren't as good as I expected.