Yes, I agree with Sonia. Reading books does help, a lot!

Try starting with easier books, like the books for teenagers and magazines about your favorite topics. The pictures in these magazines will assist you in understanding the text. You will already know some of the words, so just look up a couple of difficult words in the article that you are reading. This will help you get the meaning of the passage. It is ok to ignore the other words, for now, you do not have to look up every single word.

Unfortunately, you will have to spend time actively learning the language if you hope to make significant progress. You will make more headway spending a little time each day, even 15-20 minutes, learning English than spending a lot of time for example 1-3 hours once a week.

I hope this was helpful.

I was having a conversation with a language companion. I need to describe a garden hose. I didn't know the word for a "hose" in Spanish. I struggled. I said (in Spanish) "like a pipe, but soft and made of rubber or plastic." She said, "Oh, that's a 'manguera.'" I'll remember that forever.

To learn a word, there is nothing better than needing to use the word.

Books - plural

Могу пояснить за этот конкретеый случай так: ну вот если ты про именно эти определенные книги, у которых есть название и которые известны нам заранее уже, мы, читатели, понимаем о чем речь, то тогда можно оставить the, но если речь о книгах вообще, но нафиг забудь об артикле с сущ. во мн.ч.