french books.. (intermediate)

[nicK]

hey all,
i've been reading this board for a while now, and as i've got a month off before college starts back up again, i'd like to improve my french by reading some french books..

i've done leaving cert french but am starting to forget a lot of it and beginning to loose confidence when speaking it..
by reading this board alone, i find that i'm picking up most of that stuff again (the everyday verbs and sentences that are coming up quite a lot)
but need to find a consistent form of taking it in

anyway, could ye recommend any good french novels/plays, that are preferrably funny and not too advanced.. (i read 'the little prince' before the leaving cert and helped immensely believe it or not)

also, watchin' some good subtitled french movies might help.. suggestions? (seen amelie)

cheers

Calina

[nicK] wrote:

hey all,
i've been reading this board for a while now, and as i've got a month off before college starts back up again, i'd like to improve my french by reading some french books..

i've done leaving cert french but am starting to forget a lot of it and beginning to loose confidence when speaking it..
by reading this board alone, i find that i'm picking up most of that stuff again (the everyday verbs and sentences that are coming up quite a lot)
but need to find a consistent form of taking it in

anyway, could ye recommend any good french novels/plays, that are preferrably funny and not too advanced.. (i read 'the little prince' before the leaving cert and helped immensely believe it or not)

also, watchin' some good subtitled french movies might help.. suggestions? (seen amelie)

cheers

Hi Nick,

I guess others can suggest stuff, but in terms of where you can start:

The first two Taxi films by Luc Besson are, or at least, have been available in HMV dirt cheap. I quite enjoyed the first one, never watched the second one the whole way through.

I don't know what you like - prior to Amelie, the absolute classics were Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources and they should also be in HMV or your local Extravision.

In terms of books - kids books are probably a way to go but they're not always the easiest to come by. Again Luc Besson has a handful out and I've read the first of them which I found to be pretty accessible. There are also children's editions available of (my absolute favourite) Le Comte de Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and all the Jules Verne books. I don't see any point in recommending books you wouldn't like and humour can be the hardest to understand. If you give me an idea of what you read in English it might be easier to identify books in French for you.

If you're going to order on line, the postage on amazon.fr is less than it is with fnac.com.

GallicProphet

Je veux pas te vexer, mais a mon avis si tu veux faire des progres rapidement, pratiques, ecris en Francais !

Sans rancune aucune

penexpers

Je suis d'accord avec GallicProphet

Pour les films, les deux (trois?) films dans la serie Taxi sont pas mal. J'aime bien aussi Le Diner de Cons, Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles, Auberge Espagnole (mais ils parlent beaucoup d'espagnole et d'anglais dans ce film), La Haine, Trois Coluers Bleu/Blanc/Rogue et Delicatessin. Bref, il y en a plusiers. J'ai commande Etre et Avoir il y a une semaine et je l'attends avec impatience!

GallicProphet

Je sais pas si c'est trop franco-francais, mais j' etais mort de rire en regardant "Les trois freres" par "Les Inconnus", trop Marrant.