French
I'm still on week 8 of Hugo French, because I am not putting very much time into it per day. However, I have been putting most example sentences and exercises into Anki, so what I am learning is sticking much better than before.
Today I finished Les Récrés du Petit Nicolas, another enjoyable book in the series. It's the fourth book in the series I've read, but was actually the second one to be published (back in 1961).
I have followed smallwhite's lead in cheering PM on as he prepares for his B2 French exam in May. As I wrote in his log:
jeffers wrote:Course: I will make every effort to finish Hugo French in 3 Months by the the end of May.
Listening: I will continue with regular listening to Au coeur de l'histoire
Reading: I will read one of the novels I bought for Kindle back in 2014 for the last super challenge but never even looked into. Either Un sac de billes by Joseph Joffo or Un aller simple by Didier Van Cauwelaert. I'll probably read the first few pages of each and make a decision.
I read a few pages of Un sac de billes this morning, and I'll just go ahead and read that one first. I will try to finish the Hugo course and Un sac de billes by the 18th of May.
Thinking about books I bought for the previous Super Challenge has made me realize I need to take stock of what I have. So here is my list of shame, all the books in French I have bought but haven't read yet:
Paperback readers with CD
Le Comte de Monte-Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (CLE facile version)
Cinq semaines en ballon by Jules Verne (CLE facile version)
La guerre des boutons by Louis Pergaud (CLE facile version)
La tête d'un homme by Georges Simenon (LFF facile version (B2)) -- I've listened to this audiobook many times, but not read it.
Maigret tend un piège by Simenon (LFF facile version (B2))-- I've listened a few times, but not read it.
Une erreur de Maigret and La vieille dame de Bayeux (Hueber Hörbuch edition)
Paperbacks
Menace sur la finale de foot (a book for 10 year olds I bought when I was in France 5 years ago)
Nouvelles contemporaines (three short stories by three French authors)
Le Temps des Villages by Azouz Begag. This is in a book with two of his short stories, the first of which I read a while ago, and enjoyed, but the book has gotten further and further back in my queue of books.
L'étranger by Albert Camus. Has long been on my hitlist, but I realized a while back that I don't want to read or listen to this until I am good and ready. I also have the audiobook.
Les contes rouges du chat perché by Marcel Aymé. A "folio junior" book which I found in a used bookstore for a pound.
Kindle books
I prefer to read French books on my Kindle because of the quick access to the dictionary, and easy portability of dozens of books. The problem is, it's easy to buy books on Kindle and forget you have them!
Un sac de billes by Joseph Joffo. My current read. The autobiography of a Jewish boy who travels across France with a friend to escape the Nazi occupation.
Un aller simple by Didier van Cauwelaert. Considered a modern classic.
Les Maquisards by Hemley Boum. I got this because the culture commentator on 7 jours sur la planète said it was the best novel he'd read in ten years.
Les nouvelles enquêtes de Maigret by Georges Simenon. A collection of 5 Maigret stories totalling 624 pages. I thought this would be great for the Super Challenge, but I'll read it once I've read my Maigret readers mentioned above.
La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle. I read about 40% of it and got bored (having read it in English a few years before).
Les grandes dates de l'Histoire de France Pour Les Nuls French history in 71 pages, and free on Kindle.
Learn French with Stories by Frédéric Bibard. Of all the dozens of self-published French readers readers there are out there, this one looked the best, and you can download the audio for free. The audio even has a slow and a fast version. I've listened to the audio twice, and it's not too bad for beginner stories, so I'll probably read this next.
50 Micronouvelles As the title suggests, 50 stories by 50 authors, comprising about two pages per story. An interesting concept, and free on Kindle.
Coin coin le vilain petit canard Ten short stories, free on Kindle.
Un pastis sinon rien: Les enquêtes de Ruben Quinquet by Charly Green. Another Kindle freebie, but Amazon doesn't seem to sell it anymore.
Le Fantôme de Pont-Saint-Rémy by Patrick Llewellyn. I got it for free, but now it's £1.55.
Le mystère de la chambre jaune by Gaston Leroux. Another Kindle freebie.
Chalk, épisode 1: Enfin lâche ! by Freddy Woets. Free on Kindle.
Si... d'aventure ! (Polar Live t. 1) by Phil Marso. Free.
Histoires à lire dans le métro - extrait (Pause-nouvelle) Very short stories by various authors. Free extract (27 pages). If I ever read it and enjoy it I'll look into buying the rest.
J'accuse by Émile Zola. A classic, and free on Kindle.
Le pléonasme cent répétitions (Collection "les Cent") Dunno... it was free.
I also bought about 15 romance novels, again for free on Kindle, back in 2014. They were offering a lot of books which seem to be the first in a series for free. I haven't looked inside any of them, but as they were free I thought, "What the hell", and bought all the ones I could find. There was some discussion during that Super Challenge about romance novels being easy to read. Now I have so many other things to read, I'll probably not touch them.
That list was a lot bigger than I expected. Now I need to make a plan for how I'm going to approach this pile of books. My general strategy is going to be to alternate between something more difficult (i.e. made for natives) and something more easy (i.e. made for learners). For starters I've just started reading Un sac de billes. After that I will read one of the reader + CD books, because I really want to finally make use of these sooner rather than later. I'll make another post later, picking out my top books for the next few months.