Socolata wrote:Babelio can be useful. It looks like GoodReads I think, but it's in French. Personally, I use it like a reminder, but tags (étiquettes) and recommendations (Vous aimez ce livre ? Babelio vous suggère...) may be useful. You can also check the rating.
SensCritique is an another site of the same kind.
I watch only one French Booktuber,
HajarRead. She reads lots of interesting books.
I see you talk about Émile Zola and les Rougon-Macquart, I just share a link:
Au bonheur des dames, "livre enrichi" ("enriched book" ?) by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF), with audio, transcripts, etc.
Thank you for all the recommendations Socolata! The BNF link for
Au bonheur des dames is awesome, I think it will really help me with the book. I've only looked through the first few pages, but it seems to give a lot of extra information, there are pictures of what the places looked like back then etc...they also did another livre enrichi,
Voltaire's Candide. I also watched some of HajarRead's videos, she is really good. I saw you posted in the French resources thread as well, thanks for those recommendations, too!
Reading: I've started to read Germinal because it's the book I had heard most about (and the one I found at the library). Au bonheur des dames has moved higher up on the list, it is now in the top 5 together with L'Assommoir, Le Ventre de Paris, La Bête humaine and Nana. The first chapter of Germinal was really hard because it describes the mine and all the different jobs people do around there; like
les haveurs, les chargeurs, les moulineurs, les herscheuses, les galibots.... I still don't understand what some of them actually do and I won't put those words into anki either. The second chapter seems much easier though, but I'm starting to dislike Étienne.
Test preparation: I had two more DELF/DALF preparation sessions via italki. My tutor (who is a certified DELF/DALF examiner according to his profile) had me do the writing/speaking part for B2 and C1 respectively, and said I could pass both if I took them today. I'm beginning to question my understanding of the CEFR scale. The grading seems to leave a lot more leeway for minor mistakes than I thought. During the writing part of the C1 exam you also have the advantage of having three excerpts to base your writing on, which in my view makes it much easier than the B2 one where you have to come up with the entire thing yourself. Anyway, it's just label after all, and I still find it motivating enough to stick to my plans for November. Taking the test itself will not have any miraculous effect on my language level, but the preparation might add up to something. At the moment, scheduling tutoring sessions is the only thing that motivates me enough to write more serious texts.
Watching/Listening: It's
la rentrée, so a lot of podcasts are finally adding new episodes! I've been trying to combine podcasts with sport/workouts, with very mixed success so far. My headphones are really bad, they seem to have little holes where the wind blows through when I use them while running or cycling. The first episode of La Trêve on Netflix was very promising, and I realized that Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries have French dubbing. I'll have to wait for the weekend to watch a couple of episodes.
Grammar: I can't bring myself to open a grammar book right now. I solemnly vow that I will review at least one grammar point within the next 7 days.
Vocabulary: Still chugging along, at a reduced speed of 15 words per day so I don't run out of words before I can motivate myself enough to add new ones. I could do better.