I’m looking for sources of French language books; novels, easy reads, fun fiction, non-work-related reading material. Either in a brick and mortar shop in the Cambridge area (bonus points if it’s a second hand shop), online (I know of Amazon.fr but for novels, I’m hoping to pay a bit less than full price) or even in libraries.

Most of my work/marketing-related reading will remain in English because terminology in French tends to distract me, either because it’s horribly translated or just amusing terminology. So I’m looking for enjoyable holiday reading more than anything, which is why I’m looking for cheap and cheerful prices.

Anyone has any recommendations of shops, online or offline?

What I remember:
1. It’s a UK-based site
2. It requires a free registration to be able to properly swap with other users
3. It was launched approx 4 months ago
4. I found it via a news source, but BBC isn’t yielding any results.

Is anyone able to help with figuring out the name and URL of the site? I’ll give you a cookie* if you find it! Pleaaaase, my memory’s terrible!

* Will give cookie recipe for you to make your own

I had to read this headline twice before I believed it: A car crashed into the top floor of a house after hitting the kerb and went flying up in the air! Now, if that doesn’t make you feel unsafe in your own home, I don’t know what will!

They need those pillars that can stop any car, just like in Extreme Makeover: Home Edition… but they might need to rise up to the first floor to stop flying BMWs!

… And Black Humour

The new Nick Hornby book, A Long Way Down, “attempts to bring humour and optimism to the subject of suicide.” The story was inspired by Beachy Head, an English location notorious for being a suicide spot. Hornby stresses that the book tackles suicide in a serious way, but finds humour in the situations his characters are put in.

Penguin’s blurb describes it as follows: “Funny, sad and deeply moving, Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down is a novel that asks some of the big questions: about life and death, strangers and friendship, love and pain, and whether a group of losers, and pizza, can really see you through a long, dark night of the soul.”

I can already recognize Hornby’s old humour that Hugh Grant brought to life in About A Boy a few years ago, so I’ll most likely read this one. Most likely holiday reading, a tough topic lightened by a bit of dark humour.

Can’t blog. Too busy. Must go back to book…

Seriously, this is a fantastic reading! Especially thinking about Audrey Tautou as Sophie… mmm! Back to reading!!