Ok, let me start off by saying I recognise the irony of posting in English when looking for French language books, but I’m sure even my French-impaired readers may be able to point me in the right direction.
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?
Si j’avais su..j’aurais donné quelques livres à JoLouis..As-tu reçu la collection de photos intactes??..xo
J’ai encore plusieurs La courte échelle..pour lire à Andrew ..le soir???
Hello,
I know your pain… It is difficult for me to buy English books in France.
Have you looked at Amazon.fr’s marketplace for used books? You can find some pretty good deals. For used books, there is also http://www.priceminister.com &
http://www.2xmoinscher.com
You have to bear in mind that in France, they often sell secon-hand books at obscene prices.
If you want a book recommendation, I strongly suggest Anna Gavalda “Ensemble C’est Tout”.
Hiya,
Just asked two French workmates and they both said Amazon.fr.
One also suggested http://www.fnac.fr, but both agreed that they didn’t know of anywhere in Cambridge for French “livres des poches”. (Whee look I remember how to speak French!)
I found a really good site called abebooks
http://www.abebooks.fr/
you can find practically anything there 🙂
You might consider bookmooch.com a global book-swap site whose strapline is ‘Give books away. Get books you want.’
Here’s a recent US article:
http://blog.bookmooch.com/2008/06/30/new-york-daily-news-story/
There are over 5000 French books listed, so maybe a few will interest you:
http://www.bookmooch.com/m/language/French
Ramsay: Very interesting, I’ll have a look. Book Mooch does almost exactly what I want as far as a points-based book exchange goes. Doesn’t look to have hit critical mass, so it’ll need to grow before it’s really valuable, but it’s great to see the system is in place.