h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was reading Proust, finding it very easy and entertaining. I couldn't understand why people say it is heavy reading and full of long sentences; the ones in my book were of regular length.

Admit it: you cut the book in two (vertically).

Maybe there is a hidden meaning if you read only one vertical half?

A bit in the spirit of the letter of George Sand to Chopin:
http://opus100.free.fr/fr/GSand.html
(It's in French again But I'm sure there are plenty of similar examples in German or English. I'll have a look.)

Lovely love letter - but long sentences.

Have you tried reading only the odd lines? This shortens the sentences

Did she intend the letter to be read like that?

It seems to have been some hoax by a guy from the late 19th Century. But it's nice anyway

Yes, it's very nice - and very clever.

Reading neither the odd lines nor the even lines makes sense to me..

J'ai aviez faire votre désirez montrez mon....(?)

Je suis heureuse de vous dire que bien compris l'autre jour que vous toujours une folle ... ????

Reading the whole thing, it sounds so odd that such intimate things are being said using "vous".

On a similar note - Toybox, Monsieur, can you recommend some contemporary French literature (or just books, even!) to read, please. My husband has loads on his shelf, but only the high-faluting stuff.

Ha! the have dropped!

Je suis heureuse de vous dire que j'ai toujours une folle envie....

Silly me!

Oh. Now I've deciphered it, it's very

The 'vous' was quite common in those days, even for good friends. Even until a few decades ago, I'd say

What sort of books does he like, and how contemporary should they be? (It shames me that I know very little recent French literature ). For detective stories, I can only recommend Fred Vargas's Commissaire Adamsberg series. I am personally a great fan of Jacques Roubaud, but he is niche jedermann's Sache. For other authors, I will have to think a little.

Niche? Nicht!

Hey - I'm not asking for him - I'm asking for myself! I like lots of things and have read everything he's recommended to me. Mostly classics, of course. Your suggestions are just about right, actually. Detective novels is a good idea - the sort of thing we take on holiday and both read. (Which means I end up reading Alistair McClean, Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler and Dan Brown in German. Things like Elizabeth George and Ruth Rendell I read in English because they're too genteel for him.)

So, - well, it's the light stuff I'm after. Partly to keep up a contemporary vocabulary, but mainly for entertainment. off to Amazon.fr and fnac.

OK, here we go with a few random names. You can have always take a look at the French w*kipedia for more information.

Didier Daeninckx - he writes 'romans noirs', with a flavour of recent French history. I read a few books by him and quite liked them.

Daniel Pennac - I read his Malaussene series, which are very entertaining indeed (the first one is 'Au Bonheur des Ogres' if you want). These are very eventful more or less detective stories (again!), and take place in the Belleville district of Paris.

Jean-Christophe Grangé - the one who wrote 'Les Rivières Pourpres'. According to Wikipedia, he is into 'Thrillers mit Gänsehautfaktor'.

Amélie Nothomb - controversial author, she writes weird books . Some of these are inspired by her childhood memories of moving around (her father was a diplomat in Japan, China, United States, South-eastern Asia).

Daniel Picouly - I remember reading and enjoying 'Le Champ de Personne', the story of his childhood in a Parisian suburb in a thirteen-children family.

Martin Winckler - writer, doctor and TV series enthusiast. Most of his fictions have some medical background, whether describing the life of a village doctor ('La maladie de Sachs'), or a critical look at medical teaching ('Les trois medecins', whose structure is inspired by 'the three musketeers'), or a few detective stories. He wrote tales for children too, but I don't think they involve doctors (on the other hand, you never know ). His essays are quite recommended too - 'Odyssée, une chronique radiophonique' is based on a daily 5-minutes radio broadcast I used to listen to, which I enjoyed a lot.
http://martinwinckler.com/
http://martinwinckler.com/article.php3?id_article=18

(I keep thinking I ought to write an Entry about the guy, too)

Bernard Werber - author of the bestselling Les Fourmis trilogy I read one but was moderately impressed, while many people are very enthusiastic. Maybe I just read it at a wrong time.

Jean Vautrin - Here I never read anything of him, but my family has and it seems to be quite recommended. I know of 'Les Aventures de Boro, reporter-photographe' with Dan Franck, and 'Le Cri du Peuple', a fiction taking place during the Paris Commune, between the 17th March 1871 and the Semaine Sanglante (Bloody Week).

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If you like comics, I notice that 'Le Cri du Peuple', a few stories of Daeninckx and Pennac were adapted by Jacques Tardi.