well I have graduated and I am now back in brussels and am starting to wonder what the hell I could do with my life. For the first time in my life I don't have somewhere I have to be after the summer holidays. In a way they are no longer holidays as such but just a segment of time in which I have no plans as yet. If I want to stay near sanity I will have to find something to occupy myself with. Sadly suicidegirls will not be enough on its own! 
i've been home for a day and already I am feeling cabin fever. its terrible. I'll just have to get used to it I suppose.
i've been home for a day and already I am feeling cabin fever. its terrible. I'll just have to get used to it I suppose.
I'm not sure that Le Comte de Monte-Cristo is the best choice for a very first reading in french. Not that the story is not enjoyable: but it's a really long book, the writing has lots of repetitions (having been first published as a feuilleton paid, like, two centimes a line) and full of outmoded mannerisms that would need explanations....
What sort of french book could I recomment to a person with the tastes you mentioned in your "favorite books" line?...I'm afraid there's not a such thing as a french Terry Pratchett! What other book could I tell you of? While giving an eye to the shelves near my computer I'm doing an alarming finding: there are lots and lots of books translated from various foreign languages, a dozen english-written books... and very few french books, especially contemporary french books! Shame on me! A notable exception: in a corner are some books by Amelie Nothomb, I enjoyed a lot... perhaps should I mention "Stupeur et Tremblements", the one I've read most recently.
Kipling said 100 years ago "if you want to teach french to an English boy, give him a french edition of a book by Jules Verne and he will manage to understand it!" (i'm quoting de mmoire and maybe faultily...).... maybe 100 years after the advice is yet valid! For the same reason as above, I would not recommend one of the most massive novels (20 000 leagues under the sea, etc..) but some Verne books are kind of short and humorous, with a touch of nonsense: such as La Chasse au Mtore or Le Docteur Ox. Not the most frequently reprinted ones; however, as you stay in Bruxelles it should be possible, if not easy, to find them in paperback editions.
Writing about this reminds me of something I read some days ago in a newspaper: on France's most recent top 10 bestselling list is the newest Harry Potter! I mean the Order of the Phoenix, that's not already translated in french! It validates, posthumously, Kipling's advice: today's french kids can't wait for3 months before reading a new Harry Potter book, they prefer spend their summer learning english!
I don't know if my advice is worth reading... at least I didn't procrastinate answering to you!