[martienne]

Hard question to answer because it depends on how you quantify "fluent" and how you, as a reader deal with unfamiliar expressions and words that you come across while reading in a foreign language.

It also depends on your learning style and how fast you learn. Different people learn languages at different speeds and find certain aspects harder or easier - there are many aspects to language learning: Grammar, vocabulary, word order, expressions, pronununciation. Books do nothing for the latter, for example.

Lots of us here have a different mothertongue than English as you can probably guess from the Location field. We have at some point learnt English as a foreign language.

I'd say, if you got through and managed to enjoy reading about 15 books in a given foreign language, then you are probably fluent enough to be able to communicate with a native speaker without any major obstacles. How accurate your grammar and vocubular is, is another story.

Finally, French is one of the easiest languages that you, as a native English speaker could have chosen so you have every opportunity to reach your goal.
.