Saturday, September 12, 2009

Julia and Julie

I'm reading Julie and Julia. Right now I'm 63% of the way through it. You can always tell a Kindle reader, as we can only speak in percentages, not page numbers. OK, so I'm reading the book. I like about half of what is written. I read the reviews on Amazon before I downloaded the book.  It was nearly an equal split of love and hate.  I really wanted to see the movie, so decided to buy the book even though I had a funny feeling that I was going to agree with the people who disliked the book.  All of the problems that people talked about on Amazon, I'm finding to be true. I'm actually thinking about not finishing the book.

Here's the deal - usually if I start a book I read it as long into the night as I can. I can't go to sleep without reading a chapter or two.  I even steal away during the day to read a few pages. I'd do just about anything to finish the book. I usually finish my books in three days, or less if I forgo all forms of other entertainment.  I've had this book for about a month now and I've been reading it for three weeks. I want to see the movie, though as I'm dying to see Meryl Streep as Julia and I've heard that so many people enjoyed the movie. Three weeks, though, is nearly an eterity to still be reading the same book.

On Thursday night I decided to do something totally radical and go to the movies.  We have a movie theater called Tinseltown right across the street from where I live & earlier in the day I drove by to see if the movie was still in that theater.   I went to the movies with my mother in Gulf Shores two weeks ago and that was the first time I've been to a movie theater since probably 2004. Two movies in two weeks, do I dare??
I still can't believe that I live less than a block from a nice theater and I'd never been.

My husband was out of town and I was afraid that the movie was going to leave the theater before I finally got a chance to see it. So I went!  All by myself, too. 

I'm so glad I decided to go.  I really enjoyed it.  I loved the Julia Child part of the story best.  It could have been only about Julia and her husband Paul (who was played by Stanly Tucci) I would have been very happy.  I think I figured out why I'm not enjoying the book and that's because the book is 99% about Julie and only 1% Julia.  The movie was 50/50 and so very enjoyable.  I'm going to have to get the book "My Life in France" by Julia Child, I can see that now.

Stanley Tucci in Julie and Julia

I'm going to finish the book, I can see that now, and I'm going to read a little bit more about Julia Child, something I probably would have never done if not for this movie. Even though I didn't care much for the book and I wasn't in love with the Julie person - I did love that the book came from a blog and that Julie was a blogger before blogging was so very cool.

 Have you seen the movie?  Read the book?  What did you think?
Leave a comment and let me know.

Have a great day!
Kristin

7 comments:

Juidith Bridger said...

I saw the movie and listened to "My Life in France", the book on tape (well CD). I loved that book and it made the movie even better as it gave so much more depth to how she came to write the cook book in the first place.

I enjoyed them both very much. lm

Matty said...

I always prefer to read the book before seeing the movie about it. Not sure why though.

jb said...

I took myself to see the film, loved the Julia parts, not so crazy about Julie. I looked at the book at B&N, but decided that I wasn't interested enough in Julie's life to buy it!
I am going to read "My life in France", as the love story of Paul and Julia really make my heart sing.
Sorry Julie, I am glad you blogged about cooking, but it is Julia that I want to know!

JennyMac said...

LOVED the book. Julie Powell is so sassy. I also read it on my Kindle and cracked up about your reference to percentages.

I read My Life in France and found it very interesting.

Cant wait to see the movie although I have heard mixed reviews.

country girl said...

I saw the movie and would happily go again. Meryl Streep is totally amazing. My husband discovered that we have her first two cookbooks courtesy of his late wife's cookbook collection. They read almost like a novel. My favorite word so far is "splutter." It's how you tell that a roasting chicken is done cooking. If it splutters.

Judith Bridger said...

I want to say again that I highly recommend hearing My Life in France read by who ever did it. Wonderful French accent which gave the whole thing so much flair since the book contains so many French phrases. I rented it from Cracker Barrel on my trip down the Natches Trace.

carla said...

It looks like I'm going to be the only one commenting here who didn't like the movie. I thought it had so much potential, but Nora Ephron's politic snarking left me cold. A shame, really.