If you have not figured it out by now I need to tell you I LOVE to READ!! This year (2010) we made it a goal to each read 20 books. I have been reading and enjoying it but I need to pick up the pace if I am going to get 20 in before 2011! Right now I am trying to finish books number six and seven.
My first book of the year was Julie Powell’s Julie & Julia which I found while roaming around WalMart at Christmas time. I had recently seen the movie based on the book and thought it would be a story I would like to read. It is possible that it should have stayed on the shelf at WalMart, which I will explain soon. I just loved the movie, you can see my earlier post about it if you like. Almost from the first page I discovered maybe the movie is better than the book… “It had been happening for a couple of years now, ever since I’d sold some of my eggs (ovarian eggs) for $7,500 in order to pay off credit card debt.” I was thinking “what did I just read? I don’t know that I am comfortable with that!” And that was only the beginning!
Julie is harsh in her language to say it nicely, OK she cusses throughout the book and I did not enjoy that! Julie is very different than myself in not only life experiences but values and core convictions. So after a chapter or two I questioned if I should just stop reading and choose another book. The movie portrays Julie more in the light of a sweet young girl trying to make something of herself instead of the book which reveals a character who is brash, sarcastic, and able to see sexual innuendos in everything, especially cooking. Two things compelled me to continue 1. I hate to not finish something and 2. Maybe this would be a good experience in seeing what women’s lives are like who are very different than me. So I continued on, although I will admit I learned to race my eyes over all the curse words and at one point I took a week or two break from reading.
There were a few things I liked about the book. Reading it gave me a desire to try cooking new things. I enjoy cooking and this just spurred me on. I decided to give Julia Child’s Potage Parmentier a try and yes it was simple and delicious, as described. I enjoyed reading about blogging, which I am found of doing myself! I loved the way Julie set a goal and then worked like crazy to accomplish it, never giving up till it was complete. I loved reading about a young woman wanting more from her life and striving to get it. I appreciated seeing a glimpse into lives that are lived by convictions very different than my own. I found it very eye opening!
From time to time Julie starts to reveal her own spiritual views “I have never looked to religion for comfort-belief is just not in my genes. But reading Mastering the Art of French Cooking-childishly simple and dauntingly complex, incantatory and comforting- I thought this was what prayer must feel like. Sustenance bound up with anticipation and want. Reading MtAoFC was like reading pornographic Bible verses.” (pg 15) Interesting! I wonder if she has ever read Song of Solomon, it might be shocking to her! Song of Solomon is not pornographic but it is not PG either. Julie refers to a woman at work who wears a What Would Jesus Do bracelet as a “loon”, directly implied because she wears the bracelet. I have never worn one of the bracelets, but I have read the book which this was inspired by and at times live by the principle; and I must say it is rather helpful and convicting at the same time. I don’t think that makes me a loon. Near the end of the book she compares Buffy the Vampire slayer to the Bible. After a description of the Buffy story line (teen vampire slayer and only one who can save the world) she writes, “In all this is not so unlike the Bible, except with stunt doubles and better jokes. Those of you who are offended by this can take some comfort in knowing that I am far from the first person to have made this observation. Also like the Bible, Buffy got a little bloated and Revelations-y toward the end…you don’t skip out of Revelations, no matter how kind of weird and lame it is. Or maybe you do. But not the last episode of Buffy.” (pg 248-9) I don’t find this offensive, the Bible is an amazing true narrative and many story-lines have mirrored it’s genius! The Lord is the perfect story weaver and amazingly His is reality!
Overall, I am glad I read through Julie & Julia, but I would not go so far as to recommend it. If you read it and I know that you know that I read it…well I just might blush and try to deny it all.
