Julie and Julia

I'm reading the book Julie and Julia. It started out as a blog. Julie Powell decided to cook every recipe in the book called Mastering the Art of French Cooking and then, as we are want to do, blog about it. The blog became popular and a publisher decided to go from the digital to the analog and voila (dig the French term) a book was published, bought, and then, to beat all, made into a movie.

I'm a bit jealous. Sort of. I've been blogging intermittently, off and on, for roughly five years or so. Probably closer to the "or so" than the "five years." And nary once have I been contacted by a publisher or a movie production company about the possiblity of making this blog into a book or, for that matter, a movie. Of course, I realize that if one goes through this blog (and trust me, not many people do) you will find a hodgepodge of poorly written, not very exciting, banal entries. A few flashes of brilliance here and there, but on the whole, probably not so much.

Why blog, I mean what's the point? I never really thought of myself as a cyber-narcissist. And I never really thought of my blog as a "bully pulpit," though, I have used it for that purpose from time to time. I call this, to sort of steal a phrase "my own slice of cyber-heaven." Its not even that. Its just a little stop on the great big cyber-highway. Barely a blip. Not even a one-horse town. I guess, in short it, and I hate this phrase, is what it is. Whatever this it "might be" I'm not too sure.

I've read one or two other books that started out as blogs and ended up on the bookshelf. One was by a female cabdriver in New York City. I can't remember the book's title, but it was a decent story. Had a few laughs and a cringe or two. Not a barn burner, but an entertaining read.

That brings me to Julie and Julia. Essentially the reason I picked up the book was this: I saw a trailer for the movie and though hmmm, that might be fun movie and since it is a book, I further thought let me read the book and see what the movie is about. I am currently on page 128 of said book and I am fighting the urge to either skim the rest or just put the book down. I'll do the best I can and continue reading it. Its not a bad book, but is just, I don't know, almost silly. Powell, the Julie of the story, as narrator can be a bit... allovertheplace. She loses focus and digresses and then suddenly reverses course and goes back to her original point. If I'm lucky, it lasts a paragraph or two, if I'm not it goes on for a pager or more. These "digressions" are, I think, supposed to be "backstory," but they don't always work.

It is nice in this regard: I don't have to think about it too much. Its not that deep, its almost shallow, but not in bad way. I don't have to worry about solving for Pi which is actually a good thing because I don't solve for pi. I don't even eat pie, not a big fan.

So, I'm not bitter or angry about my lack of bookdeal and movie deal. Really, I'm not. I promise.