Julie and Julia - 2 books, what's the difference?

Hi,
Was ordering myself a copy of "Julie and Julia : 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen" from Amazon and discovered that there was another, similar title in the "buy together" suggestion box: "Julie and Julia : My Year of Cooking Dangerously." The two books look incredibly similar and I'm not sure whether or not to get one, the other, or both. Has anyone read both of them? Are they different, complimentary, or redundant?

Thanks,
Annab

[Kuisine]

Thanks for posting about this - I've been reading through the back entries of the blog and enjoying those a bunch. Can't comment on the book since I didn't buy it.

Kathy/Kuisine (formerly KathySK)

[Eat Very Well]

The book was terrible. Another media darling... she really doesn't have a lot of substance and I know many more folks that have and can do a better job in a NYC/no money cooking situation... it is a novelty really... cook 365 out of the book... you get my picture...

I read the book and enjoyed it very much. I was, however, a big fan of the blog and I found that the book was somewhat tamer, less raw than the blog and therefore less enjoyable. I would love it if the blog entries were published as a book. I think some of the appeal of the blog was that the entries were written very quickly, apparently hwen Julie was very tired from all that cooking. The resulting spontaniety and immediacy were exciting and interesting.

That was pretty exactly my reaction. However the blog (still up, last I looked) demands a lot more time than the book. If you get the book I recommend the audio version. It's abridged, but so slightly I didn't notice.

And yes, the new subtitle is the paperback. They've chickied up the cover, too.

I just checked it out and it looks to me that the 2nd book is just the trade paper edition of the first, most likely with some addtional material. Don't bother getting them both.

why don't ya just get one of julia child's books?

There's certainly a difference between the actual cookbook, and the narrative about Julie's experience with the book. I'm not sure they are substitutes for one another. They serve different purposes. Having said that, I remember reading a very negative review of the original Julie and Julia book. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I read it. The gist of the review was that the book was just a compilation of her web blog entries, and wasn't particularly interesting.

Of course, I didn't actually read the book. Any one read it?

i must ask why would anyone care what someone else has to say about Julia Child's cookbook? Unless it's Jacques Pepin....

I agree. Touche!

It's not someone just commenting on the cookbook. Julie Powell cooked her way through the entire cookbook in one year. It was a very funny and interesting read.

Exactly - it's not "what she has to say about JC's cookbook" - it's her experience over the year. That said, I bought and read the book (in hardback), and I enjoyed her blog more than the book. It's been too long for me to remember why, but some times the book was a bit annoying.

I agree. I started the book, but have not yet finished it. It seemed, to me, to be a little, well . . . whiney.

I liked the blog better than the book- I still though am very impressed that she was sucessful enough to turn her blog into a book and that was what I found the most interesting abouth the book and kept me reading. Also that she turned it into a career.

I really liked the book.

Oh yeah, what did you like about it?

I liked the book, too. I really enjoyed reading Julie's experience of making her way through JC's cookbook. I liked her humor, her struggles, her triumphs. It was just a fun read.

It's often hilarious, frequently funny, and filled with good food and living-in-NYC-on-not-enough-money stories. Julie is vulgar and frank, and that turns some people off. (Not me, though!)

The book is based on the blog but is much, much more. I was very impressed at how she morphed the blog entries into a real narrative--that's not easy to do.

I haven't read Julie Powell's book yet, but I'm assuming it's a compilation of her blog entries. There's much more to it than just Julia Child's recipes - it's Julie's approach, her frustration, her humor and the ultimate accomplishment. If you don't want to spend the money on the book, just take a look at her blog, The Julie/Julia Project.

Link: http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/2002/0...