thoughts about blogging

Just a few weeks ago I bought and watched 'Julie & Julia' and absolutely LOVED it. When I realised that it was based on a true story, and that Julie had indeed really worked her way through however many of Julia Child's recipes, I just had to google and track down the blog.

And there the joy ended.

The author is not as nice as portrayed in the film, and neither is her blog. I've not returned, and am sorry that I found it in the first place.

I think part of the magic of reading a blog is creating a picture of the author in your own mind.

When films take over, some of the magic that your own imagination has created can be ruined forever. Not so in this case, the film gave a much kinder portrayal of the real Julie. It was reading her own words that soured my impression of her.

Which is why I am absolutely loving one website that I have recently found, and want to share.
It's the transcript of a real diary, written by an unknown lady from 1961 - 1965. The lady who bought the diary at some kind of American equivalent to our jumble or boot sales, decided to share it on a daily basis, 50 years to the day later. So this means that every single day you can visit, and read the diary entry written exactly fifty years earlier. It is so interesting.
Yes, some of the entries are dull, but isn't real life like that? With our blogs we can cherry pick, show photos that we've edited to look good first (certainly in my case), and select the more interesting things about our day to day lives. But I know that in my written diary, most entries are pretty dull.
I love that alongside major events, she can follow with something perfectly ordinary and unexciting. So after 'Kennedy's Inauguration' she then talks of things like washing her underwear, or the weather (usually rain!). I love being able to visit this site, and step back in time to a life in 1960's Seattle. I feel as if I'm making a visit to a different, hidden world. I can't help but wonder if we will find out who she is by the end of the diary, or if her identity has been lost forever. In my mind I have already built a picture of her, and the way she dresses.
Her life may have been incredibly ordinary, but I still find it completely fascinating and look forward to reading her 50 year old diary each day.
[her five year diary]
Visit.
Read.
Enjoy.
You'll be hooked.
I know I am.