Clean sweep: Readers prefer “Julia” to “Julie”

“Julia” cleans up “Julie” among readers

NEW YORK —On paper and on screen, “Julia” is stealing the show from “Julie.”

Meryl Streep’s performance as Julia Child in “Julie & Julia,” which opened last weekend, has helped return the late chef’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” a classic published nearly 50 years ago, to the top of best-seller lists.

On Monday, a $40 hardcover of “Mastering” topped the charts of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, easily outpacing a $7.99 paperback of the book that gave the film its title, “Julie & Julia” — Julie Powell’s memoir about spending a year preparing all the recipes in Child’s book.

Publisher Alfred A. Knopf has ordered an additional 75,000 copies of “Mastering,” which on Monday was sold out on Amazon.

Other Child works selling strongly (and currently out of stock on Amazon) are “My Life in France,” on which the film is partly based; “Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom” and a paperback edition of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

The movie is divided between the lives of Child and Powell, but critics have found the “Julia” side far more interesting than the time devoted to “Julie,” played by Amy Adams. As of Monday afternoon, Powell’s book was No. 16 on Barnes & Noble.com and No. 27 on Amazon.