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Julia is legit, but she was a master and it can be overwhelming to pick a starting point with her.
I do recommend starting a cookbook collection; even with the flood of available food blogs out there—and I use 'em all, I'm not a snob—I just don't think there's a substitute for a good book when you're standing over a pot or pan wondering whether you're doing it right.
My suggestion is to decide early on that you like the look and feel of a used cookbook, one that's really been loved. Because if you don't need to buy your books new, other than the big bestsellers you can generally find what you're looking for on eBay for less than $5 (and often with free shipping).
If you've already got Julia you're in good shape. Here's where I would go from there if I were starting over:
How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. I grudgingly recommend this one. "Grudgingly" because I don't like one-size-fits-all cookbooks, but goddamn I have to admit that the book does what it says on the cover. If you only buy one book on my list, I guess it should be this one. Though I prefer:
Theory & Practice and The New James Beard by James Beard. Two companion books that are simply knockouts from the other great American cook (Julia stays in first place). You ought to be able to find both for about four bucks each on eBay. Put together they're as much of an education as Julia's two big books, but Beard is a genial, conversational writer and I really love that T&P is organized by technique and TNJB is organized by main ingredient; it makes the two books complement each other wonderfully. The content is slightly more casual than Julia so I find it to also be a bit more approachable. I'm not sure Julia has a recipe for just boiling sausages.
Regional French Cooking by Paul Bocuse. So, like, imagine you're a three-star Michelin chef who basically planted the seeds for the generation of chefs that gave us Eric Ripert and Anthony Bourdain, and you've decided to make a super chill coffee table book after a lifetime of writing. I give you Regional French Cooking by Paul Bocuse. It looks like a book you'd find in an elementary school library, and the recipes are wall-to-wall amazing. If you don't need a master class and just want to learn how to make some great, fairly casual French food I'd recommend this over anything by Julia.
That's it. If you really want to go wild then Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (not The Classic Italian Cookbook , they're different) is the book for Italian cooks in the US. From Curries To Kebabs by Madhur Jaffrey is a world-tour of, you know, curries, from Singapore to Nairobi and is written for UK & US cooks. Pok Pok is the best introduction to Thai cooking for American cooks, but cooking Thai involves a bit of up-front cost—you'll be spending about a hundred bucks for the kitchen and pantry basics, no way around it. Last but not least The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden is an absolute beast, an encyclopedia that covers the whole Jewish diaspora, meaning basically the whole planet. Doesn't matter if you're not Jewish, I'm not and I consider it a pretty essential reference for any cook. But all three of those books are niche compared to my main list above.
I'm a cookbook junkie so happy to make any further recommendations if you have specific cuisines or styles that you like.