Post-Book Depression (PBD...it'll catch on)

I finished reading Julie and Julia yesterday. I always get a little bit sad upon finishing a book. I get so engrossed in the story and the characters’ world that I’m reluctant to leave it (in this rare case it was an actual NON fiction book…rather than the usual Camelot, Hogwarts, vampire fare).

Try telling people you’re reading a book about Julia Child. They automatically assume you’re reading a cookbook. Although, I have to admit – I do enjoy flipping through cookbooks, scanning for new recipes, the way bored commuters flick through the glossy pages of US Weekly. Anway, Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously is not a cookbook. It’s a memoir about a woman facing a turning point in her life who decides to cook her way through Julia’s epic tome Mastering the Art of French Cooking – just Volume 1 though. She’s not that crazy.

She started a blog recounting her experiences (blogging about blogging, how meta). This was way back in the internet dark ages, you know, 2003. So not as many people were spewing their daily details for all the world to read. Her blog picked up many loyal followers and The Julie/Julia Project garnered quite a bit of fame, eventually turning into the aforementioned book. It’s soon to be a movie, which, honestly is what got me interested in it in the first place.

Like I said, I dread coming to the final pages of a book I enjoy, unless I have another book lined up. I tend to follow new books with re-reads of old favorites. Dan Brown novels, the Harry Potter books, and of course the Twilight series are like the pickled ginger of my literary world – they cleanse my mind between stories, rather than my taste buds between bites of sushi. But one of my methods for choosing a new book to read often stems from the pre-production phases of movies based on books. Amy Adams and Meryl Streep star in the film adaptation of the book, due out this summer (August 9th, to be exact. Yeah, we fact check here at PanObs). Typical me – once I know there will be a movie, I’ll read the book. Nora Ephron wrote and directed it, so it’s got some serious rom-com chops behind it. I wonder if they’ll set a scene at the most romantic spot in New York, according to Ephron on the You’ve Got Mail commentary.

Upon finishing Julie and Julia, my thoughts strayed to this pitiful blog and how lucky Julie Powell was to have a passion and turn it into something tangible, profitable, remarkable. But her passion really stemmed from lack of passion, or lack of direction, which is something most of us suffer from. Now I’m feeling inspired to either write more, cook something, or at least read another book.

Netflix Constipation

This tends to happen to the most ambitious and dedicated of movie watchers. I've had the same DVD sitting on my TV for maybe 2 months.

Netflix can be a bit daunting; especially in these trying times (I hate that. I hate all references to the economy. Why should I start making broad generalizations on the economy now? I don’t know anything about the economy except that it used to be better). Do I continue to spend $20 per month to let two red envelopes collect dust on my TV stand? I've even downgraded my subscription to just one DVD at a time. To which Netflix responded: nope, you're going to have to keep up - they continued to send me two DVDs. So when Pineapple Express showed up at my door I was quite delighted, although ultimately bewildered. I was immediately enjoying the smoke-filled rooms, heavily-lidded eyes, and bumbling antics of this hilarious buddy comedy.

However, the classic, award-winning One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest did not get such a whirlwind trip to the erratic, possessed tray of my budget DVD player. It behaves a bit like the mischievous cupboard doors in the 'Spoonful of Sugar' number in Mary Poppins.

Every now and then I feel a desperate need to watch all the classic movies I’m ashamed to say I haven’t seen. As a self-proclaimed lover of movies and amateur expert on the subject, I flush crimson upon revealing that I’ve never seen the likes of Casino, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Goodfellas, or the aforementioned Cuckoo’s Nest.

It was in the midst of one of these temporary bouts of shame that I added the Nicholson classic to the top of my queue. It arrived at my apartment, I slid it out of its sleeve, glanced at the title, and thought…I’ll get to that.

It’s been a few months now and I’m down to just the one DVD at a time. I am Netflix’s ideal customer. I pay them a monthly fee to hold on to one single film that I am likely never to watch. Now I’m getting antsy and upon my recent realization that three seasons of Mad About You are available on DVD, I decided it’s time to let go. Time to fish or cut bait. Time to shit or get off the pot. These are all relationship-terminating euphemisms I learned as a child from a movie that’s not on many classic must-see lists these days – Three Men and a Little Lady. Make room for it in your queue.