Life Lessons: I Have a Problem

Yes, like Jay Z. and Ariana Grande before me, I have problems. But, there is only one about which I intend to blog tonight:
 I am wholly addicted to John Green books. And I don't want any help, thanks anyhow.

I have no good reason behind my vice. Sure, these works are pretty good, but they are not the best literary masterpieces to ever grace my bookshelf. For some likely abnormal reason, at my mid-advanced place on life's timeline, these books loudly and clearly speak to my soul.

I started with The Fault In Our Stars. It took me way longer than mostly everyone else to read it, and I have no good reason for that either.  My intrigue piqued earlier this year with the Entertainment Weekly article about the movie where John Green, on set with Shailene and Ansel, cried during all the emotional scenes as they were filmed. I am glad I put my mind to reading the book before seeing the movie because doing so the other way around would have robbed me of a fantastic experience I will forever remember. Seriously and melodramatically, the day I read the last 3/4 of that book is one of the best days of my life. Immediately thereafter I watched the movie and…you can guess.

The obsession is still ongoing. To give you a whole picture, I have a two-almost-three-year-old boy in this house who loves the movie almost as much as I do. He got sick the other night and begged me to watch "Fall In Our Stars" to make him feel better. (We did not because: 1. The Steelers were playing MNF, making a movie about kids dying from cancer only the second most depressing thing we could do at that moment in time -- though, somehow, that game ended with less tears than the movie does, and 2. I feel this request odd for a toddler and kind of creepy, and 3. We already had watched it twice in the past day and a half.)

I can't let it go. I  respond to analytical queries in my life with lines from the book, like "The world is not a wish-granting factory." This one is my favorite, right behind "I fell in love the way you fall asleep. Slowly, then all at once." (I may only do this in my head, so as not to completely give away how far I am down this particular rabbit hole…)

I watched John Green talk about filming the movie in Pittsburgh (!!!!) and how he loves Pittsburgh (!!!!!) and how he believes that one of life's great joys is the full onslaught of Pittsburgh emerging from the Fort Pitt Tunnel as you enter the city from the south. (As I heard him say that last part, I realized that John Green and I are kindred spirits of the highest order. Then my head metaphorically exploded right off my body.)

It almost took over, so I quickly moved onto Paper Towns.  While not quite the genius of TFIOS, it still quenched my thirst for this particular genre of adolescent angst. It haunted me differently and offered my overactive mind a lot upon which to dwell. It also reaffirmed that I especially love the way John Green ends his novels: without a big dramatic flourish, but satisfying nonetheless.

Naturally, I became fascinated with paper towns in real life -- a foreign concept to me until now -- and as I googled, I stumbled upon a TED Talk John Green gave on the subject.  John Green in real life is sort of geeky and cute, like I pictured Q in Paper Towns until I saw they cast Isaac from TFIOS in the upcoming movie, and instead began picturing Q as Nat Wolff -- or the other way around. Whichever, I will certainly be on the lookout for that premiere next year, even if I do kind of detest Margo Roth Spiegelman in her entirety.

Now, I've started Looking For Alaska. It can be slightly difficult to get on a roll due to my (and Franco's) consistent TFIOS movie views, along with all the other non-frivolous things grown-ups apparently need to do daily. But, I will get to it. And to Will Grayson, Will Grayson after that. Once I put my mind to a full-on obsession, I am nothing if not committed.

Okay? Okay.