Reading this book makes me nostalgic.
Reading this book makes me feel nostalgic.
Just like we say "the ending of the movie made me so sad" and "the ending of the movie made me feel so sad", where both the sentences mean pretty much the same think. Can we use "Nostalgic" as we do "sad"/"happy", with or without the verb feel where the meaning stays the same either way?
"Nostalgic" is not always used with "feel." Here are some examples from various dictionaries:
Many people were nostalgic for the good old days.
You tend to be nostalgic, and like things to be as they have always been.
He remained nostalgic about the good old days.
Great issue, great interview, which made me very nostalgic for those days when Eddie had a website and was a publisher.
The last sentence, which is taken from the Oxford English dictionary, is similar to your sentences about reading and the movie ending. So, it's OK to say "the ending of the movie made me nostalgic."
The two sentences mostly have the same meaning. A very small difference is:
without "feel" - the book actually made you nostalgic, the movie actually made you sad.
with "feel" - the book and the movie made you feel like something, but you did not really become that. You feel like you are sad, but you are not really sad.
- Seeing the documentary that rhinoceros become extinct because of the illegal hunting made me sad.
- The SF book I read last week made me feel sad.
