An award and some cogitating

First of all, one of my friends, Honi of Healthy Honi, has given me an award. I'll have to figure out what I need to do to copy it over to here to display.

There are things attached to the award, like passing it along, but I feel a bit odd about doing it. I read a few blogs of friends, but I mostly read knit blogs. I'll have to think about who I'll award.

As for the other cogitating, (and this doesn't contain a bit of knitting content) I found myself thinking about The Rose Rent by Ellis Peters this morning. Mystery on PBS certainly expanded the British mystery authors I've read over the years. Because of Mystery and Sir Derek Jacobi I have read all of the Brother Cadfael mysteries. When I read them, I automatically picture Cadfael as Sir Derek, and I'm quite all right with that. He's a marvelous actor whom you have seen in Gladiator, but to me he'll always be Cadfael (even though he was also a damn good Claudius. I won't say you must see I, Claudius, but I found it most enjoyable.)

However, I digress, so back to The Rose Rent. If you have ever read one of Cadfael's mysteries, you will find that Ms. Pargeter did have a formula that she followed. This may be a spoiler if you've not read or seen them, but many involve wrongful accusations with only Cadfael and Hugh Beringar really looking for justice. In many ways Cadfael is a very early CSI. There is also a lot of romance in them. For example, Summer of the Danes always seemed to me to be a romance novel with a murder thrown in. It really would make a great Harlequin, complete with the handsome, strapping Viking on the cover. The Rose Rent is one of my favorites, and I think it's because it doesn't deal with teenage romance. The couple involved in this mystery are older. They've both suffered from hardships and losses. Neither is drop dead gorgeous either. It seems more real than some of the other ones. I guess as I grow older I don't always want to read about willowy teenagers with rose petal lips. Love isn't always a lightening bolt. Sometimes is just seems to sneak in, like the fog, on little cat feet.

If I had never seen the Brother Cadfael series on Mystery, I don't know that I would have picked one up at the library to read. Through Mystery I have discovered Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse and P.D. James's Adam Dalgliesh. Seeing those names floating around from cover comparisons I've found Elizabeth George (who's latest Lynley novel comes out in spring 2008) and Ruth Rendell.

So many of us, and I'm guilty of it, spend a lot of time surfing. I read other blogs; I peruse Amazon for hours; and now there's Ravelry to consume large amounts of time. While I enjoy all that, sometimes I just want to sit down and read a book. I just realized I've left out the author who started my love of the British murder mystery, Dame Agatha Christie. She's still the best for the quick, light read where the bad guy always gets caught. Ooh, here's the knitting content. Miss Marple can solve that case from her armchair while knitting baby sweaters.

I guess what I really wanted to do was to express my love for the written word. I find I may use a word that is archaic just because I like it. Perhaps it seems I structure my sentences strangely as I look to use the proper grammar instead of the conversational colloquialisms. I do love to read books, especially ones that will include words I've got to go look up. Here on my blog I get a chance to improve my writing skills. I'm not always very good. I may jump from subject to subject. I try to not ramble on too long knowing that I may lose your interest. I do agonize over my messages sometimes, re-reading them over and over to make sure they flow. It is like knitting in that I can create my sentences on this page, and if they don't flow as I like, I can make them disappear as easily as ripping out stitches.

Still reading? It's time to sign off and go read a book. Take a trip back in time and read Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie. Go meet Lynley and Havers by picking up A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George (although I'll admit Missing Joseph is one I've read several times). From Doon with Death is the first Inspector Wexford and has some surprising twists. Or go find what you like to read, whether it's a cookbook, knitting book or maybe a trashy biography, and settle down for a good read. After all, there's a writer's strike going on, and there won't be anything but reruns on TV very soon, and you can't spend all your time on the computer.

As for me, My Name is Earl is new tonight, and I've got a lot of knitting to do.