So The Thing I Can't Do In Bed......And Other Things To Do With Reading Including A Bit Of Gore

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

This morning I woke up early (again) around four o'clock but for reasons I can't say today I was unable to go into the living room and either watch the TV or go on the laptop. So what could I do? I decided to try again what I haven't done in a while.

Read in bed.

No point in going online. I saw the news yesterday. This country seems to be run by a government and a Prime Minister in the form of a nervous breakdown.

Unfortunately I couldn't do it. I've never understand those scenes where somebody is engrossed in a book propped up in bed. I can't do it. My back starts to go into knots. I get uncomfortable.

I just can't do it.

Must admit it doesn't help that one of the books I'm reading, 1876 by Gore Vidal is something I'm not enthused about so far. I've reached almost halfway and I can't say I've read a more dull book in a long while. When I say dull, I don't mean that intellectually it's beyond me (and regular readers will know I'm not afraid to say when that's the case) but that very little actually seems to happen. I hope that it's not going to be one of those novels where everything including the kitchen sink is thrown.

Went to the library today. This was the book I got.

Simon Beckett - The Restless Dead

Now this seems to have an interesting link. It's set in Essex where I was in exile earlier in the month to look after my mother. And the covering blurb says that Mr Beckett (who I've never read before) has "forensic detail to rival Kathy Reichs" whose life was the basis for the TV series Bones which I became a fan of when I returned from hospital after seeing my mother.

Connections eh? Never watched it in bed though.

Until the next time.

When A TV Show Is An Unexpected Comfort (Bones)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So still in Essex exile at the moment. Hopefully just over a week to go before I can return to Wales. In the meantime Wales seems to appear in different ways. For example the discovery that I can watch Welsh club rugby on the TV in Essex via the red button was a pleasant surprise though the match itself, between the Ospreys and a South African team wasn't.

But as my mother is thankfully on the road to recovery it did occur to me about the things that pulled me through when things did not seem so bright. Coming back to the house from the hospital on a late evening, uncertain about the future, grabbing a microwave meal, a meal that someone in the family kindly made for me or a buying a bag of chips from the local Chinese around the corner (I tend to go Belgian with chips. Mayonnaise is my thing) and then propping myself in front of the TV.

I've mentioned before about the programmes I've been watching, either straight from the TV or as a DVD box set, during these two months, but during those specific moments of uncertainty one of these shows seemed more important than others. I think because this was the show I grew to like during this period when things were at it's most darkest.

And that programme (as you can tell by the title) of this post is Bones. What makes this even more unusual is that when I saw the odd episode before I didn't like it. Thought it was too glossy.

It does happen like this. Unexpectedly a programme creeps up on you unawares and before you know it you're a fan. It becomes a sort of comfort blanket when times are not good.

Bones is I know an odd choice. Loosely based on the life and novels of Kathy Reichs. Essentially episodes consist of a gruesome murder where you would see the victim in various stages of decomposition however as they would mainly be in a skeletonal state. This is convenient as the FBI in the form of Special Agent Seeley Booth is onto the case with his partner Doctor Temperence Brennan, a forensic anthropologist from the Jeffersonian Institute. Not just her though. There are other "squints" (scientific experts in their field) from the same institute.

I think the reason why it resonated was that it showed a group of good people facing a dark situation and being able, both with humour and intelligence to resolve it.

I have a few box sets now of this twelve season show. My mother's moaning that I'm watching too much of a programme that she doesn't really understand. She'd rather watch Murder She Wrote (Am happy to help my mother during these past few months...but there are limits).

Until the next time.