A Good Book

Doesn't this look like a book written just for me? It even has a crossword puzzle in the front to be solved after the book is read. The author is Parnell Hall. I just happened to see the book when I was on the Ha shelf choosing some Charlaine Harris mysteries. There was an Aurora Teagarden I hadn't yet read as well as one of her Harper Connelly series. I haven't read any of Ms. Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books , but so far I like the Harper character the best. But I digress.
"A Clue For The Puzzle Lady" was well written and worth reading, but I had figured out who "The Graveyard Murderer" was before the end and why he did it. I was also able to solve the crossword puzzle. It appears Mr. Hall followed this book with "Last Puzzle & Testament" which I would probably read if our library had it.

A little over two years ago I visited my younger brother in Warrensburg. I was anxious to see his new house and how he was getting along. The first morning over breakfast we started working the Kansas City Star crossword together. He would fill in a word or two, then hand it over for me to see if I could solve any of the clues, then I would hand it back to him and back and forth until the puzzle was complete. That led to him hunting out the previous few days crosswords that he hadn't yet worked.
We talked about how solving crossword puzzles is supposed to help the mind. I told him about buying some easy crossword books for our Mother a few years before she died, but her dementia was already too far advanced by then. Les said, "You know there is a daily KC Star crossword online...." So when I got home from Missouri, I added that daily crossword site to my favorites list and I've been solving them ever since.
At first it took me between 35 and 45 minutes to solve a puzzle. After awhile I was able to do one in 20 to 30 minutes. Now I can work most of them in between 10 and 15 minutes; most days around 12 minutes. I believe that is proof that doing the puzzles does help the mind.
Earlier this week there was an online article about increased brain function in older people who searched the internet; that scientists saw an increase of brain function in older adults after just one week by first time users. I think that is significant. Maybe instead of putting computers in every classroom, we should be putting computers in every senior citizens' center. And for every college student who receives a notebook a senior citizen should be given one, also.
In January it will be ten years since we got our first home computer. (Wanted to wait until after Y2K to be certain computers would still work.) If I had to choose between the computer and television, the TV would lose. So would the dishwasher, probably even that adored washer and dryer. That's how much being online means to me. (BTW, it took me a little over 14 minutes to do today's crossword. It was a hard one!)