New Book Rating System

I'd like to recommend a new scale for evaluating books—a cardiovascular scale.

At almost 50 years old, if there is one muscle I should keep in shape it’s my heart.  So I finally broke down started including cardio in my workout routine.

The only problem is that I hate doing cardio.  It’s boring.  What to do?

I decided to read while using the stationary bike or elliptical trainer.   Mostly I read fiction in the form of novels.   The thing about a really good novel is that for me, at least, it really does take me out of the moment and transport me into the story.   A half hour goes by and I never even notice.

That’s how The Cure for Modern Life  was for me.  I’d become so engrossed in the story I’d forget all about what I was doing and all of a sudden my workout was done.  Sweet!    Even better was that as I got caught up in the plot, I actually found the pace of my work out increasing as well.  Finally, I only let myself read the book while I’m doing cardio.  Because I really liked a couple of the characters in this book, I couldn’t wait to find out what happened to them.  And that meant I couldn’t wait to get back in the gym. 

So I think I would give The Cure for Modern Life a five heart rating.  (I’m thinking that for obvious reasons a heart would make a good symbol for this system, with one heart being poor and five hearts being a most excellent book).

On the other hand, I’ve been reading Jonathan Kellerman's Compulsion   for two weeks now.  It doesn’t transport me, and I don’t much care about the story so far even though I’m about ¾ of the way through.  I often find myself putting the book down and watching a TV or even just the monitors on the machine before.  I think I might only give this book one heart.  It hasn’t helped much!