Book Rating System

I make to-do lists.

And, although it is one of my favorite things to do, reading is not on my list.

What makes it on the list are mostly social obligations and conventions:

housecleaning and maintenance, call so-and-so, send thank you notes,

file taxes, laundry, shower --

things I might opt out of if my friends and family enabled my reading habit.

O.K. obsession.

An indicator of how good a book is -- is how long it takes to read --

and what goes undone.

Here's my rating system:

A 1 DAY READ

Spell-binding!

To-do list? Sleep?

A 2 DAYS READ

Juicy.

The to-do list is buried under piles of laundry and empty cans of green beans and stew eaten cold.

A 3 DAYS READ

Very interesting.

My friends and family have sent out search parties but only found a food-stained to-do list.

TAKES MORE THAN A WEEK

OR LESS THAN A DAY

Suspect.

I might as well do everything on the to-do list, damn-it.

I'm not sure why I'm reading this book.

In desperation I may start multiple books.

You know it's bad when your own thoughts carry you away on permanent vacation

and you reread the same sentence over and over.