Book(?)...err Scale

We felt a dire need of ranking books read by us. As most of these books lie in either bestseller or unheard of categories, the rankings you can get from the different lists is not reliable. (I mean, how can you differentiate between "Angels and Demons" and "A Song of Ice and Fire" given that both enjoy bestseller status with 4 to 5 stars each?)

So, the idea of creating our own book scale was brought to the table, seconded and agreed upon. After a lot of research, the select committee of a writer (me), an ex-chief editor of a magazine (again me) a reader (yes, me) and a book critique(got it?) decided on a scale of 1-10, calling it Book(?)...err Scale. (The sarcastic reference due to the unique critical sense of humour.) The actual count on the scale is decided by a complex formula which essentially calculates whether the book in question can be called a book at all (in layman's terms).

So, 1 on the Book(?)...err scale would be a book you can't put down (think of "Great Indian Novel"), and 10, by extension refers to a book(?) which you cannot put down, but need to throw down hard. (Tough competition between "A Song..." and "Executive Orders"). The inverted scale is again thanks to unique critical style.

Music lovers might think of the scale as going from Asha/Lata's songs (1), through the voices of Shaan, Lucky Ali (insert your favourites here), all the way down to Himmesh with a sore throat (10).

A rough guide to the BES:

• 0-1.5: Books you would take to Desert island, moon, Andromeda etc. etc.


• 1.5-3.0: Books you would take to Desert island, just that you would use them to light the fire in extreme conditions (even though it might break your heart)


• 3.0-5.0: Books you wouldn't mind picking up again in case there is nothing new


• 5.0-6.0: Neutral zone, Read them once, forget them if you want


• 6.0-7.5: Mildly irritating. Finish them just to see if they improve (or just to get every penny worth of reading)


• 7.5-10.0: Books you will take to desert island, because it's not easy to find wood on the island, and they would normally be easier to carry than wood anyways...

There are further plans to award the highest ranking (nearest to 10) book in the year "Book(?)...err Prize". The current books in the competition are (in alphabetical order):

• A Series of Unfortunate Events


• A Song of Ice and Fire


• Executive Orders

The committee would further like to take this opportunity in calling for candidates to serve on the committee from the fellow readers. The qualifications needed are that the person should be capable of reading and willing to read books.

Also, any other nominations for the "Book(?)...err Prize" are also welcome, preferably along with a short/long review.