What Makes the Gym Bearable

My husband and I are going to the Dominican Republic in a week and I am in that frantic, pre-bathing suit state-of-mind. For some reason I think that I can lose all of my winter fat in the next seven days. Hence, I've had to frequent one of my least favorite places, the gym. I hate the gym. It's boring, it smells, and many of the people are less than scintillating conversationalists (I actually heard one person quoting Brittany Spears to another the other day, and not in an ironic manner).

So, before I go to the gym, I load up the old iPod with audio books. Lately, I've been listening to Orson Scott Card's classics "Ender's Game" and "Ender's Shadow." Wow. What a great way to spend some time! I got so absorbed yesterday that I found myself cycling for an extra 20 minutes before I even noticed what was going on!

In addition to the obvious connections with the escapism/engagism dialectic (i.e., I'm engaging in Orson Scott Card to escape the tedium of the gym), I'm impressed how some of the themes in the book connect to the idea of engagism. In Enders Shadow, for example, Bean notes that "One's own mind asks only its own questions", noting that it's impossible to get a truly comprehensive understanding of an issue without ENGAGING with others. OK, he doesn't use the word engage, but that's the point I'm taking out of it.

If your interested in audio books for the iPod and other players, check out www.audible.com