So Monique over on Leafmarks just reviewed a book to say something along the lines that there went two hours they'd never get back. Which sends my brain spurts off on this ramble.

How much is an hour of your time worth to you?  How many hours does the average book or publication take you to read?  (I'm estimating that in continual hours most books take most readers 3-8 hours to read.). What would be the retail price of the book if not free -- is the probable 99¢ to $6 book worth 3-8 hours of your time?  Is it easy for you to free up 3-8 hours to read a book — is it worth blowing those hours on a bad book?

Forbes magazine says:

"According to a speed-reading test sponsored by Staples…here are the typical speeds at which humans read…:

Third-grade students = 150 words per minute (wpm)
Eight grade students = 250
Average college student = 450
Average “high level exec” = 575
Average college professor = 675
Speed readers = 1,500
World speed reading champion = 4,700"

and

"assume each book contains 100,000 words (a reasonable estimate), and the goal is to read one book a month. At 300 wpm, that comes to another 11 minutes a day. "

 

"Start with newspapers and blogs. Say you read 20 articles a day, each an average 500 words long. (Newspaper stories tend to run longer, blog posts shorter.) At 300 words per minute (the average-adult speed), you’ll spend 33 minutes a day, including weekends, on that part of your regimen."

How many hours do you put in fulfilling the agreement (even if just "free for honest review")  made to get the free book behind the hours spent reading?

Why did it take me so many years before I could bring myself to DNF books?  (Okay, so a lot of that was pre-internet travels with few bookstores/libraries and earlier budgets where didn't always have enough books.). Do you DNF books?

How much harm to emotional state or mood does a bad read do?  Do you feel taken advantage of when a book turned out to actually be completely misleading based on description or an outright bad one (by which I mean defective in the sense of not ready for publication versus just not to your personal tastes)?

 (Never-mind how many free books are now available or the "quality" of time spent where maybe that hour could have been better spent on a better read from an ever increasing TBR pile.). 

"Wasn't bad, although nothing could beat a cup of reliable Starbucks in the company of Hannah."

 

ok. wait what?!

SOOOO should I take this as Cade thinks Starbucks coffee is good or as any coffee is the best as long as Hannah is there as well?

Then again.. there is that word reliable....

*shudders*

Should I or shouldn't I enlighten Cade about REAL coffee?

Ok Ok. I won't go on a coffee tangine... I will try really hard not to say anything..

at all...

....EXCEPT:

The worst cup of coffee I ever had was at BEA made by yours truly Starbucks.

It's Thursday and I realised that I haven't really read much all week. With just a quarter an hour squeezed in here and there I just don't manage to keep up with my every growing TBR. Well, ok maybe that would be tragic anyway, since it would mean I run out of books I covet slowly but surely. While that is a releave somewhat, I feel kinda panicky about ARCs today. See I just got four new ones. They only due in 2015, but I got still 3 to read for this month and I got quite a few for October. Le'ts just put it out there: I am hopeless. I promised myself not to request too many. AND I did quite well for most of this year. Except for September and October where I got loads... Add to that that I got not just a huge event in October but two jobs lined up... well.. you get the picture. 

So while drinking my morning cuppa, I had a light bulb moment. - which by the way is proof that having a quiet cup of coffee in the morning is beyond beneficial *smirks*- 

If I could read faster... I would easlily read more in less time... AAAAN problem solved!

Being totally convinced that it is the solution to many many many of my book related issues I went and got a reading trainer app.It promises quick improvement in reading speed and comprehension. 

Now being me, the closet geek chemical engineer, I obviously will keep book.

So Thursdays shall be speed reading progress day... 

DAY 0 - WpM 334

This book was free on Amazon some time ago, and although I didn't think it really was something for me, I felt like I should give it a try.

Some tips in this book actually seemed to make some sense, like doing certain eye-movement exercises, but I also found that speed reading isn't something for me. I don't like reading in chunks or diagonally, it just doesn't feel good. So, I'll just continue to read as I'm used to (it wasn't recommended anyway for what I really wanted to use it: reading (not always too interesting medical articles)...