Can you read a book in 10 minutes?

According to Jessica Moyer, author of Research-Based Readers' Advisory (ALA Editions, 2008), you can! In an article that she wrote for ALA editions, Moyer provides guidelines for analyzing a book you haven't read in just ten minutes.

First things first: choose a book. Moyer suggests selecting a book that you don't intend to read later, preferably written by an author you're unfamiliar with.

Next, get ready to take some notes! These can be logged electronically or organized in a notebook or book journal (for future reference).

Moyer provides a number of questions that you can use to help you "read" the book -- questions about the cover, jacket blurb, typeface, physical characteristics, genre, plot, characters, author. According to Moyer, these questions can be answered just by looking at the physical characteristics of the book and reading some sample pages from the beginning, middle, and end of the story.

Here is a sample of some the questions she asks:
- Do the cover images look like they are aimed at a particular audience?
- What do other authors think of this book? Who are these authors?
- How easy or difficult to read is the typeface used?
- Is the book hardcover, paperback, or mass market?
- What is the pacing like? Is there more dialogue or description?
- Is the story serious or light? Comedy or drama?
- Does the story emphasize people or events?
- What other books share similarities to this one?

Personally, I think this method of reading books will take some practice -- especially if ten minutes is the goal! What do you think? Can you read a book in just ten minutes?

To try it for yourself, click here for the original article with the full list of questions.

Amazon Canada's 25 Best Books of the Year... So Far

The editors at Amazon Canada have announced the 25 best reads of 2014 so far, a list that includes both fiction and non-fiction titles.

Here are their picks, in no particular order:

Overwhelmed by Brigid Schulte (HarperCollins)

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi (Hamish Hamilton)

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Scribner)

A Savage Harvest by Carl Hoffman (William Morrow)

The Empathy Exams: Essays by Leslie Jamison (Graywolf Press)

The Martian by Andy Weir (Crown)

The Quick by Lauren Owen (McClelland and Stewart)

The Bees by Laline Paull (Ecco)

Console Wars by Blake J. Harris (Dey Street Boys)

Ping-Pong Diplomacy by Nicholas Griffin (Scribner)

Climate Changed by Philippe Squarzoni (Harry N. Abrams)

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker (HarperCollins)

Proof: The Science of Booze by Adam Rogers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty (Belknap Press)

The Secret World of Oil by Ken Silverstein (Verso)

Uncharted: Big Data as a Lens on Human Culture by Erez Aiden (Riverhead)

Young Money by Kevin Roose (Grand Central Publishing)

The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld (Harper)

Euphoria by Lily King (HarperCollins)

An Untamed State by Roxane Gay (Grove Press)

Andrew's Brain by E.L. Doctorow (Random House)

All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews (Knopf Canada)

The Troop by Nick Cutter (Gallery Books)

The Noble Hustle by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)

My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff (Knopf)

How many have you read from this list? Which books would you add? 

Reactions book-lovers have to non-readers

Bustle.com recently published a hilarious post about how book-lovers respond to people who don't read - complete with appropriate GIFs! Kristen Scatton, the writer of said post, came up with the six reactions that book-lovers will have when confronted with a non-reader:

1. Shock/Disbelief

2. Confusion

3. Judgment

4. Pity

5. Persuasion

6. Acceptance

I think it's pretty accurate, don't you agree? Read the full Bustle.com post here.

How many of these Art & Design book stores have you been to?

The Huffington Post recently posted their top ten art & design book store picks. They've selected stores from all across the globe, and you bet I'll be paying them a visit the next time I travel!

Their picks:

1. Daikanyama Tsutaya Books T-Site, Tokyo, Japan

2. Do You Read Me?!, Berlin, Germany

3. Artazart, Paris, France

4. Printed Matter, New York, NY

5. Arcana, Culver City, CA

6. Lia Wolf, Vienna, Austria

7. Artland Book Company, Taipei, Taiwan

8. Art Metropole, Toronto, CA

9. Freebook, Sao Paulo, Brazil

10. Papercup, Beirut, Lebanon

For more info, check out the full post here.

Toronto Cooks Book Trailer!

Warning: the following trailer might make you hungry.

You don't have to be a Torontonian to enjoy the delicious recipes from Toronto Cooks: 100 Signature Recipes from the City's Best Restaurants. Edited by Amy Rosen, an award-winning journalist and food writer, this book features recipes of fan-favourite meals by both established and up-and-coming chefs. And you can bet that the recipes inside will be as diverse as Toronto itself!