The Book of Times: From Seconds to Centuries, a Compendium of Measures

By Lesley Alderman

An endlessly fascinating, beautifully designed survey of time—how long things take, how long things last, and how we spend our days

Our relationship to time is complex and paradoxical: Time stands still. Time also flies. Tomorrow is another day. Yet there's no time like the present. We want to do more in less time, but wish we could slow the clock. And despite all our time-saving devices—iPhones, DVRs, high-speed trains—Americans feel that they have less leisure time than ever.

In an era when our time feels fractured and imperiled, The Book of Times encourages readers to ponder time used and time spent. How long does it take to find a new mate, digest a hamburger, or compose a symphony? How much time do we spend daydreaming, texting, and getting ready for work? The book challenges our beliefs and urges us to consider how, and why, some things get faster, some things slow down, and some things never change (the need for seven to eight hours of sleep).

Packed with compelling charts, lists, and quizzes, as well as new and intriguing research, The Book of Times is an addictive, browsable, and provocative look at the idea of time from every direction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Feb 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9780062074195

Reviews for The Book of Times

[bookaholism · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This publication falls into the Trivia category; it is a fun book to while away the time with when some light reading material is needed. The Book of Times picks out from many different sources information about how we spend out time, what we spend it upon, and how long the event might last. The many topics are each introduced by a question such as "How long do common ailments last? and "How long does an orgasm last?"From the many sections that held my inquisitive nature, the following examples are of particular note: The Home section ("Knowing the timeline of your beloved home and the stuff inside it can help you avoid unpleasant surprises and plan for the inevitable ravages of time." pg.81), including an invaluable list about food expiration (pg. 94-97); the Longevity section ("Humans can survive for just 2 to 3 minutes without air, but with training it's possible to hold your breath for 11 minutes." pg. 311); and the Body section ("The cornea is the only part of the eye that has the ability to constantly renew itself...If our corneas were not so able, we might go blind at an early age." pg 121).At the end of book is a test about what you might/might not know that you should take before reading, and then again after. My own pre-score was 7 0f 30; my post was 28 of 30.One suggestion I have for the book's layout is that an index is needed, or at least a list of the many questions that are asked and their page locations; otherwise, I found "The Book of Times" highly informative and entertaining. Often have I turned to it while watching television in between commercials, or while standing in long lines such as the DMV.

[randirousseau · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a really interesting book, compiled by someone I suspect has a lot of time on his hands. The factoids are kinda fun and intriguing, quick to go through when you need to fill a few minutes (not a sit and read it through type of book)

[wwj_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Book of TimesLeslie AldermanI’m an engineer, retired now, but I spent most of my life measuring television signals, baseband NTSC video. A system fairly well centered on relationships of time. So time, both in its measurement and in its use, is of interest to me.I enjoyed the book, but as I have an entire shelf of books of odd facts, or similar, this is not surprising. I started with this genre in about 8th grade, titled something like ‘Useless Information’. I don’t remember how long a line a standard pencil can draw, but it was in there.Many of the charts and facts do have source foot notes, those few I checked were accurate, which means this can be used as a source, or better a directory to primary sources. It would be better if it had an index, but the chapters are not that long, and fairly well separated in topics. So finding something would not be hard.I would fault the book designer, Diahann Sturge on multi-page charts, without column headings on any but the first page. And some of the charts could have been gotten on a single page, but moving side bars. So I give Ms Alderman a four not a five, she should have argued with the editor and the designer a bit harder on at least one of those points.

[invisiblelizard · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Mildly entertaining collection of miscellany around time, uses of, wastes of, blah blah blah. Not really worth the (however much) you'd spend at a bookstore. It felt to me like something I've stumbled across on the internet countless times in the past, but bundled into paper form and bound with a cheap cover. Since I got this free from the LT ER group, I can't/won't complain. It was, as I said, mildly interesting. -KA

[katya0133 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I was very disappointed with this book. I love trivia and lists, but the individual entries aren't very interesting on their own, and the larger sections aren't cohesive enough to be worth reading as a group.

[melydia_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

As one might expect, this is a collection of assorted factoids about time - more specifically, how people spend their time. It's not nearly as interesting as I'd hoped. For one thing, almost all the data is from surveys, and many of those are from internet surveys, and we all know how accurate those are. The results are often contradictory as well: for example, on one page we learn that smoking takes nine years off your life, but just two pages later we learn it's only four. This general lack of continuity isn't helped any by the large number of typos, some quite prominent. How long do rock banks last? I didn't understand until I read the list and realized it was supposed to be rock bands. In short, unless you are desperate for a book of trivia about how people may or may not actually spend their time, I'd suggest giving this one a miss.

[vpfluke · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have spent my working life dealing with time and its measurement. Scheduling buses is perhaps more complicated than it seems on the surface. One has to deal with how much running time to give a bus by time of day, one needs to konw how many people are being carried, as that affects trip length besides customer satisfaction. One has to create 8-houur workdays for the the drivers, perhaps even workweeks that are close to 40 hours. The one must try to keep overtime vs. extra time given to make-up an 8 hour day at a minimum. One must detrmine how earlyor late a bus route runs, if it is not going to operate 24 hours. One must try to work in express or limited stop trips, and figure out how much branching of routes you want to do.So, I always like looking at books that deal with time and ones experience with it. Alderman looks at all kinds of expreience with time, like emergency room waits (shortest is in Iowa, longest in Utah); how long food may last (I couldn't find yoghurt, but sour cream can be kept 10-14 days after sell-by date). Looking at travel times, the fastest land trip between Chicago and Milwaukee is by train at 1:29 hours, the longest is 29 hours for walking. The book doesn't mention it, by my Official Railway Guide from 1958 shows trains abe to do this trip in 80 minutes.This is a fun book to look through. There are interactive questions, and you'll be surprsied at some of the answers.

[helcura_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fun book. It's very like a bag of chocolate covered pretzels - enticing, hard to stop consuming, and best not too many at one sitting.The author is honest from the very beginning about the potential dubiousness of the data, so each bit of information should be taken with appropriate skepticism, but it's thoroughly entertaining. Some of the information made me want to delve deeper into the original research to find out how the studies were designed, others were so consistent with my own experience that I felt vindicated.A great book to carry for waiting in line, or to put in other places you want a little snack of reading.Worth reading more than once in little bits.

[bookwallah · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Trivia on how long things take. Probably one or two short sections here of mild interest to most trivia buffs. Perhaps best consumed as a "bathroom reader". Book design and layout good use some polishing. Not recommended.

[vanderschloot · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a very interesting book, and not the novelty book that it might appear to be from the description. The book offers an innovative way of conveying information about all manner of things, serious and trivial. It's an enjoyable book to dip in and out of, and there's a lot to be learned here. It is far more than a book of trivia, although it provides some of that as well.

[donbuch1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The author Lesley Alderman has compiled a fascinating set of facts about how we spend our time and other associations that we make on a daily basis concerning the division of time. Although time is real, it is still an eluding concept of which to make sense. It is a shadow that we chase and attempt to bottle up, but never able to fully grasp. However, the author gives some notable insights of how average people view temporal relationships as well as how science measures its passage in daily affairs. The book is a full-course compendium of statistics and other quotable facts, which can be great conversational pieces. In some respects, the book does have numerous trivia, and yet things such as "what is the average hospital stay" can tell much sociologically with respect to the places set in time. Also many references to worker and student productivity are implied in the stats. (Certainly I would hope the U.S. president would log more hours than a municipal worker.) An added feature of the book includes little exercises to calculate the reader's personal use of time, which compels me to hold onto the book for some time.

[newsieq · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The mind boggles at how Leslie Alderman stuck with the research this book must have required. And, although the book is replete with charts, she weaves them together with a most coherent narrative. If I had not received an Early Reviewer’s copy, I would have not read it straight through. But I did and found it most compelling. Is it a reference work? I don’t think so, as it is missing both bibliography and index – although it is well sourced in the form of back notes. I read the book in a few days – or should I say evenings? – just before going to sleep. It was in no way boring, and definitely did not put me to sleep. But it proved a pleasant way to end the day – nothing jarring enough to give one nightmares, but sufficiently interesting to keep one engaged. Review based on Early Reviewer’s copy provided by publisher.