But in addition to any fun you got out of it, did you find it also motivated you to take your personal sight-reading goal more seriously?
Yes.
Here's the basic "plot" of the book. In Dec 2007, I decided I wanted to become a better sight-reader. I practiced two hours per day for a year. I improved but nowhere nearly as fast as I had expected.
I kept at it for another five years, took lessons, etc, and continued to improve slowly.
Finally, this last year I decided that it was no longer a good use of my practicing time, and I stopped. I could see it as giving up, or as deciding that I'd improved enough, and it was time to move on. The sight-reading practice time was taking away from my general jazz practice time. I concluded that my brain, probably due to my age, just isn't wired for learning sight-reading.
However, in writing the book, I realized how much I still want to become a really good sight-reader. I also felt that if I applied some of the key tips from the book, such as:
1. Don't practice too much sight-reading per day. A short session in which you focus on key items (such as attending to intervals instead of notes), is better than a longer one which will result in your practicing bad habits.
2. Sight-reading skill is strongly tied to the type of music you sight-read. For example, if you practice only hymns, you'll get good at hymns but not at modern music.
that I could (maybe) reach my goal. So, I'm now doing a few short sessions per day of focused sight-reading, and only reading the type of music that I'd be likely to encounter.
Finally, the book reminds me of these kinds of books:
I'm sure some of you remember when you were a kid and you got a parakeet, or a hamster. You'd get a booklet like that with tips and ideas, and it would also serve to stir up your interest. My book does that too, even to me.