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I find the reading time is horribly inaccurate at first and then slowly improves as I read more of the book. So the initial estimate before I've even opened the book is usually way too high. Then I start reading, and if I only go a chapter or two, it then drops to something too low (I think flipping past the title, copyright, ToC, and Foreword pages might throw off the assumed reading speed). But by the time I'm a third of the way through or so, the estimates are usually pretty accurate.
I would be curious to know what the exact algorithm is for calculating it. But anecdotally, it seems like it starts with a fixed calculation of book length divided by some kind of average words per minute benchmark (maybe it's hard-coded, or maybe it's calculated from your past activity--I dunno), and then adjusted up or down as you start reading it.
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