(1) I love your book recommendation; however, it dedicates maybe one or two pages to safe-cracking, so I would not recommend it for this purpose.

Instead, I would read the material that Deviant Ollam has published (http://deviating.net/lockpicking/resources.html) or look for an upcoming TOOOL meetup (http://toool.us/).

(2) I don't intend to be pedantic – and perhaps I'm mistaking hyperbole for fact – but how could you are opening a combination lock with an secret unbeknownst to you more quickly than your a combination lock with a secret known to you? Unless, you're shimming the new lock and avoiding dialing the correct combination altogether, in which case you would solve them all locks in the same span of time, this is unlikely. However, you said you're opening the lock by 'feel,' so I assume that's not the case.