It is easy enough to avoid graphics. Under Options, go down and see that Auto Load Images is not checked. Then you will speed things up considerably. If you want all the images on a particular page to show, click on the Images button. If you want just certain ones to show, then click on their symbol individually. Whatever you click will then come on every time you visit that page until you empty your cache, or it starts deleting things to make room for new ones. A few sites can hardly be negotiated without their image maps/links, but most can.