here i am trying to edit 14 photos in iMovie and just adding simple effects or background music takes a lot of "rendering".. Apple seriously needs to improve the performance of this app... I couldn't even consider editing video with this.
You are running it on an ibook, which I don't see running that well even with a G4 and full ram. I get lag in my G5 with After Effect until I added 2 more GB of ram. Even a powerbook it's really made to do video but doesn't mean you can't.
::UPDATE::
Video requires a 7200 rpm speed drive. I think iBooks have 3400 rpm.
a 7200 RPM HD is not a requirement, but the faster the HD the better.
And to the origional poster: judging by the fact that you put rendering in quotes I am guessing that you are not very familiar with video editing. So for your information all video editing applications have to render and all with take a similar amount of time to do so.
Also be sure you don't have many other apps running at the same time you are rendering