As the year winds down, I have exactly 200 days left on this year, the need to turn my reading up becomes even more impending, there’s a lot of pages and incredible stories in front of me , and the last three weeks have been a testament of what can be when I put my mind and effort into, great step forward can be achieved.
But one word comes to mind, Consistency, it should become almost a mantra, not rely on this amazing reading burst, but be disciplined. And always come back to the two main principles that have brought me here: “one page at a time” and “read anywhere, ready everywhere “. If I keep doing this, all my goals will be conquered.
Another thing that I’ll like to acknowledge is that today would have been my late father’s 74th birthday, his presence, love, knowledge and humor is greatly missed. I’ll toast to his memory, how he loved the history of languages, and the life of saints, curious because he was not a religious person, and how there was never a limits for books. As I grew older, he was a great source of debate and philosophical insight. I do miss him terribly, but I can feel his presence and guidance.
Mi viejo, I’ll see you someday again, and we can walk the vastness of that paradise you described, that purple desert, with the fleeting sunsets and the stars shining brightly.
Coincidentally, it was his mother, my grandmother Carmen, the one person that introduced me to the enthralling world of books. She had a vast library, could recite her favorite poems by heart, and was the most gentle and loving person in the world. I can remember the Christmas holidays surrounded by books and her amazing cooking. I will get lost for hours in books and at night, she would make stories up so I could go to sleep. She was also bought me my first comic book, Punisher to be precise, not really appropriate for a nine year old, but that started a life long love with reading and knowledge.
It always good to have those types of influences in your life, they were and are a great gift.
Coming back a little bit back to my journey, this past three weeks were really packed. I finish the incredible book The Ritual by Adam L.G. Nevill, and let me tell you that it was a tense and eerie ride from beginning to end. The melding of psychological horror and the dread of being lost in an environment so alien and terrifying only adds to the desperation that the characters in the book. And to top it off, add some nordic folklore and monsters, well it just crushes you. I’m only beginning to get into horror novels, but the past two book by Mr. Nevill had been a true delight, I can’t wait to get further into that genre.
The next book on the queue is the critically acclaimed novel by Susanna Clarke, Piranesi. I’m just got into the first 45 pages of the book, but as always, Ms. Clarke weaves a fascinating story. It follows the main character, Piranesi, and his journey exploring an infinite House filled with halls, where the statues and skeletons make up the entire populace. I can’t wait to see what the tides bring, what lies in those eternal halls.
As for my journey toward reading the next book of the gargantuan series of Warhammer, The Horus Heresy, as I stated on past posts, the goal was to read ten books of my TBR pile in order to purchase the next one the series, Fulgrim. I’m delighted to announce that The Ritual was the seventh book on the list and Piranesi will be eight, the next step is almost at hand. The list of reading goes as follows :
- The First King of Shannara (Terry Brooks)
- Verano (J.M. Coetzee)
- Between two Fires (Christopher Buehlman)
- Babel (R.F. Kuang)
- Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
- The Reddening (Adam L.G. Nevill)
- The Ritual (Adam L.G. Nevill)
- Piranesi (Susanna Clarke)
- TBD
- TBD
For books number nine and ten, I will leave the choices to my partner in crime and future collaborator on this blog , let’s see what the fortunes bring my way, and what need literary worlds I get to dip my toes into.
On the comic book front, this past weeks have been almost entirely dedicated to the controversial comic book series by writer Jason Aaron and illustrator R.M. Guéra, Scalped.
The crime-noir series was originally published by Vertigo Comics on January, 2007, with a run of 60 issues mostly under the helm of the original creators and it follows the story of undercover FBI agent Dash Bad Horse has he returns to the fictional reservation of Prairie Rose in South Dakota. His main goal is to bring down the corrupt and brutal Chief Lincoln Red Crow, as his grips over all the tribal affairs is iron clad and extremely violent.
In his mission he finds all sorts of strange characters and deadly foes, some descents into addiction and murder, and the moral conundrum of the prize to bring what the outside forces deemed as peace.
There’s some backlash on the story for the depiction of some of the Native American characters and the way of life inside the reservation , as with all stories, you should be careful, as a reader, not to fall into the stereotype of the characters because of any of their background, it should be treated like that, a work of fiction that not necessarily reflects the actual reality.
That being said, I really enjoy the series, it’s full of turns and twists, and with the protagonist being not this picture perfect law enforcer, it gives it this high stakes game where you are not sure he is going to survive, but you keep hoping that he does. I have only one volume left on the series, there’s some nervous anticipation to see how this plays out
As you can see, it was a busy couple of weeks, and with this enormous momentum, I hope to ride this pace until the end of this year, with plenty of stories read and 30,000 pages under my belt.
For now, I’m off to read.
Azriel
lostinamillionpages.com 
Leave a comment