It’s been quite a while since my last post, 135 days to be precise.

A lot has happened in that time , and I do mean a lot. But I’ll start at the beginning.

Year number 18 of my journey finished with two outstanding things, me turning 45 years old, leaving only 5 years to reach the coveted goal of 1,000,000 pages, and the year becoming my best one of reading.

I finished with a whopping 70, 570 total pages, that’s 4,385 more than my best year, which was number 15, consisting from June 2022 to June 2023. This number should be the consistency for the upcoming years, this is if I want to hit my goal on June 2031

To close out the eighteen year of reading and to celebrate my 45th birthday , I was treated by my partner in crime to an incredible road trip to some of my favorite places.

The journey started at the eerily beautiful White Sands National Park, which I have written about in another post. To be completely honest, although I have been several times, it never ceases to amaze.

Coincidentally, this visit marked the first National Park of our new bucket list, the idea is to visit all of the 63 National Park established in the USA, this challenge comes with a guide book to stamp and a water bottle to put sticker on after each visit, but more on that on later posts.

The second destination was the quiet mountain village of Cloudcroft, New Mexico, it’s incredible how one minute you are surrounded by the shifting sands of a white desert and the next, you are walking among some ancient ponderosa pines.

It was a nice change of pace, with really good weather, incredible hiking trails, and some local brews to cap off the celebration. Unfortunately there’s was no Bigfoot sightings, but maybe next time.

The last stop on the road trip, and the second National Park checked off our bucket list, was Carlsbad Caverns National Park, an imposing system of ancient formations 229 meters beneath the desert floor.

According to the studies, it’s believed that the cavern system was formed around 260 million years ago during the Permian era. But the actual state of the system was created due to tectonic movement around 6 million years ago. It’s humbling being surrounded by this majestic formations and know that nature carved one drop at a time.

In all, it was an incredible experience, sometimes you need to disconnect in order to reconnect.

With this fresh start to the year of reading a plan brewed. First, and more importantly to reach the year’s goal, which according to the new calculations would place it at 70,204 pages. Second, return to my second favorite fantasy world, The Forgotten Realms. Here is where the legendary Drizzt Do’Urden roams.

In addition to catch up with the adventures of the Drow Ranger, currently on book 35 of 38, I will also explore the vast range of stories that this magnificent realm has to offer.

To start me off, I’ll go back to the legendary Drow city of Menzoberranzan for the six book series The War of the Spider Queen, where the goddess Lolth goes silent and threatens the very existence of the Drow Society.

I already finished the first book, Dissolution, and the second volume, Insurrection, is about 80% done. Both amazing dynamic stories full of deceit and the nefarious plots, all that you could expect from the infamous dwellers of the Underdark

In the upcoming days, I’ll dive deeper into my journey in these amazing books and post some of my impressions of the start of my adventures in the Forgotten Realms

Thanks to this inspiring start of the year, I’m excited to inform that the total for this first almost month of the nineteenth year of my project is 3,948 pages. And although the projections place the need of pages around 70,000, the true aim is to make this year the first with a total of 100,000 pages. Not the first time I have attempted it, but this time the vibe feels different, and that is something that needs to be pursued and hopefully, conquered.

In the broader scope, and with only 1,801 days left until my 50th birthday, the need to put the pedal to the metal has become more evident. The total for the overall project is 652,928 pages. That means that 347,072 pages stand between me and my ultimate goal, quite the gargantuan task, but as always, the plan is to face it head on.

The plan is simple, focus on one step at a time, and set milestones to keep me focused and motivated. Currently the next big step is to reach 700,000 pages, with a good amount of discipline that goal could be reached by October 10 of 2027.

The next milestone will be 750,000 pages, that goal is currently projected for February 17 of 2029, but what makes this particularly important is that holds a very special prize at the end, a road trip of around 2,000 kilometers, 4 national parks visited, and it’s the prelude to the final act.

The 1,000,000 pages milestone, or the whole enchilada, is currently projected for December 2 of 2035. I’m still off by 4 years 5 months and 27 days of the deadline, but much to my delight, this margin keeps getting smaller each and every day.

As you can read, there’s a lot to unpack and this hiatus days have not been in vain, the wheel keeps spinning toward my ultimate goal. And hopefully, as the posts keep on rolling, you can accompany me to the end of this journey, and in less than 5 years, we will be cheering and toasting for the end of this chapter and the beginning of the next phase of my love for the written word.

For now, I’m off to read

Will be needing a lot of that for the foreseeable future

Azriel D