Thus, we have arrived at the halfway point of March and let me tell you that I couldn’t be happier at the results so far.

I’ll start by saying that today’s quota has already been achieved. Currently, it is on a pretty decent 194 total page, with another session left on the day, there’s a few pages pending from Robin Hobb’s The Ship of Magic, quite a few if I’m being honest, which I’ll get to once this post is finished.

Coming back to the idea that I was toying with yesterday. I settled on using only an analog aid to keep track of my reading and to set daily goals to get me to the finish line before the first major event of the year, Tolkien Reading Day. On that note, today’s goals are or were, considering there’s only a couple of hours left on the day, as follows:

• Read 66 pages from The Ship of Magic
• Read 88 pages from H.P. Lovecraft: The Collection ( yeah, I’m serious about getting it done)
• Read B.P.R.D: Hell on Earth Book 1 (already done)

As an added bonus, I also finished the seventh volume of the marvelous fantasy comic book series from Delcourt publishing, Elves, a breathtaking adventure with some of the best artwork I had the privilege to witness.

Before I leave you to go back to my reading, a thing that almost slipped my mind is updating my progress for the month of March. It’s sitting comfortably at 3,301 pages, which represents around 60% of the monthly quota. This gives me a real shot to not only fill the projected total but also try to chip away some of those pesky red numbers.

The magical seas await me patiently to husher my still overactive mind into the realms of calm and sleep. Let’s see what wondrous adventures await me aboard the magical ship.

Off to read.

azr

I have only a couple of hours to decide between two choices, a bifurcation on the long road of my journey, end a 13-day streak, or summon some late night heroics.

I guess the choice is pretty clear, but to help me along the way, I’ll resort to some old friends and a guarantee that my attention wouldn’t drift into the comforting arms of Morpheus, The Dreaming shall need to wait for me for a little while.

To perform this seemly impossible task, I’ll better cut my writing short tonight, put my vest on , and follow the lead of Abe Sapien, the fearless agent of the B.P.R.D.

Let’s see what new terrors await us, crawling in the ancient and dark corridors.

Off to read

azr

I’m glad to say that the streak is still alive and well. Although I could reach one of today’s goals, getting March’s total over 50%, it still was a very fun and productive day.

My total for the day, so far, is 252 pages, getting the current month to 2,719 pages, which represents 49.2% of the total quota. The goal that I did, in fact, achieved was getting past this week’s quota with a total of 1,491, a very satisfying 245 pages to contribute to the cause of getting the surplus pages down just a little bit.

As I promised, tomorrow will mark the return of my weekly update of how the numbers of the year and the project in general behaved this past week. Not to spoil anything, but there has been some forward progress, particularly in the dates for reaching the first half of the project, and of course, the whole thing.

This week has seen some shifts thanks to my new regime of reading, combining some graphic novels in between the sessions of more dense material, as books tend to be slower read with huge payoffs. In order to keep the focus and motivation of really seeing registered pages fill the cells of my digital records, this combination of mediums has proven the most effective.

For example, today, I read and finished the third volume of the Usagi Yojimbo Saga, which consequently is now on the columns of my finished items, in between the magical pages of Robin Hobb’s The Ship of Magic, this way, there’s some quick pages to register while the big payoff falls.

These upcoming days, the focus will be on a couple of Delcourt comics series, Elves and Dwarves.

All of this is with the aim of trying to get the current books done by the first major event of the year, Tolkien Reading Day.

Off to read

azr

This newfound rhythm of reading has reignited my hopes of reaching the coveted 64,000 total page goal for the current year. And yes, today was another successful outing for my daily quota.

Right now, my total sits at 202 pages, and with another reading session, the last of the day, this number should increase at least by 60 pages. The intention is to close off with the weekly quota, only 69 pages to do so, and with the most productive day ahead of me, this is shaping up to be exactly the type of week I should aim to repent for the 11 left in the calendar of year fifteen.

My total for the month of March is now 2,405 pages, representing almost 44%, putting in the perfect position to reach the halfway mark 12 days into the month. There’s still a matter of 800 pages to help balance out the slack that build up over the not so productive weeks of the year. This figure is not so farfetched, I have been known to have days of reading that well exceed those numbers. I’m not saying that it’s a done deal, but there’s a high probability that I could do it.

Maybe tomorrow, I can repeat what one of my short reading sessions did for me today, just not in the same location, sit quietly surrounded by some trees for 15 minutes, breath in, and get some reading done.

For now, I’ll follow the mantra that has upheld my journey thru the last months, “one page at a time,” and hopefully, the pathway should open up for me.

Off to read

azr

Another successful day of reading, make that 10 in a row, a perfect way to keep things rolling toward that coveted 64,000-page goal for the year fifteen of reading.

As I posted yesterday, the 40,000-page mark has been successfully surpassed, and the total for the month of March now sits at 2,203 pages, representing almost 40% of the monthly quota. This weekend should be more than sufficient to reach the halfway point, and hopefully, register some more pages.

With that in mind, my immediate goal is to, preferably, by tomorrow, reach this week’s quota, there’s 271 left to do so, and maybe aim towards getting the 800 additional pages to keep chipping away at the amounting surplus pages from past weeks.

To help me along the way, there’s a couple of graphic novels on my queue. The first item is the third volume of the epic adventures of the deadly and furry Miyamoto Usagi, currently on page 151, and the sixth volume of Elves, published by French publisher Delcourt, one of the graphic novels with the most beautiful artwork that I had the privilege to read.

All of this sprinkled with a few pages from Robin Hobb’s The Ship of Magic with a side order of H.P. Lovecraft.

Off to read.

azr

I’m glad to say that the streak survived to fight another day. As I write these lines, my total for the day is 181 pages, I know, just 3 pages over the daily quota, but as long as that number can be reached, even surpassed by only 1 page, that kind of day will always go o the win column.

Still, my focus for the rest on the night is trying to finish the second volume of the amazing Usagi Yojimbo Saga, currently on page 504 of 662, which will get past the 40,000-page mark, just need to register 348 pages to do so.

And March is still looking like a turning point month, in only the eight day of the month, I have 1,800 total , representing 32% of the monthly quota, that’s exactly the kind of numbers I need to get this year back on track. There’s also the looming need to squeeze in a few extra pages on top of the monthly quota. For this month, it’s around 2,700 extra pages.

The other good news coming off today’s reading sessions is that I finally resume my reading of H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Collection. The story behind why I started the collection is that my wife got me an illustration by local artist “Puro Barragan” depicting a character from the short story The Cats of Ulthar, that’s when I realize that there were some stories that escaped my mind and I had to explore the vast world created by one of the best horror writers in history.

Right now, I’m on page 448 of the whopping 1,353 that comprises this vast collection, and the perfect way to resume my journey is to go thru The Mountain of Madness.

Off to read.

azr

Yesterday was an amazing day for my reading. Not only did I finish the hauntingly beautiful story that Cormac McCarthy weaved in The Border Trilogy, but I also read a total of 395 pages, getting me passed, just barely, the weekly quota. Hopefully, this will be the case for the foreseeable future.

Also, if I include today, my reading streak, of reading at least 150 pages per day, has just gone up to 6 days. This is the main key to getting the first leg of my journey done by the end of 2023.

After all the dust settled on what was a very productive reading day, I finally got around to tallying the amazing stories that were finished and, much to my delight, found that there’s only 386 left to hit the 40,000-page mark on this the fifteen year of my beloved project.

To help me complete this part of the journey, I will be embarking on new adventures with two of my favorite writers/creators.

First, on the book side of things,I’ll be coming back to the mesmerizing worlds created by the amazing talented Robin Hobb. On the first book, The Ship of Magic, of the Liveship Traders series, we will step aboard a sentient ship and its perilous journey to try and cross the Rain Wild River, if anything the previous series by this author is an indication of what is in store, this is going to be a breathtaking adventure.

Secondly, and from which I’m fast approaching the middle part of the book, there’s the joyous adventures of ronin Miyamoto Usagi, the cunning rabbit warrior and his adventures roaming the country side in search of himself and some redemption hidden away at the edge of his katana.

This amazing series, masterfully created by Stan Sakai, first saw light on 1984 and currently has around 219 issues. I choose for this particular endeavor to indulge in the digital edition of the Saga Collection, being the second volume of nine that comprise the epic saga of the gentle but deadly warrior.

Let’s keep things rolling and keep hitting those little steps toward the bigger picture.

Off to read.

azr