Daily Journal: June 18, 2023

Once again, I find myself coming back to this cathartic device, which is even more necessary nowadays. There isn´t anything, besides reading, that can put my mind at ease faster that sharing my nonsense in written form, making a little noise in hopes that someone will find some solace between these lines.

With my reading from yesterday and today, I made some significant steps toward the main focus of the upcoming months, getting to the 500,000-page milestone no later than the middle of September. The good news is that, according to my projections, the new date for reaching the said goal is now October 27, 2023. There are only 12,022 pages between me and the first half of my project.

Today´s reading has been filled with really diverse material. I finished No Country for Old Men, by the late great, which is still really hard to think that this week he passed away, Cormac McCarthy, this was a re-read to celebrate his illustrious career that will live eternally on the brutally beautiful prose that he created. The other book that I’m working on is the behemoth written by Alan Moore, Jerusalem. Expanding 1,255 pages, currently on page 84, it explores the streets of Mr. Moore´s native city of Northampton, elevating them to mythical proportions. My goal for today is to reach page 142, following a schedule to finish it no later than July 3.

As always, and I know that´s pretty late on my neck of the woods, I´ll try to squeeze in some graphic novels in between the slow progress that novels represent. For tonight´s menu there´s volumes 6 and 7 of the manga series Battle Angel Alita, thankfully, I did not let the not-so-highly regarded movie adaptation deter me from giving the series a chance, it´s pretty fucking awesome.

Off to read.

azr

Redux

I can assure you that I’m alive and let’s say holding on to dear life, to say that I’m fine would be an exaggeration, but as long as you are breathing, it’s better to make the most of it.

I have two mayor things to go over since I have been on an accidental hiatus. Not writing was not on my plans, but I think there’s no time like the present to get right back on the horse.

I first thing is that my fifteen year of reading culminated with my 42nd birthday, and what a year it was. My grand total was 66,185 pages, that’s 1,243 extra pages that what was projected for the year, and 386 pages more than last year’s extraordinary results, making it my best year on record.

Year sixteen projected quota is 64,680 pages, and my reading has been impressively strong. Only 10 days into it, and I already have 4,282 registered pages. If by some miraculous effort, the pace is maintained, or at least kept around 300 daily pages, I’m looking at a 100,000-page year. Being more realistic, my sight is fixed on breaking the 70,000-page mark.

On a bigger scope, there’s only 13,157 pages left in order to reach the first 500,000 pages. Right now, the projections put the date of achieving this gargantuan task on November 9 of this year.

Thus, my focus is dead centered on getting there much sooner, to give purpose, and more importantly, some breathing room to get to the 1,000,000-page mark by my 50th birthday, the task at hand will be to move up that date to around the middle of September, around the 16th or 17th, marking the beginning of the steep and final ascent to my ultimate goal.

Off to read.

azr.

It’s about to go down

It’s been a while since my last post, and of course, this situation must and will be corrected.

Including today, there’s only 3 days left in the fifteen year of reading. Fortunately, there’s only 314 pages left to reach this year’s goal of 64,942, but more importantly, there’s an opportunity to surpass the amazing results that year fourteen presented.

You might ask what should I do to make this happen, well, only read a total of 1,172 pages in the next 3 days, and I’ll be celebrating not only my 42th birthday but also the second year on a row to register more than 65,000 pages.

Those results keep well on the road to reach the coveted 1,000,000-page mark by my 50th birthday. Right now, my projections put me 7 years, 9 months, and 27 days behind schedule, but this number is rapidly decreasing. For example, on March 13 of this year, I was 8 years, 10 months, and 17 days behind schedule. In only 3 months of reading, I knocked down more than a year of lost ground.

It’s safe to say that this gives me great hope for what’s to come.

Off to read.

azr

Estrellas y Dragones, Episode 3: Nightflyers by George R.R Martin

The latest episode of the podcast Estrellas y Dragones, in which, I colaborate with my dear friend Dred from the blog Lo que leemos , has just dropped.

We discussed the 1980 novella Nightflyers by famous author George R.R. Martin. This particular work was nominated for a Hugo and won the Locus Award for best novella in 1981. The author, better known for his epic fantasy Saga of A Song of Fire and Ice, gives us an enthralling science fiction horror story that is equal parts Aliens and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Be sure to check out the episode on Spotify. The link is above, or in any platform, that you get your podcasts. Or if you prefer to see the video version of it, you can catch us on YouTube.

Off to read.

azr

Daily Journal: May 13, 2023

After a much needed rest, I’m back to try and conquer this year’s goals, and more importantly, getting back to my previous writing rhythm with these daily entries.

Today’s reading has been a bit slower than what I had in mind coming into the weekend, but it’s better not to focus on what I haven’t done and instead try to salvage a bit of the day with a last effort before succumbing to sleep.

As tradition dictates, the month of May is mainly focused, from May 4 to May 25, to read anything from the many tales from a Galaxy far, far away. I have already finished a couple of books, Ahsoka and Before the Awakening, and right now, I’m working on a pretty interesting story of the training of infamous Sith Lord Darth Maul.

In The Wrath of Darth Maul, we bear witness to the cruel methods of Darth Sidious in order to obtain a worthy apprentice in the dark sith arts. Although this story is not part of the official story canon, there’s a lot of ties to the events that are portrait in both the Prequel Trilogy and the Clone Wars series. Regardless of what the new direction of the universe has taken, I still have plans to go over the more than 100 books from the Legends series. There are some true gems waiting to be discovered.

To top things off , there’s a couple of printed graphic novels that I bought quite some time ago. One from the High Republic era and one from the Bounty Hunters storyline that takes place in the Rebellion era. This little reading marathon is the perfect excuse to jump into what has been going on in the current storyline and maybe try and play catch-up.

Off to read.

azr

Perpetual motion, or, how to read 9,000 pages in 26 days

The end is nigh

Not in an apocalyptic way, but at least for my fifteen year of reading, the clock is ticking away, and let me tell you, I’m not even close to where my total should be. Of course, this gives me purpose.

The pressing number for the last 26 days of my reading year is 9,125 pages. This magical number comes from one of my many projections. With that gargantuan number, I’ll balance out this year’s reading, offsetting the enormous amount of surplus pages that have stacked up over the years, more than 200,000 pages in all.

With a little over 8 years to get to the coveted 1,000,000-page mark, I’m looking for at least 65,000 pages for each of the remaining years. This makes any extra pages a necessity to come out victorious and finish the last sentence of the last book, sitting in a beautiful space surrounded by books, with a light drizzle making beautiful and calming music.

But as always, there’s an immediate task to tackle in order to savor the final result right now it’s to read around 350 daily pages from today until my 42th birthday.

Off to read.

azr

P.S.

I’ll keep you posted with the return of my Daily Journal entries.

One month

I’m exactly one month from wrapping up year number fifteen of my quest to read 1,000,000 pages, and there’s still a whole lot of reading left to do.

In case you’re wondering, my total so far is 53,965, which puts me about 29 days behind schedule. In previous posts, I was toying with the idea of putting in place a rigorous reading schedule to achieve at least a total that would balance out the enormous surplus of pages from past years. I have done so, with really satisfactory results.

Right now, there are two numbers that have become the main focus of my final ride of the year. The first is 10,882 pages. This particular number is to contribute with some extra pages to counteract my weaker years. With the time left, I will have to read an average of 360 pages to do so, not a walk in the park but also not so farfetched as to not deem it feasible.

The second number is 11,835 pages, being the exact number to surpass by 1 page, my best year. Although year number fifteen has become my second best year, I’ll always strive to make each year my best, if only by 1 page. In order to achieve such an enormous task, I would have to read an average of 395, not as far removed as the number to balance out the year, so of course, this is the real focal point of the remaining month.

The thing that keeps me going forward is that the first half of my project is well within reach, which means that I’m only 29,659 pages away from the 500,000-page mark, putting the projected date on April 4, 2024.

I’ll keep an eye on the prize and work on hitting my marks for the current year.

Off to read.

azr

Itineribus: Two of my favorite spots in The Land of Enchantment

The state of New Mexico, located in the southwest of the United States of America, does justice to its nickname, The Land of Enchantment. You can find a wide variety of vistas, from sweeping desert landscapes to alpine forests with a healthy dose of snow in the winter, this enigmatic land has a lot of places to explore.

Sometimes you have to disconnect to reconnect, and the two places that I had the privileged to visit in this little getaway have a special place in my heart, going back to really pleasant childhood memories. I have visited them several times, but they never cease to amaze me.

The first stop was White Sands National Park, as the name tells really clearly, the park consists of around 710 square kilometers of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals, making it the largest of its kind on Earth. The best course of action when visiting this magical place is to take off your shoes and socks, to walk barefoot on the rolling dunes, believe me not, but you can feel the stress melt away and get swept away by the wind to get lost in the ancient mountains that surround this beautiful desert landscape.

The second stop was City of Rocks State Park, located between the cities of Deming and Silver City, also in the State of New Mexico, this geological formation comprised of large rocks columns is believed to have formed around 35 millions years ago with the eruption of a large volcano, with the power of erosion over millions of years, it formed what resembles the skyline of an ancient city. You can get lost between and the nooks and crannies, and find some really confortable stone chairs to listen to the wind and catch up on your reading, or under the enormous trees, while you take the amazing landscape that the Chihuahuan desert can provide.

In all, this was a very amazing weekend getaway, it was the perfect opportunity to recharge my batteries in my beloved desert, nothing but sunshine and clean air. I hope explore a few more places in this amazing land, there are few places in the near future, including a few ones that I haven’t yet been, anyone interest in a UFO crash site?

Until next time, safe travels.

azr

Daily Journal: April 23, 2023

I had grand plans for today, being World Book Club, one of the most important celebrations for us book lovers. Although not all what I envisioned for today’s festivities came to be, it was a very productive and fun day.

I still have around 8 pages left on my self-imposed daily quota. This is to finish by the end of April with the magnificent book The Ship of Magic, written by incomparable Robin Hobb. I must confess that there’s was a certain struggle at the beginning of reading to catch the flow of the book, but once the story progressed, it hooks you in.

The progress for today could have been a lot better, right now by total for the day is 336 pages, giving me 1,739 total pages for week number 46 of this year of reading. The optimum outcome for this week would have been finishing with a total of 2,058 pages, an extra 319 pages from where I stand right now, but there’s always another opportunity with the upcoming week.

The month of April, with the calendar pages rapidly falling, leaving a little less than a week to go, has a total of 7,239 pages, leaving me 1,221 pages to read in 6 days. As I said before, these extra pages are with the intention of giving me a fighting chance to reach the coveted 64,000-page mark in the end of the year, considering that after April finishes, I have only 37 days before the finish line.

Tomorrow, I’ll tally all that is missing in my digital log, and probably, if the day’s isn’t a smorgasbord of activities, I will post a “Numbers” entry, that is way overdue.

Off to read.

azr

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