Category: Daily Journal

The Journey: October 18, 2025

Welcome to the post formally known as The Daily Journal. Since sometimes I can’t write daily, I think the best course of action is to change a little bit the dynamic of this entries, just cram my day to day progress with these crazy journey of mine.

Continuing with the spooky season theme of the passed two weeks, I’m knee deep into the not so explored genre horror.

I’m currently on page 138 of the incredibly creepy The Reddening by Adam L.G. Nevill, this book has make me want to further explore the author’s bibliography and probably also check-out the movie based on his popular novel, The Ritual

On the Vampirismo collection, I’m fallen a little bit behind and currently working on the sixth story, La Dama pálida by famous author Alexander Dumas. The goal is get thru each an every single story by the end of October.

On the comic book front, what would spooky season be without tossing some of the genius work by the incredible Mike Mignola, famous for creating the ever expanding universe of Hellboy. Im continuing with Volume number 12 of the Hell on Earth Series, Metamorphosis, the whole continues in shambles as the threat of the mysterious creatures keep haunting human kind.

Also, I’ll throw in some one shoots from Hellboy and one of the series of the Expanded Universe, Rasputin : The Voice of the Dragon, which follows his rise to power that leads up to the summoning of Anung Un Rama, the event that started this whole series

For me, being Mexican, spooky season extends until November 2, that’s when we commemorate our dearly departed with Día de muertos, hopefully, I’ll get around and share the incredible festivities that we partake in honoring the memory of those who left us to go on their new journey.

As I intend to keep my week goal streak going, between tonight and tomorrow, I have around 800 pages to read .

With that in mind, I’m off to read

Azriel

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Daily Journal: October 13, 2025

I’m coming of a reading high that I haven’t experience in quite a while.

My numbers were phenomenal over the weekend and they went as so:

Friday, October 10: 315 pages

Saturday, October 11: 543 pages

Sunday, October 12: 598 pages

I do feel a shift of my focus during spooky season, the combination of colder weather, hot coffee, and wearing hoodies, just make the perfect environment to get lost in books, and with the selection for reading this year it’s only enhancing the experience tenfold.

I must say that my current book, The Reddening by Adam L.G. Nevill grab me by the balls and it doesn’t want to let go. That combination of archeological finds and the tension of disturbing some ancient beasts from their resting place is just done perfectly. Yesterday only sleep kept me apart from reading more of it, still, I made some decent progress, 73 pages.

The other book, Vampirismo, a compilation of classic vampire tales, has gotten me thinking of returning to one of my favorite mini-goals of this project, one short story a day keeps the impending feeling of doom of not finishing this project in time away. So, after that dramatic diatribe, yesterday was the classic tale from John Polidori, The Vampyre, it’s was good but not phenomenal, today on the docket, La buena Lady Ducayne by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, let’s see if this one fairs better.

On the comic book front, I’ll go back to one of my favorite series from the mid-90’s Marvel Universe, Midnight Sons, but this time in its newest incarnation. The Midnight Sons are a supernatural “group” of superheroes that are mainly comprised by Blade, Morbius, and The Ghost Riders Danny Ketch and Johnny Blaze. This particular arc is called Blood Hunt,and apparently they will have to face the Werewolf by Night on steroids. Let’s see if it’s as fun as I remember, either way this one is special, it was a gift from my biggest and best supporter and the one who got me back to writing, forever grateful for that.

As a final note, I have an infinite amount of books and comics that I want to read, and as all bookworms know, that comes with the territory of having mountains of TBR just sitting on our shelves, both physically and digitally, for that matter, and in the interest of bringing those mountains down to hills, I device a couple of reward systems.

The first being a completion of 10 stamps, each stamp is equal to one book finished, in order to buy the next book. In this case in particular I’m using it to continue my dive into one of the most iconic series from Warhammer 40K or better said 30K, that’s an explanation for another time, anyway, I’m of course talking about The Horus Heresy.

I’m hunting for book number five , Fulgrim,the series, by the way, is 60+ books long, and I’m proud to say that I have already collected 5 stamps. I’ll post a photo next time of my card where I keep track of my progress.

The second reward system is time read, and for this particular reward I’m going after at least 24 hours of actual reading and in return, I’ll buy the next volume on a series that only recently came into my radar, The Wandering Inn by Pirateaba.

Right now the series is 17 books in, and with a whopping 23,000 + pages of total story, I’m more than intrigued to jump into a long epic fantasy series. Below you can see the first volume of the series,the second volume, the one that I’m hunting for, and the almost complete reward card

There’s so much to read and achieved, the one thing that I can say is that I haven’t been this motivated in a long time

Off to read

Azriel

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Daily Journal: October 12, 2025

It took a while for me to get back to sharing my progress in this crazy journey of mine, but here I am, eager to get back on track with my reading.

I think the first order of business on this return is to give you a quick update of how my numbers are going and what I’m currently working on.

As you may already know, spooky season is my favorite time of the year, and so far, I have read some amazing eerie and disturbing stories.

In the case of the creature of the Black Lagoon and Dear Creature, the stories follow a reptilian type creature that haunts the waterways, but in two totally different approaches, to be completely honest, I was pleasantly surprised by Jonathan Case’s Dear Creature, not only is it beautifully illustrated, but it also has a more whimsical approach to the creature, sometimes really funny, sometimes really heart wrenching, but in all an amazing tale of trying to belong and find happiness.

On the other hand, the Creature from the Black Lagoon transported me to back when I was 12 and starting to get into those classic creature-features that were already ingrained as the basis of all the genre of monsters.

Another volume I started working on was A Very DC Halloween, seeing the classic characters from the DC universe embroiled in supernatural scenarios is always fun, and just teasing on the cover a Swamp Thing story, well that will get me to open it up every time.

On the book front, I just re-started my spooky season tradition of reading Frankenstein, beautifully illustrated by William O’Connor, as always this behemoth of a book never fails to amaze me, and with the impending release of Guillermo del Toro adaptation, this was the perfect timing to get immersed in it’s captivating story

The two other books that hopefully will be finished by the end of spooky season

The first is a compilation of vampire called Vampirismo, containing some classic authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Alexander Dumas, H.G.Wells, Robert E.Howard and the main reason for buying this particular collection was to finally read the seminal story by John Polidori, The Vampyre. Considered the first romantic vampire story and created on the same faithful night where the brilliant Mary Shelley gave birth to her famous Prometheus.

The second is the folk-horror novel The Reddening by author Adam L.G. Nevill , as the description of the book goes, I’m getting into a world of ancient rituals , prehistoric vengeful gods and mythical red creatures. Sounds like the perfect book to cozy up for the colder weather.

On the number side of things , I’ll just make a quick update, the full rundown of my totals and date of the next achievements will be posted on the next numbers post, which as tradition dictates, will be done on the magic Monday of each week.

So far on this year, the eighteen of reading, my total is 13,971 pages. I started a bit slow but right now my pace has improved drastically. The goal for the year is 70,265 pages, clarifying that I measure from my birthday , which is in June, so the year starts one day after and finishes on the exact date of my birthday.

The two next impending goals are reaching 15,000 pages for the year, projected for October 21, and the next big milestone on the whole project , reaching 600,000 pages, that according to my average and pacing it should be achieved on the last day of 2025, of course I’ll try to bring down that date.

Now more than ever each day gained and each page read is worth gold,my conviction to arrive to those coveted objective has not changed. In around 6 years, I’ll be celebrating with a trip to culminate this amazing adventure, the journey has been spectacular, not let’s thread those final footsteps to my emerald prize .

For now, I’m off to read

Azriel

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Daily Journal: February 2, 2025

Busy, Busy days, but fortunately this has not affected my reading, actually, I’m experiencing a rhythm that reminisces of the days when I read more than 60,000 pages in a year.

Finally some inspiration has reignited my love and passion for the written word.

The most important thing that changed from the past barren months was that I established a reading routine. Instead of lamenting about not being able to sit down and read for a couple of hours, I do some micro sessions all along the day.

I start the day early and with my morning coffee I try to squeeze in at least 30 to 40 minutes of reading. Another thing that helps a lot is during my commute to work, since I’m not driving, I use the time to add around 15 to 20 minutes in the morning and afternoon. Probably my biggest session during the weekdays is during lunch. A cool 45 minutes after chugging down my lunch with the minimal chewing.

As you can see, adding up those little spaces, I’m averaging around 2 hours of reading during the day. Of course during the weekend I’m trying to at least get 3 to 4 hours in. Not always possible but this new routine is fairly new, let’s give it time to develop.

In that regard what is helping out tremendously is that the Bookly Readathon is going on right now. The minimal amount of hours of reading is set to 10 hours and the true achievement will be the top tier 45 hours from January 29 to February 9.

As you can see in the image below, I’m just past the 8 hour mark, with a week to go, and being the greedy reading that I am, the goal is the top tier, but if I get to the third level on the challenge “Plot Explorer” that is, to read over 20 hours but less than 45 hours, I will consider it a great success.

As I have been doing this past few weeks, the majority of the material that I have been reading are graphic novels. Right now, I’m still on the rabbit hole that’s the various series of the famous video game Assassin’s Creed.

In the series Awakening, we sail the treacherous waters of the Caribbean in the 18th century, of course if we are talking pirates, what better way to exemplify that having the legendary Blackbeard make and appearance. On the other hand, Valhalla-Blood Brothers, set in the 860’s, we follow the brothers Stensson and their conquest of England. As I’m a sucker for Vikings, I highly recommend the latter book, it’s a bloody good time as the brothers face an angry Anglo Saxon army.

Thanks to all of this dynamic and fun stories, my reading streaks are alive and well. Actually, the second of the four challenges was successfully completed last week, and I even got the second prize to keep me focused and motivated on my reading.

Here’s a quick update of the challenges

  • 10-day reading streak, at least 179 pages per day (Completed
  • 5-day gold reading streak, at 300 pages per day (Completed )
  • 4 week reading streak, at least 1,253 pages per week ( 3 week streak)
  • 100-day reading streak, at least 179 pages per day (24 day streak)

As you can see, the second challenge, the 5-day gold reading streak has been completed and the prize is already in my hands, drum roll please

The second volume of the Horus Heresy, False Gods, my year-long event of reading for the eighteenth year of my project. I love how the anticipation is building in my head of what promises to be an epic year full of Grimdark and a universe that I have never explore before. The only thing I hope is that there’s enough time for me to get knee deep into this vast story, that according to my preliminary delving into it, the 64 series is only part of the whole event.

Lots of reading and catching up to do, that includes being more meticulous with this space to share my adventure thru 1,000,000 pages and a whole lot of caffeine.

I hope that tomorrow one of the sections gets back in circulation. I’m talking about the “Numbers” or my magic Mondays, where I get to share my progress for the week and how the year is shaping up.

But for now.

I’m off to read.

Azriel

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Daily Journal: January 26, 2025

As I finish up another week of reading, number 34 of the current year, I can help but see some glimmers of hope for the final stretch of the year. I mean, when the total for the week is 1,938 pages, and you are running on 4 straight days of 300 or more pages, there’s no way not to feel excited .

What can I say, my motivation and inspiration are going thru the roof.

As you might recall ,on the past few post, my main focus has been to return to reading form, and the best way for me to do that, is to challenge myself to hit certain milestones to get the not so impressive numbers of this dwindling year to a decent amount, at least enough so I can regroup and intensify my strategies for the remaining years.

As always, and it’s beside me why I don’t stick to the formula, the combination of reading graphic novels and books are proving to be the most effective combination to keep things rolling and more importantly adding up pages to the rachitic coffers of this year’s total.

For today’s reading, and the reason in over 300 pages, I dove into another story of the incredibly interesting universe of the famous video game Assassin’s Creed, in the Fall and The Chain, you follow the exploits of assassin Nikolai Orelov as he navigates 19th-century Russia, and a deep plot involving the Tsar and Templar.

To continue the journey, my next read will be the series, Origins, set in Ancient Egypt and the creation of the Assassin Brotherhood, just by the setting, I’m so eager to jump right into it.

The final story that accompanied me was the second story arc of Frankenstein, but the one that shares a universe with my all time favorite comic book character Hellboy. In this mini series, the Adam is living in exile inside the Hollow Earth , this of course after surviving the Ragnarok, his relative peaceful existence is shattered when a little girl seeks his advice after receiving a new darkness brewing. There’s not much to say, Mike Mignola + Frankenstein = One very happy Azriel.

There’s nobody like Mr. Mignola to take all this elements and recombine them into a coherent mythos. That man is literally the definition of taking something and making it yours.

As you can see, I had an intense day of reading, and just to make a quick recap here are the current status of my 4 challenges

  • 10-day reading streak, at least 179 pages per day (Completed)
  • 5-day gold reading streak, at 300 pages per day (4 day streak)
  • 4 week reading streak, at least 1,253 pages per week ( 2 week streak)
  • 100-day reading streak, at least 179 pages per day (17 day streak)

Everything is going forward to much of my delight, tomorrow, I’ll return to what became my traditional “Magic Monday” or officially known as the Numbers post, where I’ll update the broader scope or my reading project

For now, I’m off to read

Azriel

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Daily Journal: January 25, 2024

Another amazing day of reading, not only did I surpassed the 300-page mark, but I also reach the weekly quota. My total for the week right now stands at 1,612 pages, that’s 359 more pages than the weekly goal, and with a lazy Sunday still ahead of me, this week will end up being the best so far this year.

Again, my numbers surge when I start combining some reading sessions of manga with the current book that I’m reading, in this case, Long Live Evil. I don’t know how this perfect balance slips my mind.

Today, I started another manga series to keep this habit and reading scheme going, Priest, is a manhwa or Korean comic book created by Hyung Min-Woo about the fallen priest Ivan Isaacs who sells his soul to the demon Belial in order to fight the forces of evil. The story fuses elements of Western, Dark Fantasy and Horror. The first volume introduces us to some of the inner turmoil of Ivan and the deadly task of facing the 12 fallen archangels.

I’m feeling really confident, even a little bit cocky. With only 130 days left on my reading year, I’m starting to get the crazy idea of aiming to finish the year in style, with all the remaining days without a single one under 179 pages. You know me, I love a good challenge.

With the Bookly Readathon approaching and the year total being in the lower part of the 20,000-page, the idea of finishing with the 179-page a day streak seems more like a necessity rather than a optional approach for closing out the year.

But as I have been doing this passed month and my personal mantra “one page at a time “ , the best approach is to take it one step at a time, and surely, I will be celebrating my next birthday with a 40,000+ page year in the books .

Below, you can see the latest status of my challenges

  • 10-day reading streak, at least 179 pages per day (Completed)
  • 5-day gold reading streak, at 300 pages per day (3 day streak)
  • 4 week reading streak, at least 1,253 pages per week ( 2 week streak)
  • 100-day reading streak, at least 179 pages per day (16 day streak)

As you can see everything is well under way, in fact, the reward for the first challenge finished is already in my hands, you may wonder what it is, without any further ado.

The first volume of the Horus Heresy, this seminal series will be become the year-long challenge for the eighteenth year of my project, I’m so excited that the first piece is already in my hands , and I’m more than eager to start my journey in the Grimdark

Off to read

Azriel

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Daily Journal: January 23, 2025

I’m so glad to be writing to inform you , my beloved readers, that my reading has been not faulted or taking any miss steps for the past two weeks.

As I write this, not only did I cross the 179-page mark, taking up the streak to 14 days, but I also started on the path of the final challenge not yet active, the 5-day gold reading streak, and with the weekend fast approaching, I don’t see any inconvenience for that to reach day number 4 by the afternoon of the lazy Sunday that’s ahead of me.

The other challenge that’s looking promising for is the 4-week reading streak, there’s only 335 pages standing between me and the second week in a row of hitting the weekly quota. In order to achieve that the easiest way , and one of the most entertaining, is to get knee deep into a new manga series.

The turn this time is one I have been eyeing for a while, Assassin’s Creed : Dynasty. Set in the year 755 d.C. follows the attempts of Li E, an assassin trained by The Hidden Ones and his quest to turn the tide and save the Tang dynasty from complete obliteration.

As always, this quick and fun read keeps me motivated, and most of all, keep those pages adding up without me even realizing it. what I was lacking the most was this balance between pure adulterating fun and more dense and deep reads.

With things keeping this trajectory, I will be crossing the finish line of the hardest challenge, the 100-day reading streak, by April 19, and what a prize that will be.

A quick recap of the reading challenges

  • 10-day reading streak, at least 179 pages per day (Completed)
  • 5-day gold reading streak, at 300 pages per day (1 day streak)
  • 4 week reading streak, at least 1,253 pages per week ( 1 week streak)
  • 100-day reading streak, at least 179 pages per day (14 day streak)

The other thing that I’m excited about is the beginning of the Bookly Readathon, officially called “Page One”, starting in exactly 5 days and 18 hours. Call me crazy, but in order to really make it a challenge, I would love to hit the top tier of hours read, That would mean that I should read at least 45 hours to call myself a “Chapter Champion” with all the pride in the world.

What do you think? Do you think I’m up for the challenge?

For now, I’m off to read

Azriel

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Daily Journal: January 19,2025

Back on January 11, I decided to spicy things up with a few reading challenges to get this year out of the slump. Well I’m glad to inform that the first challenge has been achieved.

For the past 10 days, I have hit the mark of at least reading 179 pages per day, even better than that, my average has been around 215 pages per day. Thanks to that, another of the challenges has hit its first mark. The 4-week challenge of reading 1,253 pages per week. Things are starting to have the forward momentum that gives me hope that the coveted 1,000,000 pages at the end of the road, will be achieved.

I also mentioned that as a motivation tool, after each challenge completed I will reward myself with a prize, more books of course, for now I’ll keep the suspense until I get the first prize physically in my hands.

Just a quick recap of the challenges :

  • 10-day reading streak, at least 179 pages per day (Completed)
  • 5-day gold reading streak, at 300 pages per day (Not started)
  • 4 week reading streak, at least 1,253 pages per week (1 week streak)
  • 100-day reading streak, at least 179 pages per day (10 day streak)

To add to this progress, I will also be participating on the Bookly App first Readathon of the year. Taking place from January 30 to February 9.

Although the app focuses more on the time spent reading, it is a great way to get those pages rolling.

This time, as they often do , there’s levels according to how much time you read. As always, being the greedy reader that i am , I would love to aim for “Chapter Champion” level , more than 45 hours logged in.

The other cool thing about the Readathon is the prompts, themes or characteristics of the books you are reading,. This I believe always have motivated me to read outside of my comfort zone, a thing I have been doing more often this past few months.

The particular prompt that I think that tackling first will be a great motivator should be ‘A book You’ve Started but Never Finished” there are quite a few on my TBR pile.

To close out the day of reading , I think I’ll try to get the last of challenges started, 5 gold days of reading, let’s see how the rest of the night plays out

Off to read

Azriel

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Daily Journal: January 15,2025

Things have being picking up on my reading. Yesterday I didn’t post because the choice was to read and keep the streak alive, now on its sixth consecutive day. I

made the decision of skipping my daily post in order to focus on what brings me here in the first place, journeying thru infinite worlds and stories that would bring me closer to my coveted goal of reading 1,000,000 million pages before my 50th birthday, which, by the way is only 2,334 days away.

Some noteworthy things to point out is that I have reached the 20,000-page mark for this year of reading, a little behind from where I would like to be, but nothing that some intense reading session, including a Readathon on the Bookly app, but more of that shortly.

The other thing is that yesterday, I started a couple of new adventures. Firstly a new manga series, Laughing Under the Clouds, in my trustworthy Kindle Unlimited subscription. Following brothers Tenka, Soramaru and Chutaro Kumo and their endeavor to catch and lead prisoners to the infamous island prison built in the middle of a lake they soon find out that their destiny is far more complex. Samurai, ancient curses, and Serpent Gods, what more can you ask for in a series

The other is the first book of Time of Iron, Long Live Evil by Irish Author Sarah Rees Brennan, the premise is killer, What if you could walk into your favorite book? . This book is from a genre I’m beginning to explore, but if this is testament of what’s to come, I’m in for a killer ride.

In all, things are progressing very well, let’s hope that by the end of the week the 10-day streak is achieved, I can start the 5 gold day streak and the 4 week streak. Lots of reading and scheming.

Off to read

Azriel

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Daily Journal: January 13, 2024

Things keep on going onward. With a little over an hour to go on the day, I’m almost done with the daily reading goal.

This will mark the fourth consecutive day that I reach the goal, almost at the middle of the 10-day reading streak, I wonder what will be the prize will be at the end of the challenge, guess we’ll find out together.

Hopefully,  this will set up the beginning of the 4-week reading streak and push me forward with the biggest challenge of the year 100 straight days of meeting my goal.

I’ll better get back to the books, I’m not sure how much longer my eyes will hold.

Off to read

Azriel

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