There’s only one more day to get to halfway point of the month, and the burning question is if am I going to reach the quota, and the remaining 15 days to chip away some of those pesky surplus pages from past weeks. The short answer is, yes.

But why so confident you may ask, well, my total is 5,114, around 93% of the needed total, leaving 226 pages to read between what is left of today and all day tomorrow. Not to judge my progress today, or even take it as an indication of things to come, but with the slow start on today’s sessions, I haven’t quite gotten back to the magnificent reading pace and routine from those two behemoth of weeks that put me into a position to success going.

The main thing is not to panic, and most importantly, keep repeating the daily mantra “one step at a time, one page at a time.” With the simply philosophy, I’ll try to sum up more pages to the already 117 read today. Not to jump really ahead of myself, but I’m most certain that with the pages still to be tallied into my digital log , there’s the strong possibility that this year’s 50,000-page milestone has been conquer, a task to be completed first thing tomorrow.

My final reading session of the day will be comprised of a few pages of The Book of Lost Tales Part One. There’s around 40 pages left on the book, and what mesmerizing journey it had been to see how the mythology of such a beloved world came to be.

As always, considering that I don’t succumb too quickly to sleep, there’s some pages left to explore that traverse the treacherous streets of Gotham City, following the Dark Knight and his battle with the dangerous villain Profesor Pyg, which was created by another dynamic duo of creator, Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert, making his debut in July 2007 on Batman #666. In this incarnation, the creative team behind the story is Scott Snyder on writing duties and Jason Fabok on the art work.

Off to read.

azr

Yesterday’s reading got me back on track, and the whopping 340 total pages are a testament of that. Inch by inch, I’m working toward the next milestone, 50,000 pages. It’s so close that I can taste it.

My total for April is comfortably sitting on 4,494 pages, which gives me the perfect opportunity to close out this month’s page quota by the 15th. The perfect storm is brewing, and I’ll be damn if this forward momentum passes me by. There’s every possible sign that points to lining myself up for an extraordinary final push.

The other thing that has been moving along quite nicely is my journey to the first 500,000 pages. I’m only 34,373 pages away from that important milestone that, according to my projections, I should be arriving at that point on May 7, 2024. This date has been getting closer, and my hope is that by January 2024, that goal should be done.

But, in order to get all of this planning and scheming done, I have to do one particular thing, read. In that department, today’s accomplices will be the tenth volume of the Manga series Fairy Tail. This story promises us to dig into the murky of one of the guild’s most iconic members, Erza Scarlet. What secrets does the Tower of Heaven have in store for our band of misfits?

Let’s find out.

The other graphic novels on the queue is the first volume of the series Batman: Eternal, written by two of my favorite authors working on comic books right now, Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV. This story follows the growing tension between the Dark Knight and GCPD as a gang war errupts bringing new villains into play in an already chaotic city.

This is going to be a pretty good return to reading super heroe comic books that I have been putting off for several months out of simple exhaustion of the overly exploited genre.

Off to read.

azr

Today’s reading has started really slowly, and I had a ton of pending tasks from real life to attend to that I’ll have to make up in this late hour of the night.

The good news is that my surplus of pages from past weeks has gone down exponentially compared to last weeks. This is a direct result of the two outstanding weeks of reading I had. From week 42 to the current week 45, my negative page count went from 8,330 pages behind to 4,526, which is just the kind of forward motion I needed to re-spark my hopes of ending the year with the ultimate goal under my belt.

In order for that, there’s only thing I have to do, read. Tonight’s itinerary will revolve in volume seven of the fantasy series. Pathfinder: Spiral of Bones, it’s been a while since my journey has taken me over the perilous paths of this vast universe, and now they will lead to Kaer Maga, The City of Strangers, let’s see what new terrors await me.

If I don’t succumb to sleep quickly, there’s maybe the next volume, that would be number nine, of the Manga series Fairy Tail. Let’s see what new misadventures this rag-tag group of wizards get themselves into after their guild house collapse unto itself, You’ll think there will be hell to pay.

Off to read.

azr

Another amazing day for my reading. Today’s total is a staggering 594 pages, getting the total for the week to 2,412, almost doubling the quota, and getting those pesky red numbers way down.

The total for April is now 3,985, which represents almost 73% of the monthly quota. Maybe I’ll push a little over my desire to hit the hay and get that total over 4,000 pages, at least to finish the current volume of the Manga series that is currently on my queue, Fairy Tail volume eight, the third one of the day.

The cool thing is that there’s fifty volumes available thru my Kindle Unlimited membership. As far as I’m concerned, it is not only the sheer amount of pages that number of volumes represent,there’s also the fact that the story is only getting exponentially better, to think that gives me so much joy that I can immerse myself is a long epic tale.

I have device some new plans for getting past the 64,000-page, but most importantly, I’ll resurrect some old plans to enhance the experience of getting thru this project as I envisioned it from the get-go.

I posted in past entries a basic structure of all the little things that accompany the reading experience as a whole. For those who have started following the blog recently, here is what I intend to pursue in the future, hopefully with a bit more success than last time

These are the 5 building blocks of my reading experience:

1. Numbers : In this section I will talk about how my goal to read 1,000,000 pages is going, from my day to day reading to any special events like readathons.
2. Azriel’s infinite bookshelf : In this section I will talk about what am I reading, it will not be a review of books or comics, I can’t stress this enough, it is only what I liked about what’s on my reading pile, focusing on the general plot, the creative team, and my favorite parts.
3. Caffeine pilgrimage: If there’s anything that comes close to love of reading is my love for coffee, and in recent years there’s has been a boom of great independent coffee shops in the binational region that I live, this includes our sister city of El Paso, Texas, this section will be focused on visiting each and every one to try new flavors.
4. The Table : As with the coffee shops, our region has seen a new wave of locally owned restaurants, taprooms, and wine bars, with some amazing regional culinary proposal, this is a perfect time to share what our beautiful desert has to offer.
5. Itineribus : This section will talk about our getaways, if it’s exploring our region, and all its magical places, to trips to larger cities all over the place, this section will act as an travelers journals of places, food, and memories of our travels

There you have it, a bit ambitious but doable. I think the time has finally come for me to encompass the whole experience and share it with you, who so graciously take your precious time to follow and read my daily ranting.

Off to read.

azr

I can now officially say that year number fifteen is my second best total page count of the whole project, now only, still a very considerable margin, behind the behemoth of a year that was last year’s reading. I tallied this morning, my latest reads, and got the pleasant surprise of reaching 47,736 pages, that’s 31 more than year number one.

Now, only stand 18,063 pages to match up to my greatest achievement, but to be completely honest and realistic, if I can cross the 60,000-page mark, I’ll be super proud of the outcome, and find some way to make up the difference in the upcoming years.

What concerns this week’s reading? With still a whole day left to do some serious reading, my total is 1,677 pages, which are 417 more than the minimum quota. My focus for the remaining sessions is to read at least 329 more pages to get my numbers balanced with the huge and thankfully reducing surplus pages from past weeks.

The month of April is shaping up to be another really successful outing. With a total of 3,250 pages in only 8 days, representing almost 60% of the monthly quota, it makes it that much easier to use the forward momentum to get those red numbers sponged into a more acceptable hue. Being that, according to my latest projection, I need around 3,000 extra pages to keep this year in shooting distance from the ultimate goal.

To keep things rolling, I have some pretty interesting things line-up. The first, which is already on the finished column, and consequently my first endeavor into Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere Universe, is the graphic novel White Sands, set in the desert world Taldain, follows the perilous journey of the Sand Masters in a planet wide conspiracy to wipe them out,

Unlike Anakin Skywalker, I do enjoy sand, and it’s always pleasant to see stories portrayal on a desert setting, which is not a carbon copy of the most famous deserts in other Science fiction or fantasy universes, and the intricate and unique magical system of the sand manipulation is quite mesmerizing to see.

What I plan to read to close out the night is the fifth volume of the highly entertaining manga series Fairy Tail, following the rag-tag group of legendary wizards,at least, that’s how they portrayal themselves, as they fight uncovered Gray’s past while preventing a figure of his past reviving a dangerous calamity demon. This series is pure fun, I mean, if you can be impressed with a cat with wings, than nothing will.

Off to read.

azr.

I haven’t tallied the last graphic novels from my last reading session, but there’s the certainty of this year being the second best total of this entire project, knocking off the very first year and only having last year’s behemoth accomplishment as the top and what I inspire to keep on doing for the upcoming 8 years.

Today’s total is 217, helping April’s quota pass 52% of the total with 2,912 pages. Also, this week’s quota has been achieved with 1,339 total pages and the two most productive days ahead of me. This time of progress helps me shift my focus to the additional pages lingering from weeks that my reading wasn’t as solid. That number is represented by 623 pages to get thru in order to keep the fight going toward a 64,000-page year.

The close out the evening’s reading I’ll work on the mysterious new book that is on my queue, which consequently is the next subject of discussion on the podcast “Estrellas y Dragones ” with our friend from loqueleemos.com. All that I can say is that it will be the first science fiction book that we tackle and is from an extremely popular author who is not famous for his endeavors in this particular genre, I have said enough.

I’ll take a few minutes before starting my last session to select a new manga series, being that the last available volume, number eleven, on my Kindle Unlimited membership of Noragami: Stray God is already in the finished column. There’s a few very interesting choices ranging from four available volumes to one that has over thirty volumes available. Let’s see what catches mu eye.

Off to read.

azr

It’s kind of a slow day of reading. My current total is 144 pages, but still, I’m ahead of this week’s quota by almost 145 pages. This doesn’t mean that I’ll break my 14-day streak of reading over the daily minimal, but it’s nice to have a bit of breathing room for days when the engine is not firing on all cylinders.

On this, the sixth day of the month of April, the projected quota is nearly 45%, with a total of 2,435 pages, quite the impressive feat. All this good rhythm has gotten me so close to making this year the second best total of the fifteen years of the project. As I posted yesterday, and even more so today, that goal is within my grasp.There’s only a matter of 577 pages pesky to get there.

To get there, I’ll pull out the big guns in the form of the next three volumes of the manga series, Noragami: Stray God. Before I succumbed to sleep, I promised myself to finish the ninth volume of the series, pictured below. Judging by the fact that I’m on page 145 of 203, it’s not such a farfetched goal.

With the weekend just around the corner, I’ll aim to at least chip away 300 pages of the surplus pages from past weeks, slowly but surely working my way to those 1,000,000 pages.

Off to read.

azr

Another very successful day of reading. Right now, my total for the day is 220, which brings the total of April to 2,285 pages, almost 42% of the projected quota. What impresses me the most is that I have kept the pace so steady, counting today, I’m on a 12-day streak of reading over the daily quota.

This has me on the brink of surpassing my first year of reading as the second best total of the fifteen years that this project has been active. The mark to achieve in order to put the current year only behind last year’s behemoth accomplishment is 47,705 pages. According to my last update, which includes today’s registered pages, there’s only 576 pages between me and that incredibly important milestone.

Speaking about today’s reading, I finally got around to reading one series that had been roaming around my nostalgic mind. I’m talking about the hit-series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin.

Not to give anything major, but as far as the new run of the famous, pizza eating, ninja swag Turtles, this is by far the best story-arc I have read. You should discard any image contributed by the many animated shows, which are great fun, but the comic book version of the Turtles, going all the way to their conception by Eastman and Laird in 1984, is a dark and gritty story. This particular arc, as the title suggests, is the story of one of the four, not going to spoil who it is, and his quest on a not so distance future and the latest high-tech incarnation of the Foot Clan, a must-read for anyone.

With the weekend fast approaching, my immediate goal is to position this year as the second best and do my best effort to get as close as possible to the 64,000-page.

Tick, Tock…the reading clock goes

Off to read.

azr